autoconf/NEWS

* Major changes in Autoconf 2.59c

** The configure command now redirects standard input from /dev/null,
  to help avoid problems with subsidiary commands that might mistakenly
  read standard input.  AS_ORIGINAL_STDIN_FD points to the original
  standard input before this redirection, if you really want configure to
  read from standard input.

** Directory variables adjusted to recent changes in the GNU Coding Standards.
  The following directory variables are new:

    datarootdir   read-only architecture-independent data root [PREFIX/share]
    localedir     locale-specific message catalogs [DATAROOTDIR/locale]
    docdir        documentation root [DATAROOTDIR/doc/PACKAGE]
    htmldir       html documentation [DOCDIR]
    dvidir        dvi documentation [DOCDIR]
    pdfdir        pdf documentation [DOCDIR]
    psdir         ps documentation [DOCDIR]

  The following variables have new default values:

    datadir       read-only architecture-independent data [DATAROOTDIR]
    infodir       info documentation [DATAROOTDIR/info]
    mandir        man documentation [DATAROOTDIR/man]

  This means that if you use any of `@datadir@', `@infodir@', or
  `@mandir@' in a file, you will have to ensure `${datarootdir}' is
  defined in this file.

** @top_builddir@ is now a dir name: it is always nonempty and doesn't have
  a trailing slash.  Similar change will be made to ac_top_builddir in a
  future release; the old style value, which matches (../)*, is (and will
  continue to be) available as ac_top_build_prefix.

** AC_C_TYPEOF
  New macro to check for support of 'typeof' syntax a la GNU C.

** AC_PROG_CC_C89, AC_PROG_CC_C99
  New macros for ISO C99 support.  AC_PROG_CC_C89 and AC_PROG_CC_C99
  check for ANSI C89 and ISO C99 support respectively.

** AC_PROG_CC_STDC
  Has been unobsoleted, and will check if the compiler supports ISO
  C99, falling back to ANSI C89 if not.  ac_cv_prog_cc_stdc is
  retained for backwards compatibility, assuming the value of
  ac_cv_prog_cc_c99 or ac_cv_prog_cc_c89 (whichever is valid, in
  that order).

** AC_SUBST
  The subtituted value can now contain newlines.

** AC_SUBST_FILE
  The substitution now occurs only when @variable@ is on a line by itself,
  optionally surrounded by spaces and tabs.  The whole line is replaced.

** AT_COPYRIGHT
  New macro for copyright notices in testsuite files.

** ALLOCA, LIBOBJS, LTLIBOBJS
  Object names added to these variables are now prefixed with `${LIBOBJDIR}',
  as in `${LIBOBJDIR}alloca.o'.  LIBOBJDIR is meant to be defined from
  `Makefile.in' in case the object files lie in a different directory.

* Major changes in Autoconf 2.59b

  Released 2004-08-20, by Paul Eggert.

** AC_CHECK_ALIGNOF
  New macro that computes the default alignment of a type.

** AC_CHECK_TOOL, AC_PATH_TOOL, AC_CHECK_TOOLS
  When cross-compiling, these macros will give a warning if the tool
  is not prefixed.  In the future, unprefixed cross tools will not
  be detected; please consult the info documentation for information
  about the reason of this change.

** AC_CHECK_TARGET_TOOL, AC_PATH_TARGET_TOOL, AC_CHECK_TARGET_TOOLS
  New macros that detect programs whose name is prefixed with the
  target type, if the build type and target type are different.

** AC_REQUIRE_AUX_FILE
  New trace macro that declares expected auxiliary files.

** AC_PROG_GREP
  New macro that tests for a grep program that accepts as a long a line
  as possible.

** AC_PROG_EGREP, AC_PROG_FGREP
  These macros now require AC_PROG_GREP, and try EGREP="$GREP -E" and
  FGREP="$GREP -F" respectively if possible, or else run a path search for
  a program that accepts as long a line as possible.

** AC_PROG_SED
  New macro that tests for a sed program that truncates as few characters
  as possible.

* Major changes in Autoconf 2.59

  Released 2003-11-04, by Akim Demaille

** ac_abs_builddir etc.
  Absolute file names were actually relative in 2.58.

* Major changes in Autoconf 2.58

  Released 2003-11-04, by Akim Demaille

** core.*
  core.* files are no longer removed, as they may be valid user files.

** autoreconf and auxiliary directory
  Autoreconf creates the auxiliary directory if needed.  This is
  especially useful for initial "bootstrapping" of fresh CVS checkouts.

** AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIR
  Use this macro to declare the directory for local m4 macros for aclocal.

** AC_LIBOBJS
  No longer includes twice the same file in LIBOBJS if invoked
  multiple times.

** AC_CONFIG_COMMANDS
  The directory for its first argument is automatically created.  For
  instance, with

      AC_CONFIG_COMMANDS([src/modules.hh], [...])

  $top_builddir/src/ is created if needed.

** Autotest and local.at
  The optional file local.at is always included in Autotest test suites.

** Warnings
  The warnings are always issued, including with cached runs.
  This became a significant problem since aclocal and automake can
  run autoconf behind the scene.

** autoheader warnings
  The warnings of autoheader can be turned off, using --warning.
  For instance, -Wno-obsolete disables the complaints about acconfig.h
  and other deprecated constructs.

** New macros
  AC_C_RESTRICT, AC_INCLUDES_DEFAULT, AC_LANG_ASSERT, AC_LANG_WERROR,
  AS_SET_CATFILE.

** AC_DECL_SYS_SIGLIST
  Works again.

** AC_FUNC_MKTIME
  Now checks that mktime is the inverse of localtime.

** Improve DJGPP portability
  The Autoconf tools and configure behave better under DJGPP.

** Present But Cannot Be Compiled
  New FAQ section dedicated to the mystic

    configure: WARNING: pi.h: present but cannot be compiled
    configure: WARNING: pi.h: check for missing prerequisite headers?
    configure: WARNING: pi.h: proceeding with the preprocessor's result
      messages.

** Concurrent executions of autom4te
  autom4te now locks its internal files, which enables concurrent
  executions of autom4te, likely to happen if automake, autoconf,
  autoheader etc. are run simultaneously.

** Libtool
  Use of Libtool 1.5 and higher is encouraged.  Compatibility with
  Libtool pre-1.4 is not checked.

** Autotest
  Testsuites no longer rerun failed tests in verbose mode; instead,
  failures are logged while the test is run.

  In addition, expected failures can be marked as such.

* Major changes in Autoconf 2.57

  Released 2002-12-03 by Paul Eggert.

Bug fixes for problems with AIX linker, with freestanding C compilers,
with GNU m4 limitations, and with obsolete copies of GNU documents.

The Free Documentation License has been upgraded from 1.1 to 1.2.

* Major changes in Autoconf 2.56

  Released 2002-11-15 by Akim Demaille.

One packaging problem fixed (config/install-sh was not executable).

* Major changes in Autoconf 2.55

  Released 2002-11-14 by Akim Demaille.

Release tips:

           Have your configure.ac checked by autoscan ("autoscan").
             Try the warning options ("autoreconf -fv -Wall").

** Documentation

- AC_CHECK_HEADER, AC_CHECK_HEADERS
  More information on proper use.

- Writing Test Programs

  This sections explains how to write good test sources to use with
  AC_COMPILE_IFELSE etc.  It documents AC_LANG_PROGRAMS and so forth.

- AC_FOO_IFELSE vs. AC_TRY_FOO

  Explains why Autoconf moves from AC_TRY_COMPILE etc. to
  AC_COMPILE_IFELSE and AC_LANG_PROGRAM etc.

** autoreconf

- Is more robust to different Gettext installations.

- Produces messages (when --verbose) to be understood by Emacs'
  compile mode.

- Supports -W/--warnings.

- -m/--make
  Once the GNU Build System reinstalled, run `./config.status
  --recheck && ./config.status && make' if possible.

** autom4te

- Supports --cache, and --no-cache.

- ~/.autom4te.cfg makes it possible to disable the caching mechanism
  (autom4te.cache).  See `Customizing autom4te' in the documentation.

** config.status
  Supports --quiet.

** Obsolete options

  Support for the obsoleted options -m, --macrodir, -l, --localdir is
  dropped in favor of the safer --include/--prepend-include scheme.

