Re: Use of printf in libtool.m4

[Ralf Wildenhues]

Hi Peter,

Just to answer a six-months old question:

* Peter O'Gorman wrote on Tue, Dec 06, 2005 at 02:37:20PM CET:
> 
> Just looking to put in an honest check for -single_module support into 
> libtool.m4 and I see this in _LT_COMPILER_OPTION:
> printf "$lt_simple_compile_test_code" > conftest.$ac_ext
> 
> with similar usage elsewhere.
> 
> Why do we go to so much effort to find a working echo if printf works 
> everywhere? :-p

Because
a) not every system has a printf
   http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-libtool/2006-06/msg00021.html
b) not every system has a working printf: early SunOS versions dumped
   core with long arguments (that's why _LT_AC_PROG_ECHO_BACKSLASH tries
   long strings).

Cheers,
Ralf