Re: Broken makefile given Autoconf version mismatch

[Bob Proulx]

Noah Misch wrote:
> Alexandre Duret-Lutz wrote:
> > I'm leery of assuming that Autoconf's version will always be at
> > this spot in the output of --version.  Sometimes people customize their
> > copy and tweak --version to reflect so:
> > ...
> > % gcc --version
> > gcc (GCC) 4.0.3 (Debian 4.0.3-1)
> 
> With respect to `--version' output, GNU Coding Standards state, `The
> first line is meant to be easy for a program to parse; the version
> number proper starts after the last space.'  Customizing `gcc
> --version' in this way certainly is common, but it does violate the
> Coding Standards.

I can see what is being attempted, to identify something as having
patches making it no longer strictly an upstream version.  That seems
admirable.  But perhaps the implementation could be improved.  Perhaps
instead of "gcc (GCC) 4.0.3 (Debian 4.0.3-1)" the output could join
the version with "gcc (GCC) 4.0.3.Debian-1" or some such?  Or at the
possibly it should be "gcc (GCC) 4.0.3 Debian 4.0.3-1" such that the
version after the last space is 4.0.3-1 and an intended representative
version number?

Bob