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Autoconf 2.55 is released!


From: Akim Demaille
Subject: Autoconf 2.55 is released!
Date: Thu, 14 Nov 2002 20:13:34 +0100
User-agent: Gnus/5.090008 (Oort Gnus v0.08) Emacs/21.2 (i386-pc-linux-gnu)

The Autoconf team -- Akim, Alexandre, Jim, Paul, and Tom -- is happy
to annonce the birth of Autoconf 2.55.  Download, compile, install,
torture, and enjoy!


  - Why should I upgrade from 2.54?

A few bug fixes, improved portability, no known incompatibility with
2.54 and 2.55, forthcoming Gettext release might require 2.55.

Running `autoreconf -fv' should be enough.


   - Why should I upgrade from 2.13?

This version is no longer maintained.  It does not address recent
architectures, recent compilers etc.  We know that upgrading from 2.13
to 2.5x is not an easy task, especially because the Autoconf 2.13 was
extremely tolerant to incorrect macro invocations, but waiting longer
endangers the portability of your package and only delays the
conversation to newer Autoconf versions.  Worse: some maintainers now
spend a significant amount of time fixing bugs in 2.13 or backporting
macros from 2.55.


   - Where can I find it?

  ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/autoconf/autoconf-2.55.tar.gz     (1.1 MB)
  ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/autoconf/autoconf-2.55.tar.bz2    (794 KB)
  ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/autoconf/autoconf-2.54-2.55.delta  (70 KB)

and soon from the mirrors listed on http://www.gnu.org/order/ftp.html.


Here are the MD5 and SHA1 signatures:

d3e8ad97aa69853778125177967ed573  autoconf-2.55.tar.gz
4517bb0669b949935967f31329a29c0c  autoconf-2.55.tar.bz2
c991edb76acbf686bed4ce1cb7a35cc2  autoconf-2.54-2.55.xdelta
69554487aec8606a17c53db2c7c7964be7138946  autoconf-2.55.tar.gz
d6d7cf9a2df8736c2930d1e6104de9c7a8ccbaff  autoconf-2.55.tar.bz2
717df2957e85ad4de9c3c651a5b3eff1b01e3857  autoconf-2.54-2.55.xdelta

NEWS:

Release tips:

           Have your configure.ac checked by autoscan ("autoscan").
           Try the warning options ("autoreconf -fv -Wall").

** Documentation

- AC_CHECK_HEADER, AC_CHECK_HEADERS
  More information on proper use.

- Writing Test Programs

  This sections explains how to write good test sources to use with
  AC_COMPILE_IFELSE etc.  It documents AC_LANG_PROGRAMS and so forth.

- AC_FOO_IFELSE vs. AC_TRY_FOO

  Explains why Autoconf moves from AC_TRY_COMPILE etc. to
  AC_COMPILE_IFELSE and AC_LANG_PROGRAM etc.

** autoreconf

- Is more robust to different Gettext installations.

- Produces messages (when --verbose) to be understood by Emacs'
  compile mode.

- Supports -W/--warnings.

- -m/--make
  Once the GNU Build System reinstalled, run `./config.status
  --recheck && ./config.status && make' if possible.

** autom4te

- Supports --cache, and --no-cache.

- ~/.autom4te.cfg makes it possible to disable the caching mechanism
  (autom4te.cache).  See `Customizing autom4te' in the documentation.

** Obsolete options

  Support for the obsoleted options -m, --macrodir, -l, --localdir is
  dropped in favor of the safer --include/--prepend-include scheme.

** Macros

- New macros
  AC_COMPILER_IFELSE, AC_FUNC_MBRTOWC, AC_HEADER_STDBOOL,
  AC_LANG_CONFTEST, AC_LANG_SOURCE, AC_LANG_PROGRAM, AC_LANG_CALL,
  AC_LANG_FUNC_TRY_LINK, AC_MSG_FAILURE, AC_PREPROC_IFELSE.

- Obsoleted
  Obsoleted macros are kept for Autoconf backward compatibility, but
  should be avoided in configure.ac.  Running autoupdate is advised.
  AC_DECL_SYS_SIGLIST.

** Bug Fixes

- Portability of the Autoconf package to Solaris.

- Spurious warnings caused by config.status.
  This bug is benign, but painful: on some systems (typically
  FreeBSD), warnings such as:

     config.status: creating Makefile
     mv: Makefile: set owner/group (was: 1357/0): Operation not permitted

  could be issued.  This is fixed.

- Parallel Builds
  Simultaneous executions of config.status are possible again.

- Precious variables accumulation

  config.status could stack several copies of the precious variables
  assignments.


** Plans for 2.56

- ./configure <host>

  The compatibility hooks with the old scheme will be completely
  removed.  Please, advice/use `--build', `--host', and `--target'
  only.

- AC_CHECK_HEADER, AC_CHECK_HEADERS

  The tests will be stricter, please make sure your invocations are
  valid.

- shell functions

  Shell functions will gradually be introduced, probably starting with
  Autotest.  If you know machines which are in use that you suspect
  *not* to support shell functions, please run the test suite of
  Autoconf 2.55 on it, and report the results to
  address@hidden




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