Re: [PATCH 1/2] aclocal: multiple local m4 macro dirs with AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIR

[Stefano Lattarini]

Hi Eric.

On 07/04/2012 06:42 PM, Eric Blake wrote:
> On 07/04/2012 09:24 AM, Stefano Lattarini wrote:
>> It can be done either passing several arguments to a single invocation:
>>
>>     AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIR([dir1 dir2])
> 
> I would recommend against this,
> 
>>
>> or issuing more invocations:
>>
>>     AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIR([dir1])
>>     AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIR([dir2])
> 
> and instead favor this approach only.
> 
> My plan for autoconf is to implement AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIRS, which can be
> invoked multiple times and also takes a whitespace-separated list in a
> single call, but which will basically then call AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIR once
> per unique entry (that is, AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIRS will be smart enough to
> filter out duplicates).
>
And also to normalize whitespace messes in usages like this, I guess:

   AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIRS([foo    bar \
   baz
        ])

> Tracing code should then trace _just_ AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIR, which will be
> called once per directory, and where the first call is the preferred
> dumping ground for new macros.  There shouldn't be a need to trace
> AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIRS.
> 
I like this design.  It will allow the "tracers" like aclocal and libtool
to be dumber in their implementation, and makes it easier to have a more
consistent behaviour among them.

So +1 from me.

I'll keep my automake patches on hold until you have gone ahead with your
plan, to avoid introducing inconsistencies and messing up the already
suboptimal automake history even more.

Thanks for your continuous and outstanding work,
  Stefano