Re: How to use cache variables

[John D. Burger]

Lars Hecking:

> The names are fairly obvious, and there's a section in the autoconf manual
> that explains them (Results of Tests->Caching Results->Cache Variable Names).

Thomas Dickey:

> Though the mechanism is (has been) documented, the convention for several
> macros has changed a couple of times over autoconf's history.

That's my concern - the names themselves are not documented, so it's
less surprising that they might change than that documented behavior
might change.  (Of course I don't mean that ac_cv_header_foobar_h is not
mentioned in the Autoconf docs, I mean even the format of the cache
variable that AC_CHECK_HEADER(foobar.h) generates is not =explicitly=
documented.)

Lars Hecking:

> But you don't need to do it this way.
  ...
> You can do more in the ACTION-IF-FOUND/ACTION-IF-NOT-FOUND parts
> but then you should enclose these parts in [], resp.

Yes, I alluded to this in my original message.  Perhaps the answer is
that if this isn't possible (e.g., I want to do something that depends
onj the results of several tests), and I'm squeamish about using any
particular cache variables, I should set my own variables in the
ACTION-IF-FOUND/ACTION-IF-NOT-FOUND parts ...

Thanks.

- John