Re: Functions / satellite scripts (Was: bison-1.29c 'configure' problems on Solaris 8.)

[Paul Eggert]

> From: "Lars J. Aas" <address@hidden>
> Date: Sat, 20 Oct 2001 13:54:00 +0200
> 
> On Fri, Oct 19, 2001 at 06:00:38PM +0200, Akim Demaille wrote:
> : Something which creates satellites executables (small sh scripts
> : instead of functions) when functions are not supported?  I often
> : thought about that.
> 
> I've had this idea too, but haven't investigated how exactly it should
> be done.

Unfortunately I think it can't be done efficiently or easily using the
suggestions made so far.  There will be too many problems with the
approaches mentioned.

I think this idea is a blind alley.  If we want to use modern shell
features, then we should go ahead and require the "configure" user to
have a modern shell.  That's much simpler.  We've already started down
that path with the LINENO changes.

Ten years ago, or even five years ago, it wouldn't have been feasible
to insist on a modern shell.  However, nowadays it's not unreasonable
to assume one, even if it isn't called "/bin/sh".  Anybody who's really
stuck on an older system can just port Bash 2.05 or pdksh to it first.

Any support for shell functions (no matter how it's done) should wait
for a major new release of Autoconf, of course.