** Macros

- New macros
  AC_COMPILER_IFELSE, AC_FUNC_MBRTOWC, AC_HEADER_STDBOOL,
  AC_LANG_CONFTEST, AC_LANG_SOURCE, AC_LANG_PROGRAM, AC_LANG_CALL,
  AC_LANG_FUNC_TRY_LINK, AC_MSG_FAILURE, AC_PREPROC_IFELSE.

- Obsoleted
  Obsoleted macros are kept for Autoconf backward compatibility, but
  should be avoided in configure.ac.  Running autoupdate is advised.
  AC_DECL_SYS_SIGLIST.

- AC_DEFINE/AC_DEFINE_UNQUOTED

  We have to stop using the old compatibility scheme --that tried to
  avoid useless backslashes-- because Libtool 1.4.3 contains a

  AC_DEFINE([error_t], [int],
            [Define to a type to use for \`error_t' if it is not
             otherwise available.])

  We have to quote the single quotes and backslashes with \.  The old
  compatibility scheme saw that ` was backslashed, and therefore did
  not quote the single quote...  Failure.  Hence, Autoconf 2.54 is not
  compatible with Libtool.  Autoconf 2.55 is, but in some cases might
  produce more \ than wanted.

  Please, note that in the future the same problem will happen with
  AC_MSG_*: use `autoreconf -f -Wall'.

** Bug Fixes

- Portability of the Autoconf package to Solaris.

- Spurious warnings caused by config.status.
  This bug is benign, but painful: on some systems (typically
  FreeBSD), warnings such as:

     config.status: creating Makefile
     mv: Makefile: set owner/group (was: 1357/0): Operation not permitted

  could be issued.  This is fixed.

- Parallel Builds
  Simultaneous executions of config.status are possible again.

- Precious variables accumulation

  config.status could stack several copies of the precious variables
  assignments.


** Plans for later versions

- ./configure <host>

  The compatibility hooks with the old scheme will be completely
  removed.  Please, advice/use `--build', `--host', and `--target'
  only.

- AC_CHECK_HEADER, AC_CHECK_HEADERS

  The tests will be stricter, please make sure your invocations are
  valid.

- shell functions

  Shell functions will gradually be introduced, probably starting with
  Autotest.  If you know machines which are in use that you suspect
  *not* to support shell functions, please run the test suite of
  Autoconf 2.55 on it, and report the results to
  bug-autoconf@gnu.org.

- AC_MSG_*

  Special characters in AC_MSG_* need not be quoted.  Currently,
  Autoconf has heuristics to decide when a string is escaped, or has
  to be escaped.  This scheme is fragile, and will be removed; the
  only risk is uglified messages.  Please, run `autoreconf -f -Wall'
  to find occurrences that will be affected.

* Major changes in Autoconf 2.54

  Released 2002-09-13 by Akim Demaille.

** Executables

- autoreconf no longer changes the version of the gettext/po/intl
  support files. It now adds the files the correspond to the
  AM_GNU_GETTEXT_VERSION declared in configure.ac.

  Warning: It now relies on the 'autopoint' program, which is part
  of GNU gettext 0.11.4 and newer.

  Please note that you need to have a GNU gettext version that
  corresponds at least to the AM_GNU_GETTEXT_VERSION declared
  in configure.ac. You can upgrade to newer GNU gettext versions,
  though, without needing to change configure.ac.

- The -I DIR or --include=DIR option now appends DIR to the include path
  instead of prepending; this is for consistency with other GNU tools.
  The new -B DIR or --prepend-include=DIR option has the old behavior.

** Macros

- AC_OUTPUT
  Now handles all the gory details about LIBOBJS and LTLIBOBJS.
  Please, remove lines such as

	# This is necessary so that .o files in LIBOBJS are also
	# built via the ANSI2KNR-filtering rules.
	LIBOBJS=`echo $LIBOBJS|sed 's/\.o /\$U.o /g;s/\.o$/\$U.o/'`

  and read the `AC_LIBOBJ vs LIBOBJS' section.  Do not define U in
  your Makefiles either.

- AC_CONFIG_LINKS now makes copies if it can't make links.

- AC_FUNC_FNMATCH now tests only for POSIX compatibility, reverting to
  Autoconf 2.13 behavior.  The new macro AC_FUNC_FNMATCH_GNU also
  tests for GNU extensions to fnmatch, and replaces fnmatch if needed.

