Re: Autoconf 2.56 is released

[Jan Nieuwenhuizen]

Akim Demaille <address@hidden> writes:

> | then the --srcdir configure/build works too.  Phew.  Btw, why have
> | these change in behaviour not been mentioned in the NEWS file?
>
> What change?  I don't understand what you are referring to.

Two changes: autoconf-2.13 does not set/override `builddir'.  The
current autoconf does, and sets it to a strange/wrong value (`.'),
when configuring from a separate build directory.

The other change is that with 2.13, AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR could be set in
the external aclocal.m4 file.  That also doesn't work anymore.  That's
quite unfortunate in case setting AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR involves some
standard code.

> Maybe some of the code should be provided by Autoconf?

Yes possibly, although to be included in autoconf it would need some
work.  We have some code that checks the availability of an
executable.  You can specify the minimum version and whether a
dependency is optional or required.

At the very end of the configure run, the user gets to see the full
list of missing required and optional programs, with versions.

Jan.

-- 
Jan Nieuwenhuizen <address@hidden> | GNU LilyPond - The music typesetter
http://www.xs4all.nl/~jantien       | http://www.lilypond.org