Re: Best practices to detect autoconf version in macro.

[Eric Blake]

On 03/30/2010 03:13 AM, Konstantin Andreev wrote:
> Hello.
> 
> I need to write a macro, which will be expanded by various versions of
> autoconf, including 2.13  :(

Simultaneously targeting 2.59 and newer is moderately easy, and still
supported by this list.  Supporting 2.50 and newer is a bit tougher, but
not intractable.  But simultaneously supporting 2.13 and 2.50+ is MUCH
harder, with very few people even attempting it (my gut feel is that it
is technically still doable, although I won't be the one doing it).

If m4_version_compare is defined (added in 2.53, documented in 2.62),
then use it.  Otherwise, you know that you are targeting an older autoconf.

Read this thread for another person who attempted this feat for PHP, and
later gave up, because the changes from 2.13 to 2.50 were so dramatic.
He ended up instead keeping old PHP on the old autoconf, and starting
from scratch with newer autoconf on the next new version of PHP.
http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/autoconf/2009-11/msg00076.html

-- 
Eric Blake   address@hidden    +1-801-349-2682
Libvirt virtualization library http://libvirt.org

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