- AC_FUNC_SETVBUF_REVERSED no longer fails when cross-compiling.

- AC_PROG_CC_STDC is integrated into AC_PROG_CC.

- AC_PROG_F77 default search no longer includes cf77 and cfg77.

- New macros

  AC_C_BACKSLASH_A, AC_CONFIG_LIBOBJ_DIR, AC_GNU_SOURCE,
  AC_PROG_EGREP, AC_PROG_FGREP, AC_REPLACE_FNMATCH,
  AC_FUNC_FNMATCH_GNU, AC_FUNC_REALLOC, AC_TYPE_MBSTATE_T.

- AC_FUNC_GETLOADAVG
  looks for getloadavg.c in the CONFIG_LIBOBJ_DIR.

- AC_FUNC_MALLOC
  Now defines HAVE_MALLOC to 0 if `malloc' does not work, and asks
  for an AC_LIBOBJ replacement.

** Bug fixes

- Spurious complaints from `m4_bmatch' about invalid regular
  expressions are suppressed.

- Empty top_builddirs are properly handled.

- AC_CHECK_MEMBER works correctly when the member is an aggregate.

- AC_PATH_PROG
  Now colon in the optional path arguments are properly handled.

** Improved portability

- Both Autoconf the package, and the scripts it produces, should run
  more reliably with Zsh.  Bear in mind it is the default Bourne shell
  on Darwin.

- Autoconf and the scripts it produces no longer assume the existence of
  the obsolescent commands egrep and fgrep.

** Documentation

- Limitations of Make
  More of them.

- GNATS
  The GNATS base moved to
  http://bugs.gnu.org/cgi-bin/gnatsweb.pl?database=autoconf
  (It is no longer available, though.)

** Misc.

- config.log
  Now contains the list of ouput variables and files (AC_SUBST,
  AC_SUBST_FILES).

* Major changes in Autoconf 2.53

  Released 2002-03-08 by Akim Demaille.

** Requirements

  Perl 5.005_03 or later is required: autom4te is written in Perl and is
  needed by autoconf.  autoheader, autoreconf, ifnames, and autoscan are
  rewritten in Perl.

** Documentation

- AC_INIT
  Argument requirements, output variables, defined macros.
- M4sugar, M4sh, Autotest
  First sketch.
- Double quoting macros
  AC_TRY_CPP, AC_TRY_COMPILE, AC_TRY_LINK and AC_TRY_RUN.
- Licensing
  The Autoconf manual is now distributed under the terms of the GNU FDL.
- Section `Hosts and Cross-Compilation'
  Explains the rationale for the 2.5x changes in the cross-compilation
  chain, and in the relationships between build, host, and target
  types.
  Emphasizes that `cross-compilation' == `--host is given'.
  If you are working on compilers etc., be sure to read this section.
- Section `AC_LIBOBJ vs. LIBOBJS'
  Explains why assigning LIBOBJS directly is now an error.
  Details how to update the code.

** configure

- $LINENO
  Now used instead of hard coded line numbers.
  This eases the comparison of `configure's, and diminishes the
  pressure over control version archives.
  Automatic replacement for shells that don't support this feature.
- New output variables
  @builddir@, @top_builddir@, @abs_srcdir@, @abs_top_srcdir@, @abs_builddir@,
  @abs_top_builddir@.

** Emacs

  Autoconf and Autotest modes are provided.

** Executables

- autom4te
  New, used by the Autoconf suite to cache and speed up most processing.
- --force, -f
  Supported by autom4te, autoconf and autoheader.
- --include, -I
  Replaces --autoconf-dir and --localdir in autoconf, autoheader,
  autoupdate, and autoreconf.
- autoreconf
  No longer passes --cygnus, --foreign, --gnits, --gnu, --include-deps:
  automake options are to be given via AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS.
- autoreconf
  Runs gettextize and libtoolize when appropriate.
- autoreconf
  --m4dir is no longer supported.
- autoreconf
  Now runs only in the specified directories, defaulting to `.',
  but understands AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS for dependent directories.
  Before, it used to run on all the `configure.ac' found in the
  current tree.
  Independent packages are properly updated.

