Re: GNATS needs some work (autoconf/59)

[Earnie Boyd]

Akim Demaille wrote:
> 
> >>>>> "Tim" == Tim Van Holder <address@hidden> writes:
> 
> Tim> I suppose so. My main point was that there were 2 different
> Tim> issues related to path separators (build & _HOST_), which the PR
> Tim> didn't seem to take into account.
> 
> Personally, at least for the time being, we don't care about HOST: as
> said by Pavel, only specific packages will need it, and they certainly
> need it so badly that they already perform their tests.  And if they
> don't, the simple fact that Autoconf supports some HOST-path-sep test
> will not make these package HOST-path-sep aware.
> 
> So let's drop this.
> 
> But BUILD-path-sep *does* matter, and will be a significant win.
> 
> >> [suggested test snipped]
> Tim> I suppose this would be a better way to do it (or rather, the
> Tim> Demaillator Edition of this test :-) ).
> 
> :) :) :)
> 
> Tim> I'll try this out on DJGPP and Cygwin bashes and whip up a patch
> Tim> if it works.
> 
> Could you describe precisely how it works?  In fact, may I ask you to
> complete the documentation of PATH in autoconf.texi to explain how it
> works on Cygwin and DJGPP?  Maybe Earnie would have good hints to
> give.
> 
> Because I seem to have understood we kinda can have ; or : as a PATH
> sep on Cygwin.  But then, the test suggested above might not be right,
> since we will have to adjust ourselves to the choice made by the
> user.  Autoconf by itself does not care extending PATH, it wants to be
> able *split* it.
> 

PATH for Cygwin isn't a problem.  Cygwin adjusts the PATH to be POSIX
compliant even if executed from the DOS command.com/cmd.exe shells. 
PATH will be a problem for MinGW if Amol's ZSH port is used for the
Bourne compatible shell.  The multipath separator will then need to be a
';'.

If we introduce some other shell, for which I haven't even tried, there
may be problems with even finding the PATH variable as Win32 usually
names it Path and environment variables are case sensitive.  Amol, in
his ZSH port, ensures that the variable is named PATH; however, other
shell ports may not be so wise.

Earnie.

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