Re: libtool and autoconf

[Gary V. Vaughan]

On Wed, Aug 29, 2001 at 11:30:14AM +0200, Alexander Mai wrote:
> As reported (but never addressed) libtool 1.4 doesn't work
> with autoconf 2.13 - at least not on all systems, alpha-linux
> being an exception/example.

  $ grep AC_PREREQ ~/devel/savannah/libtool-1-4/*.m4
  /home/gary/devel/savannah/libtool-1-4/acinclude.m4:[AC_PREREQ(2.13)dnl
  /home/gary/devel/savannah/libtool-1-4/aclocal.m4:[AC_PREREQ(2.13)dnl
  /home/gary/devel/savannah/libtool-1-4/aclocal.m4:AC_PREREQ([2.13])
  /home/gary/devel/savannah/libtool-1-4/libtool.m4:[AC_PREREQ(2.13)dnl
  /home/gary/devel/savannah/libtool-1-4/ltdl.m4:[AC_PREREQ(2.13)

That is definitely a bug.  Could you post details and/or a patch
please?

> As for all auto* projects you manage all the time to avoid writing
> at a prominent place in the docs which versions of the other
> tools are required, I really wonder why?!?

  $ egrep -i 'auto(conf|make)' ~/devel/savannah/libtool/NEWS
  * Now bootstraps with autoconf-2.50 and automake-1.4-p4.
    Automake >= 1.5 will install stripped libraries with "make install-strip".
  * Documentation improvements; recommend automake users to insert libtool.m4
    (requires automake 1.4).
  * Automake support for Libtool now uses the LTLIBRARIES primary.  See
    the Automake documentation for more information.
  * Full support for Automake 1.2 (including ansi2knr features).

Not guilty.

> All I could dig out is that libtool itself has some demands,
> e.g. autoconf 2.5x but nothing about working with libtool itself?!

libtool.m4 and ltdl.m4 explicity AC_PREREQ a minimum autoconf version,
which affects projects that wish to use libtool since they too will
need these files.  With respect to Automake, Libtool never requires
anything more recent than the latest stable release, usually not even
that.

> Since autoconf 2.5x won't be installed on my systems I tried
> the libtool 1.4b version with autoconf 2.13. 
> Unfortunately the number of errors is still increasing:
> 
> ***BUG in Autoconf--please report*** AC_LANG_PUSH
> ***BUG in Autoconf--please report*** AC_LANG_POP
> ***BUG in Autoconf--please report*** AC_LANG_PUSH
> ***BUG in Autoconf--please report*** AC_MSG_NOTICE
> ***BUG in Autoconf--please report*** AC_LANG_POP
> ***BUG in Autoconf--please report*** AC_LANG_PUSH
> ***BUG in Autoconf--please report*** AC_LANG_POP
> 
> So please finally fix or document this clearly visible(!) !

That definitely won't work, in the development branch:

  $ grep AC_PREREQ ~/devel/savannah/libtool/*.m4
  /home/gary/devel/savannah/libtool/acinclude.m4:[AC_PREREQ(2.50)dnl
  /home/gary/devel/savannah/libtool/aclocal.m4:[AC_PREREQ(2.50)dnl
  /home/gary/devel/savannah/libtool/aclocal.m4:AC_PREREQ([2.13])
  /home/gary/devel/savannah/libtool/libtool.m4:[AC_PREREQ(2.50)dnl
  /home/gary/devel/savannah/libtool/ltdl.m4:[AC_PREREQ(2.50)

(although I should probably fix that rogue 2.13...)

> (and if there's a kind soul around please tell it to the
> other auto* maintainers ;-)
> Or just point me to the right place in the docs ...

Chack the NEWS file for user visible changes between releases.

Cheers,
        Gary.
-- 
  ())_. Gary V. Vaughan     gary@(oranda.demon.co.uk|gnu.org)
  ( '/  Research Scientist  http://www.oranda.demon.co.uk       ,_())____
  / )=  GNU Hacker          http://www.gnu.org/software/libtool  \'      `&
`(_~)_  Tech' Author        http://sources.redhat.com/autobook   =`---d__/