Re: libraries of shell script functions

[Paolo Bonzini]

Bruno Haible wrote:
> Paolo Bonzini wrote:
>> For now, I think Peter's select function could go in m4sh.  m4 is the
>> linker, then.
> 
> How does one use "m4 as the linker"? Where is this documented?

You write your script in m4sh, not in pure Bourne shell.  The m4sh->sh
conversion is done with autom4te.  See libtool.m4sh for an example.

You would make macros using AS_REQUIRE or AS_REQUIRE_SHELL_FN.  The
latter is not used yet but I have a patch for it that I'll send to
autoconf-patches soon.

>   - func_tmpdir

AS_TMPDIR

>   - func_exit

Maybe this is already in AS_EXIT.

>   - func_append

AS_VAR_APPEND

>   - func_readlink

AS_READLINK

>   - func_ln

AS_LN (there is AS_LN_S)

> Should these all go into m4sh?

I think everything related to portability or the GNU coding standards
does belong in m4sh, though it might be suboptimal that m4sh lives in
Autoconf for now.  CCing address@hidden

Paolo