Re: Request for Review

[Ralf Wildenhues]

* NightStrike wrote on Thu, Nov 22, 2007 at 08:03:07AM CET:
> 
> Also, I am doing a bunch of tests in configure.ac that I don't think
> are necessary.  autoscan put them in there, and I commented a bunch
> out.  For instance:
> 
>   60 #AC_HEADER_DIRENT
>   61 #AC_HEADER_STDC
>   62 #AC_CHECK_HEADERS([fcntl.h fenv.h float.h inttypes.h limits.h
> locale.h malloc.h stddef.h stdint.h stdlib.h string.h sys/ioctl.h
> sys/time.h sys/timeb.h termios.h unistd.h wchar.h wctype.h])
[...]

While what you do may resemble cross compilation a bit, you still know
quite exactly how the user's compiler and system will behave, no?

So then you don't need portability, and you don't need to test for the
features.

Here's a guiding rule: if you don't ever use
  #if HAVE_HEADER_H
  #include <header.h>
  #endif

in your sources, then it makes little sense to write a test for
header.h.

Likewise for most other checks.  If in doubt, look in the Autoconf
manual what the check tests for, and if that doesn't apply to you,
then don't use it.  So most likely you don't need any of those tests.

autoscan produces a list of tests that can potentially be useful,
based on grepping your source tree.  Under the assumption that your
code should be compilable for any and every system out there.

Cheers,
Ralf