Re: Time for Autoconf 2.61a?

[Paul Eggert]

Ralf Wildenhues <address@hidden> writes:

> FWIW, I think NEWS should contain something along the lines below.  OK?
> Also, the win by the move to AS_ECHO could be mentioned (so as to have a
> rationale for the incurred slowdown).  Also, the fseeko regression of
> 2.61 isn't documented.  (I think the current code is OK.)

Thanks, I installed this, which I hope incorporates all your suggestions.

2006-12-11  Paul Eggert  <address@hidden>
        and Ralf Wildenhues  <address@hidden>

        * NEWS: Document changes with echo and printf, and the lack
        of limits on the total size of multi-line values of substituted
        variables, and the AC_FUNC_FSEEKO fix.

--- NEWS        28 Nov 2006 03:29:47 -0000      1.416
+++ NEWS        11 Dec 2006 17:45:26 -0000      1.418
@@ -1,5 +1,8 @@
 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.61a (??)
 
+** AC_FUNC_FSEEKO was broken in 2.61; it didn't make fseeko and ftello visible
+   on many platforms.  This has been fixed.
+
 ** AC_FUNC_SETVBUF_REVERSED is now obsolete.  It is still defined for backward
    compatibility but it does nothing.  The macro was already
    obsolescent, as the last systems to have the problem were those
@@ -8,10 +11,25 @@
    due to lack of ancient systems to test it on.
 
 ** config.status now uses awk instead of sed for most substitutions, for speed.
-   It is now documented that Makefile.in should not contain
-   overlapping variable occurrences, e.g., @address@hidden@.  Autoconf's
-   behavior was always iffy in such cases, and the awk implementation
-   has changed the behavior.
+
+   - As a side effect multi-line values of substituted variables are
+     no longer limited in total size, though for portability each line
+     should not exceed the POSIX length limit for text lines.
+
+   - It is now documented that Makefile.in should not contain
+     overlapping variable occurrences, e.g., @address@hidden@.
+     Autoconf's behavior was always iffy in such cases, and the
+     awk implementation has changed the behavior.
+
+** Many uses of 'echo' have been rewritten so that Autoconf-generated
+   scripts have fewer problems with strings or file names containing
+   embedded special characters such as backslash or leading "-".  This
+   was implemented by using `printf '%s\n' "$foo"' instead of `echo
+   "$foo"' when printf works.  Due to the implementation technique
+   used, Autoconf-generated scripts now run considerably more slowly
+   on ancient implementations lacking printf.  However, this should
+   not be a problem, since Autoconf-generated scripts in practice
+   invariably find a more-modern shell these days.
 
 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.61 (2006-11-17)