[sr #110375] AC_LANG_SAVE and AC_LANG_RESTORE should not be marked obsolete

[Bruno Haible]

URL:
  <https://savannah.gnu.org/support/?110375>

                 Summary: AC_LANG_SAVE and AC_LANG_RESTORE should not be
marked obsolete
                 Project: Autoconf
            Submitted by: haible
            Submitted on: Fri 13 Nov 2020 11:57:37 PM CET
                Category: None
                Priority: 5 - Normal
                Severity: 4 - Important
                  Status: None
                 Privacy: Public
             Assigned to: None
        Originator Email: 
             Open/Closed: Open
         Discussion Lock: Any
        Operating System: None

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Details:

In GNU gettext, autoconf 2.69d gave a number of "obsolete" warnings. I fixed
those that I could fix. But some remain:


configure.ac:95: warning: The macro `AC_LANG_SAVE' is obsolete.
configure.ac:95: You should run autoupdate.
./lib/autoconf/lang.m4:126: AC_LANG_SAVE is expanded from...
../m4/libtool.m4:8072: _LT_LANG_RC_CONFIG is expanded from...
../m4/libtool.m4:841: _LT_LANG is expanded from...
../m4/libtool.m4:823: LT_LANG is expanded from...
configure.ac:95: the top level
configure.ac:95: warning: The macro `AC_LANG_RESTORE' is obsolete.
configure.ac:95: You should run autoupdate.
./lib/autoconf/lang.m4:135: AC_LANG_RESTORE is expanded from...
../m4/libtool.m4:8072: _LT_LANG_RC_CONFIG is expanded from...
../m4/libtool.m4:841: _LT_LANG is expanded from...
../m4/libtool.m4:823: LT_LANG is expanded from...
configure.ac:95: the top level


There are two problems here:
1) [Major] Libtool is not actively maintained (no release in 5 years, and no
commit in 1.5 years). Therefore libtool.m4 is likely to produce the same
warnings for the next 2 years or so. And there are MANY packages that use
libtool.m4, and most of them don't really want to apply local modifications to
libtool.m4.
2) [Normal] The Autoconf documentation describes what AC_LANG_SAVE and
AC_LANG_RESTORE should be replaced with. I tried it, and got an error because
Autoconf does not define a language named 'rc'.

Problem 2 may be surmountable with a couple of hours of effort, but problem 1
is not.

For this reason, I think AC_LANG_SAVE and AC_LANG_RESTORE should not be marked
obsolete, until a libtool.m4 release exists that does not use them any more.




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