** Bug fixes

- The top level $prefix is propagated to the AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS configures.
- AC_TRY_RUN
  Under the user pressure, $? is finally available.  Probably a mistake.
- AC_F77_LIBRARY_LDFLAGS now supports the HP/UX f90 compiler.
- Precious variables accumulation
  config.status could stack several copies of the precious variables
  assignments.
- AC_PATH_PROG and family.
  Works properly when given a literal path.
- AC_FUNC_SETPGRP
  Somewhere since 2.13, the result had been reversed.

** C Macros

- AC_C_BIGENDIAN supports the cross-compiling case.
- AC_C_BIGENDIAN accepts ACTION-IF-TRUE, ACTION-IF-FALSE, and
  ACTION-IF-UNKNOWN arguments.  All are facultative, and the default
  for ACTION-IF-TRUE is to define WORDS_BIGENDIAN like AC_C_BIGENDIAN
  always did.
- AC_C_LONG_DOUBLE now succeeds only if `long double' has more range or
  precision than `double'.

** Generic macros

- AC_INIT
  It now defines the preprocessor symbols PACKAGE_NAME,
  PACKAGE_TARNAME, PACKAGE_VERSION, PACKAGE_STRING, and
  PACKAGE_BUGREPORT.

- AC_INIT
  Admits a fourth optional parameter: the tar name.

- AC_CONFIG_COMMANDS, HEADERS, FILES, LINKS.
  Provide the user with srcdir, ac_srcdir, ac_top_srcdir, ac_builddir,
  ac_top_builddir, ac_abs_srcdir, ac_abs_top_srcdir, ac_abs_builddir,
  ac_abs_top_builddir.

- AC_CONFIG_COMMANDS, HEADERS, FILES, LINKS and AC_OUTPUT.
  Are much less expensive when using long lists of files.

- AC_PREFIX_PROGRAM
  Works with shell variables, and non alphanumeric names.

** Library macros

- AC_FUNC_STRERROR_R now sets STRERROR_R_CHAR_P, not HAVE_WORKING_STRERROR_R,
  because POSIX 1003.1-200x draft 7 says strerror_r returns int, not char *.

- AC_FUNC_STRTOD substitutes POW_LIB.

- AC_FUNC_STRNLEN
  New.

* Major changes in Autoconf 2.52

  Released 2001-07-18 by Akim Demaille.

** Documentation
- AC_ARG_VAR
- Quadrigraphs
  This feature was present in autoconf 2.50 but was not documented.
  For example, `@<:@' is translated to `[' just before output.  This
  is useful when writing strings that contain unbalanced quotes, or
  other hard-to-quote constructs.
- m4_pattern_forbid, m4_pattern_allow
- Tips for upgrading from 2.13.
- Using autoscan to maintain a configure.ac.

** Default includes
- Now include stdint.h.
- sys/types.h and sys/stat.h are guarded.
- strings.h is included if available, and not conflicting with string.h.

** Bug fixes
- The test suite is more robust and presents less false failures.
- Invocation of GNU M4 now robust to POSIXLY_CORRECT.
- configure accepts --prefix='' again.
- AC_CHECK_LIB works properly when its first argument is not a
  literal.
- HAVE_INTTYPES_H is defined only if not conflicting with sys/types.h.
- build_, host_, and target_alias are AC_SUBST as in 2.13.
- AC_ARG_VAR properly propagates precious variables inherited from the
  environment to ./config.status.
- Using --program-suffix/--program-prefix is portable.
- Failures to detect the default compiler's output extension are less
  likely.
- `config.status foo' works properly when `foo' depends on variables
  set in an AC_CONFIG_THING INIT-CMD.
- autoheader is more robust to broken input.
- Fixed Fortran name-mangling and link tests on a number of systems,
  e.g. NetBSD; see AC_F77_DUMMY_MAIN, below.

** Generic macros
- AC_CHECK_HEADER and AC_CHECK_HEADERS support a fourth argument to
  specify pre-includes.  In this case, the headers are compiled with
  cc, not merely preprocessed by cpp.  Therefore it is the _usability_
  of a header which is checked for, not just its availability.
- AC_ARG_VAR refuses to run configure when precious variables have
  changed.
- Versions of compilers are dumped in the logs.
- AC_CHECK_TYPE recognizes use of `foo_t' as a replacement type.

