AC_CHECK_HEADERS to find <iostream>

[Ramón Casero Cañas]

Hi all. I'm starting to use autoconf version 2.13 (Debian testing
package), and would like that it tells me whether the iostream headers
are installed or not. My configure.in is:

<--------------- configure.in ------------->

#                                               -*- Autoconf -*-
# Process this file with autoconf to produce a configure script.

AC_PREREQ(2.57)
AC_INIT([Foo Library], [1.0],
        [Ramón <address@hidden>])
AC_CONFIG_SRCDIR([src/Exception.h])
AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR([./aux-build-tools])

AC_CONFIG_HEADER([config.h])

# Where to install the things
AC_SUBST(prefix, "/tmp/test")

# Only if you are not writting Makefile.in by hand
# We get Makefile.in from Makefile.am
AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE

# Checks for programs.
AC_PROG_CXX
AC_PROG_CXXCPP
AC_PROG_RANLIB
AC_PROG_INSTALL

# Checks for header files.
AC_PATH_X
AC_HEADER_STDC
AC_CHECK_HEADERS([malloc.h stdlib.h])
AC_CHECK_HEADERS([iostream])

# Checks for typedefs, structures, and compiler characteristics.
AC_HEADER_STDBOOL
AC_C_CONST
AC_C_INLINE
AC_TYPE_SIZE_T

# Checks for library functions.
AC_CHECK_FUNCS([floor memset pow sqrt])

AC_CONFIG_FILES([Makefile])
AC_OUTPUT

<--------------- end of configure.in ------------->

When I do

$ autoreconf && ./configure

I get (I haven't written the Makefile.in yet, but I think it does not
have to do with the problem):

<--------------- stdout ------------->

checking for a BSD-compatible install... /usr/bin/install -c
checking whether build environment is sane... yes
checking whether make sets $(MAKE)... yes
checking for working aclocal-1.4... found
checking for working autoconf... found
checking for working automake-1.4... found
checking for working autoheader... found
checking for working makeinfo... found
checking for g++... g++
checking for C++ compiler default output... a.out
checking whether the C++ compiler works... yes
checking whether we are cross compiling... no
checking for suffix of executables...
checking for suffix of object files... o
checking whether we are using the GNU C++ compiler... yes
checking whether g++ accepts -g... yes
checking how to run the C++ preprocessor... g++ -E
checking for ranlib... ranlib
checking for a BSD-compatible install... /usr/bin/install -c
checking for gcc... gcc
checking whether we are using the GNU C compiler... yes
checking whether gcc accepts -g... yes
checking for gcc option to accept ANSI C... none needed
checking how to run the C preprocessor... gcc -E
checking for X... no
checking for egrep... grep -E
checking for ANSI C header files... yes
checking for sys/types.h... yes
checking for sys/stat.h... yes
checking for stdlib.h... yes
checking for string.h... yes
checking for memory.h... yes
checking for strings.h... yes
checking for inttypes.h... yes
checking for stdint.h... yes
checking for unistd.h... yes
checking malloc.h usability... yes
checking malloc.h presence... yes
checking for malloc.h... yes
checking for stdlib.h... (cached) yes
checking iostream usability... no
checking iostream presence... no
checking for iostream... no
checking for stdbool.h that conforms to C99... yes
checking for _Bool... yes
checking for an ANSI C-conforming const... yes
checking for inline... inline
checking for size_t... yes
checking for floor... no
checking for memset... yes
checking for pow... no
checking for sqrt... no
configure: creating ./config.status
config.status: creating Makefile
config.status: error: cannot find input file: Makefile.in

<--------------- end of stdout ------------->

The problem, I believe, is that I get

checking iostream usability... no
checking iostream presence... no
checking for iostream... no

but I have it

$ ls /usr/include/c++/3.3/iostream -l
-rw-r--r--  1 root  root  3,0K 2003-11-12 10:56
/usr/include/c++/3.3/iostream

and the compiler seems happy with this example:

I have this code snippet:

/*
 * test.cpp
 */

#include <iostream>

int main()
{
  std::cout << "Hello World!" << std::endl;
  return 0;
}

and can compile it with
$ g++ -o test test.cpp
and run it
$ ./test
Hello World!

where

$ g++ --version
g++ (GCC) 3.3.2 (Debian)

I have also tried with

AC_CHECK_HEADERS([c++/3.3/iostream])

and

AC_CHECK_HEADERS([/usr/include/c++/3.3/iostream])

but it doesn't work. Am I trying to do something that cannot be done, or
in a wrong way?

Cheers,

Ramón.

--

Ramón Casero Cañas

web:     http://www.robots.ox.ac.uk/~rcasero/
jabber:  address@hidden