Re: AC_CHECK_LIB fails to locate a C++ library

[Steve M. Robbins]

On Thu, Oct 18, 2001 at 10:20:27AM -0700, Eric Hanchrow wrote:

> The program `conftest.cc' seems wrong to me: that's not a reliable way
> to test for the presence of a C++ function in a library.
> Unfortunately, I cannot think of a better way.  This makes me wonder
> if I've misunderstood the intent of AC_CHECK_LIB -- perhaps it wasn't
> designed to do what I'm trying to do.  (And yet the documentation
> clearly says
> 
>      Depending on the current language(*note Language Choice::), try to
>      ensure that the C, C++, or Fortran 77 function FUNCTION is
>      available
> 
> , so ...)
> 
> In any case, this problem isn't fatal: I'm able to reliably detect the
> library using AC_TRY_LINK.  But doing so is a bit more complicated
> than AC_CHECK_LIB would be.
> 
> So: is this a bug, or am I misunderstanding something?

I don't know any reasonable way to use AC_CHECK_LIB to detect a C++
library, and so I use AC_TRY_LINK.

Although in the specific case of CppUnit, I use the following

        AM_PATH_CPPUNIT(1.6.1)
        AM_CONDITIONAL(HAVE_CPPUNIT, test "$CPPUNIT_LIBS")

Regards,
-Steve

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