Re: pure ansi/iso or posix environments

[Paul Eggert]

"Paul Edwards" <address@hidden> writes:

> Is it possible to tell configure that I have an arbitrary C89
> environment, and it's none of its business what the name
> of my C compiler is or what operating system it is, just
> assume it is a C89 environment and act accordingly?

Sorry, that functionality isn't there now.  Demand for such
an ability is small, since Autoconf is oriented towards
build environments where you can easily run a compiler.

> My arbitrary C89 environment happens to be on MVS 3.8.
> I don't have the ability to run "configure" myself, but I know
> someone who can run "configure" for me and send me the
> output files.  But they come with non-C89 rubbish

I guess I don't understand the problem then.  If someone
else can run "configure" for you, and if the "configure"
output is suitable for MVS 3.8, then why do you care whether
the resulting program uses features of MVS 3.8 that are
beyond what C89 requires?

Here's another way to put it.  Few programs are really
portable to all C89 hosts without any change.  But if you
have such a program, then you don't need Autoconf, so why
use Autoconf?

> More generally, I want to be able to specify:

> 1. Arbitrary C89 environment.
> 2. Arbitrary C99 environment.
> 3. Arbitrary Posix environment.

That's not general enough, I'm afraid.  There are multiple
flavors of C89 (with and without amendment 1, hosted vs
freestanding, etc.), and the same will be true for C99.  And
there are thousands of flavors of POSIX.

It is kind of a mess.  (Which is why we have Autoconf -- a
mess of a different sort.  :-)