Re: autoreconf removes config.guess but fails to restore it

[Ralf Wildenhues]

* Mike Frysinger wrote on Sat, Apr 18, 2009 at 08:08:54PM CEST:
> 
> any plans to address the bigger issue ?  i.e. if neither automake nor libtool 
> are in use, it makes using just autoconf a pain as it will often want these 
> external files ...

I guess "plans" is stating too much, but if somebody provides good
patches to this end, they have a good chance of inclusion (see the
other thread on this mailing list about install-sh).

One approach that I find appealing is to add this functionality to
autoreconf not autoconf, as the former already accepts an --install
argument, and already finds out whether automake is used anyway.
OTOH, in order to reliably find out whether AC_CANONICAL_HOST etc.
have been called (e.g., through some required macro), tracing with
m4 is probably necessary, so it might in the end be simpler to do it
elsewhere.

Anyway, it would be good if this new install feature were used only
if automake is not used.  And if libtoolize is used, then config.*
need not be installed by autoreconf either.  (And of course all these
bits should be exposed by new testsuite additions.)

Cheers,
Ralf