Autoconf 2.52g is released

[John Poltorak]

I'm forwarding this announcement from the Autoconf list in the hope that 
any OS/2 users who have ever tried Autoconf, will give this one a test.

The Autoconf developers are making an attempt to make it cross-platform so 
it ought to work on OS/2. So, please try it and report any problems.
With any luck the next full release will work on OS/2 straight out of the 
box.

-- 
John


On Fri, Jan 25, 2002 at 12:48:15PM +0100, Akim Demaille wrote:
> The following message is a courtesy copy of an article
> that has been posted to gnu.utils.bug as well.
> 
> 
> Of course there are still many things that ought to be done in
> Autoconf, nevertheless, there is no point in waiting for the day where
> Autoconf will be complete (as by definition, there is always something
> wrong for someone).
> 
> We aim at releasing 2.53 within the next months.  This is also a call
> for people ready to:
> 
> - improve the documentation
> - upgrade existing specific macros
> - import into Autoconf wide spread specific macros
> 
> Thanks!
> 
>   ftp://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/autoconf/autoconf-2.52g.tar.gz   (959 kB)
>   ftp://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/autoconf/autoconf-2.52g.tar.bz2  (735 kB)
> 
> And here are xdelta-style diffs
> 
>   ftp://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/autoconf/autoconf-2.52f-2.52g.xdelta   (50 kB)
> 
> Here are the MD5 and SHA1 signatures for the compressed tar files:
> 
> dcfbcb09bd49c4d3bb241ec77cd79bdf  autoconf-2.52g.tar.gz
> 28aaa993b7f105ec4fcebf99ecfaf5bd  autoconf-2.52g.tar.bz2
> 5bfb084cecb6c15583ecafcc4f4e0eff221e6e1c  autoconf-2.52g.tar.gz
> 1263c961cabc603186de2b5aeac07ddec9e76267  autoconf-2.52g.tar.bz2
> 
> NEWS:
> 
> ** Requirements
> 
>   Perl 5.005_03 or later is required: autom4te is written in Perl and is
>   needed by autoconf.  autoheader, autoreconf, ifnames, and autoscan are
>   rewritten in Perl.
> 
> ** Documentation
> 
> - AC_INIT
>   Argument requirements, output variables, defined macros.
> - M4sugar, M4sh, Autotest
>   First sketch.
> - Double quoting macros
>   AC_TRY_CPP, AC_TRY_COMPILE, AC_TRY_LINK and AC_TRY_RUN.
> - Licensing
>   The Autoconf manual is now distributed under the terms of the GNU FDL.
> 
> ** configure
> 
> - $LINENO
>   Now used instead of hard coded line numbers.
>   This eases the comparison of `configure's, and diminishes the
>   pressure over control version archives.
>   Automatic replacement for shells that don't support this feature.
> - New output variables
>   @builddir@, @top_builddir@, @abs_srcdir@, @abs_top_srcdir@, @abs_builddir@,
>   @address@hidden
> 
> ** Emacs
> 
>   Autoconf and Autotest modes are provided.
> 
> ** Executables
> 
> - autom4te
>   New, used by the Autoconf suite to cache and speed up most processing.
> - --force, -f
>   Supported by autom4te, autoconf and autoheader.
> - --include, -I
>   Replaces --autoconf-dir and --localdir in autoconf, autoheader,
>   autoupdate, and autoreconf.
> - autoreconf
>   No longer passes --cygnus, --foreign, --gnits, --gnu, --include-deps:
>   automake options are to be given via AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS.
> - autoreconf
>   Runs gettextize and libtoolize when appropriate.
> - autoreconf
>   --m4dir is no longer supported.
> - autoreconf
>   Now runs only in the specified directories, defaulting to `.',
>   but understands AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS for dependent directories.
>   Before, it used to run on all the `configure.ac' found in the
>   current tree.
>   Independent packages are properly updated.
> 
> ** Bug fixes
> 
> - The top level $prefix is propagated to the AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS configures.
> - AC_TRY_RUN
>   Under the user pressure, $? is finally available.  Probably a mistake.
> - AC_F77_LIBRARY_LDFLAGS now supports the HP/UX f90 compiler.
> - Precious variables accumulation
>   config.status could stack several copies of the precious variables
>   assignments.
> 
> ** C Macros
> 
> - AC_C_BIGENDIAN supports the cross-compiling case.
> - AC_C_BIGENDIAN accepts ACTION-IF-TRUE, ACTION-IF-FALSE, and
>   ACTION-IF-UNKNOWN arguments.  All are facultative, and the default
>   for ACTION-IF-TRUE is to define WORDS_BIGENDIAN like AC_C_BIGENDIAN
>   always did.
> - AC_C_LONG_DOUBLE now succeeds only if `long double' has more range or
>   precision than `double'.
> 
> ** Generic macros
> 
> - AC_INIT
>   It now defines the preprocessor symbols PACKAGE_NAME,
>   PACKAGE_TARNAME, PACKAGE_VERSION, PACKAGE_STRING, and
>   PACKAGE_BUGREPORT.
> 
> - AC_CONFIG_COMMANDS, HEADERS, FILES, LINKS.
>   Provide the user with srcdir, ac_srcdir, ac_top_srcdir, ac_builddir,
>   ac_top_builddir, ac_abs_srcdir, ac_abs_top_srcdir, ac_abs_builddir,
>   ac_abs_top_builddir.
> 
> - AC_CONFIG_COMMANDS, HEADERS, FILES, LINKS and AC_OUTPUT.
>   Are much less expensive when using long lists of files.
> 
> ** Library macros
> 
> - AC_FUNC_STRERROR_R now sets STRERROR_R_CHAR_P, not HAVE_WORKING_STRERROR_R,
>   because POSIX 1003.1-200x draft 7 says strerror_r returns int, not char *.
> 
> - AC_FUNC_STRTOD substitutes POW_LIB.
> 
> - AC_FUNC_STRNLEN
>   New.
>