Re: autoconf-2.66: AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS and AC_INIT warns

[Bruno Haible]

Hi Ralf,

> >   $ autoconf
> >   configure.ac:1: warning: AC_INIT: not a literal: 2.48++ (2010-07-03)
> > 
> > Yes, in some packages, the version number consists of two parts, separated 
> > by
> > a space.
> 
> The space isn't a what triggers the warning here, it's the parentheses
> around the date.

There is no reason to warn about them: In the generated configure file,
the version string appears in comments, inside single-quotes, inside
double-quotes, and in here documents. In all these places, parentheses
and spaces are perfectly fine.

> My current recommendation on this, since it's a warning only, is to
> either ignore it, or use -Wno-syntax to silence it for now.  WDYT?

There is no reason for the warning, because the version string does not
contain characters that would be dangerous in comments, inside single-quotes,
inside double-quotes, or in here documents (namely newline, single-quote,
double-quote, backslash, dollar). Therefore the warning should not be
present.

> OTOH, at least for Automake, the space is also a 
> problem, because $(PACKAGE)-$(VERSION) is used for distdir and not
> consistently quoted.  Sure, you may not use Automake for your package,
> but that means there would need to be a stricter test in Automake for
> the version string.

We are discussing AC_INIT here, not AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE. Btw, Autoconf's
PACKAGE_VERSION variable is a different beast than Automake's VERSION variable.
[1]

Bruno

[1] http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/automake/2009-05/msg00145.html