** Specific Macros
- AC_PATH_XTRA only adds -ldnet to $LIBS if it's needed to link.
- AC_FUNC_WAIT3 and AC_SYS_RESTARTABLE_SYSCALLS are obsoleted.
- AM_FUNC_ERROR_AT_LINE, AM_FUNC_FNMATCH, AM_FUNC_MKTIME,
  AM_FUNC_OBSTACK, and AM_FUNC_STRTOD are now activated.
  Be sure to read `Upgrading from Version 2.13' to understand why
  running `autoupdate' is needed.
- AC_F77_DUMMY_MAIN, AC_F77_MAIN: new macros to detect whether
  a main-like routine is required/possible when linking C/C++ with
  Fortran.  Users of e.g. AC_F77_WRAPPERS should be aware of these.
- AC_FUNC_GETPGRG behaves better when cross-compiling.

* Major changes in Autoconf 2.51
There was no release of Autoconf 2.51 since some packagers had used
this version number without permission to ship intermediary versions
of 2.50.  The version was skipped to avoid confusion.

* Major changes in Autoconf 2.50

  Released 2001-05-21 by Akim Demaille.

** Lots of bug fixes
There have been far too many to enumerate them here.  Check out
ChangeLog if you really want to know more.

** Improved documentation
In particular, portability issues are better covered.

** Use of Automake
All the standard GNU Makefile targets are supported.  The layout has
changed: m4/ holds the m4 extensions Autoconf needs for its
configuration, doc/ contains the documentation, and tests/ contains
the test suite.

** Man pages are provided
For autoconf, autoreconf, autoupdate, autoheader, autoscan, ifnames,
config.guess, config.sub.

** autoconf
- --trace
  Provides a safe and powerful means to trace the macro uses.  This
  provide the parsing layer for tools which need to `study'
  configure.in.

- --warnings
  Specify what category of warnings should be enabled.

- When recursing into subdirectories, try for configure.gnu before
  configure to adapt for packages not using autoconf on case-insensitive
  filesystems.

- Diagnostics
  More errors are now caught (circular AC_REQUIRE dependencies,
  AC_DEFINE in the action part of an AC_CACHE_CHECK, too many pops
  etc.).  In addition, their location and call stack are given.

** autoupdate
autoupdate is much more powerful, and is able to provide the glue code
which might be needed to move from an old macro to its newer
equivalent.

You are strongly encouraged to use it to modernize both your
`configure.in' and your .m4 extension files.

** autoheader
The internal machinery of autoheader has completely changed.  As a
result, using `acconfig.h' should be considered to be obsoleted, and
you are encouraged to get rid of it using the AH macros.

** autoreconf
Extensive overhaul.

** Fortran 77 compilers
Globally, the support for Fortran 77 is considerably improved.

Support for automatically determining a Fortran 77 compiler's
name-mangling scheme.  New CPP macros F77_FUNC and F77_FUNC_ are
provided to wrap C/C++ identifiers, thus making it easier and more
transparent for C/C++ to call Fortran 77 routines, and Fortran 77 to
call C/C++ routines.  See the Texinfo documentation for details.

** Test suite
The test suite no longer uses DejaGNU.  It should be easy to submit
test cases in this new framework.

** configure
- --help, --help=long, -hl
  no longer dumps useless items.
- --help=short, -hs
  lists only specific options.
- --help=recursive, -hr
  displays the help of all the embedded packages.
- Remembers environment variables when reconfiguring.
  The previous scheme to set envvar before running configure was
    ENV=VAL ./configure
  what prevented configure from remembering the environment in which
  it was run, therefore --recheck was run in an inconsistent
  environment.  Now, one should run
    ./configure ENV=VAR
  and then --recheck will work properly.  Variables declared with
  AC_ARG_VAR are also preserved.
- cross-compilation
  $build defaults to `config.guess`, $host to $build, and then $target
  to $host.
  Cross-compilation is a global status of the package, it no longer
  depends upon the current language.
  Cross compilation is enabled iff the user specified `--host'.
  `configure' now fails if it can't run the executables it compiles,
  unless cross-compilation is enabled.
- Cache file
  The cache file is disabled by default.  The new options
  `--config-cache', `-C' set the cache to `config.cache'.

