Re: allow autom4te to accept -D and -U as m4 does

[Eric Blake]

On 03/17/2015 06:13 PM, Matěj Týč wrote:
> Hello,
> the subject says it all, m4 allows you to define and/or undefine macros,
> so if one uses it e.g. in Makefiles, it is easy to alter the output.
> 
> However, m4 is a real pain to use, m4sugar is so much better. But
> autom4te, the convenient m4sugar "frontend", doesn't accept these
> options, which I would like to change. I can elaborate more on use cases
> if you are interested, but as this change is minor and
> backwards-compatible, I hope that there will not be much resistance in
> accepting it :-)

Seems reasonable to me, on that grounds.

> 
> The patch is attached.
> There are, however, some things I am not sure about - namely caching and
> freezing. I don't have insight into them, but I have suspicion that they
> may interfere with the new define/undefine stuff.

Yeah, I'm also worried about that, and don't want to commit this code
unless the testsuite is also enhanced to cover the cases.

> 
> 
> autom4te.diff
> 

While not mandatory, I find it nicer to send patches with 'git
send-email', because it includes a diffstat summary of what files were
touched in the patch (making it easier to see if a patch is trivial or
potentially incomplete).  In addition to my comment about needing
testsuite additions, we also need documentation in the manual about the
new command line options, and mention in NEWS about the new feature.
And as this is a feature rather than a bug fix, it starts to be
complicated enough that I'd feel better if you had FSF copyright
assignment on file, or if someone else that already has copyright
assignment can implement the feature from just your description.  Shall
we pursue that offline?

So as not to taint myself (in case I'm the one to implement the
feature), I have not read the rest of your patch email to see what you
actually did.

-- 
Eric Blake   eblake redhat com    +1-919-301-3266
Libvirt virtualization library http://libvirt.org

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