[RFC] Could autoconf-generated configure scripts start requiring a POSIX shell?

[Stefano Lattarini]

Hello autoconfers.

I think it's clear to everybody that a "true" POSIX shell has several real
advantages over a legacy Bourne shell (like, say, the dreaded Solaris /bin/sh).
And I don't know of any non-museum system that doesn't have a POSIX shell
*somewhere*.

So, what would you think about the possibility of making autoconf-generated
configure scripts *require* a POSIX shell in order to run (and punting if it
is not found)?

Of course, a bare "./configure" should continue to work out-of-the box even on
systems with an inferior /bin/sh (e.g., Solaris); this means that configure
will have to contain code (compatible with legacy Bourne shells!) that looks
for a POSIX shell if the running shell is not deemed to be good enough, and
re-execute configure under such a shell (and guess what? such code is already
99% in place ;-)

Of course, this is something to be considered only for after Autoconf 2.69 is
out and running (and if my proposal is accepted, might be a good excuse to
bump the version to Autoconf 3.0).

WDYT?

Regards,
  Stefano