** config.status
- faster
  Much faster on most architectures.
- concurrent executions
  It is safe to use `make -j' with config.status.
- human interface improved
  It is possible to invoke
    ./config.status foobar
  instead of the former form (still valid)
    CONFIG_COMMANDS= CONFIG_HEADERS= CONFIG_LINKS= \
    CONFIG_FILES=foobar:foo.in:bar.in \
    ./config.status
  The same holds for configuration headers and links.
  You can instantiate unknown files and headers:
    ./config.status --header foo.h:foo.h.in --file bar:baz
- has a useful --help
- accepts special file name "-" for stdin/stdout


** Identity Macros
- AC_COPYRIGHT
  Specify additional copyright information.

- AC_INIT
  Now expects the identity of the package as argument.

** General changes.
- Uniform quotation
  Most macros, if not all, now strictly follow the `one quotation
  level' rule.  This results in a more predictable expansion.

- AC_REQUIRE
  A sly bug in the AC_REQUIRE machinery, which could produce incorrect
  configure scripts, was fixed by Axel Thimm.

** Setup Macros
- AC_ARG_VAR
  Document and ask for the registration of an envvar.

- AC_CONFIG_SRCDIR
  Specifies the file which `configure' should look for when trying to
  find the source tree (used to be handled by AC_INIT).

- AC_CONFIG_COMMANDS
  To add new actions to config.status.  Should be used instead of
  AC_OUTPUT_COMMANDS.

- AC_CONFIG_LINKS
  Replaces AC_LINK_FILES.

- AC_CONFIG_HEADERS, AC_CONFIG_COMMANDS, AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS,
  AC_CONFIG_LINKS, and AC_CONFIG_FILES
  They now obey sh: you should no longer use shell variables as
  argument.  Instead of

        test "$package_foo_enabled" = yes && $my_subdirs="$my_subdirs foo"
        AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS($my_subdirs)

  write

        if test "$package_foo_enabled" = yes; then
          AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS(foo)
        fi

- AC_HELP_STRING
  To format an Autoconf macro's help string so that it looks pretty
  when the user executes `configure --help'.


** Generic Test Macros
- AC_CHECK families
  The interface of the AC_CHECK families of macros (decl, header,
  type, member, func) is now uniform.  They support the same set of
  default includes.

- AC_CHECK_DECL, AC_CHECK_DECLS
  To check whether a symbol is declared.

- AC_CHECK_SIZEOF, AC_C_CHAR_UNSIGNED.
  No longer need a cross-compilation default.

- AC_CHECK_TYPE
  The test it performs is much more robust than previously, and makes
  it possible to test builtin types in addition to typedefs.
  It is now schizophrenic:
    - AC_CHECK_TYPE(TYPE, REPLACEMENT)
      remains for backward compatibility, but its use is discouraged.
    - AC_CHECK_TYPE(TYPE, IF-FOUND, IF-NOT-FOUND, INCLUDES)
      behaves exactly like the other AC_CHECK macros.

- AC_CHECK_TYPES
  Checks whether given types are supported by the system.

- AC_CHECK_MEMBER, AC_CHECK_MEMBERS
  Check for given members in aggregates (e.g., pw_gecos in struct
  passwd).

- AC_PROG_CC_STDC
  Checks if the compiler supports ISO C, included when needs special
  options.

- AC_PROG_CPP
  Checking whether the preprocessor indicates missing includes by the
  error code. stderr is checked by AC_TRY_CPP only as a fallback.

- AC_LANG
  Takes a language as argument and replaces AC_LANG_C,
  AC_LANG_CPLUSPLUS and AC_LANG_FORTRAN77.

- AC_LANG_PUSH, AC_LANG_POP
  Are preferred to AC_LANG_SAVE, AC_LANG_RESTORE.

** Specific Macros
- AC_FUNC_CHOWN, AC_FUNC_MALLOC, AC_FUNC_STRERROR_R,
  AC_FUNC_LSTAT_FOLLOWS_SLASHED_SYMLINK, AC_FUNC_STAT, AC_FUNC_LSTAT,
  AC_FUNC_ERROR_AT_LINE, AC_FUNC_OBSTACK, AC_FUNC_STRTOD, AC_FUNC_FSEEKO.
  New.

- AC_FUNC_GETGROUPS
  Sets GETGROUPS_LIBS.

