Re: AT_KEYWORDS failure: cmdline OR-combinations

[Stepan Kasal]

Hello,

On Fri, Aug 26, 2005 at 11:54:22AM -0700, Paul Eggert wrote:
> Thanks.  I'd prefer the following patch, since it's a bit clearer.  If
> I understand you aright, it'll also fix the problem.  I installed it.

yes, your patch seems correct to my eyes.  (But I cannot test it.)

> Perhaps we ought to filter out Solaris /usr/xpg4/bin/awk in our check
> for valid awk implementations, by using this test case.  If it has
> this bug, it's likely to have others.  Hardly anybody uses this Awk,
> so there's little surprise that it's buggy.

(As Ralf pointed out, this is not directly related to this problem,
the program you have just fixed should work with any awk.)

It's not true that noone uses this awk.  In the comp.lang.awk newsgroup,
it is (was?)often recomended to put /usr/xpg4/bin at the beginning of your
PATH, in order to get a POSIX compliant awk.  The bug present in Solaris 8
was not triggered often, it was the bug introduced in Solaris 9 which
made it unusable.

I think the current definition is OK:

AC_DEFUN([AC_PROG_AWK],
[AC_CHECK_PROGS(AWK, gawk mawk nawk awk, )])

I planned to prefer /usr/xpg4/bin/awk over /bin/nawk, but it doesn't look
as a good idea now.

OTOH, if the user decides to put /usr/xpg4/bin at the begining of his
path, obey his orders.  Perhaps he is using the CONVFMT feature.
(It's a new POSIX feature; Arnold has told me that it can be used for
tests to distinguish POSIX awk from Solaris' /bin/nawk.)

Have a nice day,
        Stepan Kasal