- AC_FUNC_GETLOADAVG
  Defines `HAVE_STRUCT_NLIST_N_UN_N_NAME' instead of `NLIST_NAME_UNION'.

- AC_PROG_LEX
  Now integrates `AC_DECL_YYTEXT' which is obsoleted.

- AC_SYS_LARGEFILE
  Arrange for large-file support.

- AC_EXEEXT, AC_OBJEXT
  You are no longer expected to use them: their computation is
  performed by default.

** C++ compatibility
  Every macro has been revisited in order to support at best CC=c++.

Major changes in Autoconf 2.14:
  There was no release of GNU Autoconf 2.14.

Major changes in Autoconf 2.13:

  Released 1999-05-01 by Ben Elliston.

* Support for building on Win32 systems where the only available C or
  C++ compiler is the Microsoft Visual C++ command line compiler
  (`cl').  Additional support for building on Win32 systems which are
  using the Cygwin or Mingw32 environments.
* Support for alternative object file and executable file extensions.
  On Win32, for example, these are .obj and .exe. These are discovered
  using AC_OBJEXT and AC_EXEEXT, which substitute @OBJEXT@ and
  @EXEEXT@ in the output, respectively.
* New macros: AC_CACHE_LOAD, AC_CACHE_SAVE, AC_FUNC_SELECT_ARGTYPES,
  AC_VALIDATE_CACHED_SYSTEM_TUPLE, AC_SEARCH_LIBS, AC_TRY_LINK_FUNC,
  AC_C_STRINGIZE, AC_CHECK_FILE(S), AC_PROG_F77 (and friends).
* AC_DEFINE now has an optional third argument for a description to be
  placed in the config header input file (e.g. config.h.in).
* The C++ code fragment compiled for the C++ compiler test had to be
  improved to include an explicit return type for main(). This was
  causing failures on systems using recent versions of the EGCS C++
  compiler.
* Fixed an important bug in AC_CHECK_TYPE that would cause a configure
  script to report that `sometype_t' was present when only `type_t'
  was defined.
* Merge of the FSF version of config.guess and config.sub to modernize
  these scripts. Add support for a few new hosts in config.guess.
  Incorporate latest versions of install-sh, mkinstalldirs and
  texinfo.tex from the FSF.
* autoreconf is capable of running automake if necessary (and
  applicable).
* Support for Fortran 77. See the Texinfo documentation for details.
* Bug fixes and workarounds for quirky bugs in vendor utilities.

Major changes in Autoconf 2.12:

  Released 1996-11-26 by David J. MacKenzie

* AC_OUTPUT and AC_CONFIG_HEADER can create output files by
  concatenating multiple input files separated by colons, like so:
  AC_CONFIG_HEADER(config.h:conf.pre:config.h.in:conf.post)
  AC_OUTPUT(Makefile:Makefile.in:Makefile.rules)
  The arguments may be shell variables, to compute the lists on the fly.
* AC_LINK_FILES and AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS may be called multiple times.
* New macro AC_OUTPUT_COMMANDS adds more commands to run in config.status.
* Bug fixes.

Major changes in Autoconf 2.11:

  Released November 18th, 1996, by David J. MacKenzie

* AC_PROG_CC and AC_PROG_CXX check whether the compiler works.
  They also default CFLAGS/CXXFLAGS to "-g -O2" for gcc, instead of "-g -O".
* AC_REPLACE_FUNCS defines HAVE_foo if the system has the function `foo'.
* AC_CONFIG_HEADER expands shell variables in its argument.
* New macros: AC_FUNC_FNMATCH, AC_FUNC_SETPGRP.
* The "checking..." messages and the source code for test programs that
  fail are saved in config.log.
* Another workaround has been added for seds with small command length limits.
* config.sub and config.guess recognize more system types.
* Bug fixes.

Major changes in Autoconf 2.10:

  Released May 7th, 1996, by Roland McGrath

* Bug fixes.
* The cache variable names used by `AC_CHECK_LIB(LIB, FUNC, ...)' has
  changed: now $ac_cv_lib_LIB_FUNC, previously $ac_cv_lib_LIB.

Major changes in Autoconf 2.9:

  Released March 16th, 1996, by Roland McGrath

* Bug fixes.

Major changes in Autoconf 2.8:

  Released March 8th, 1996, by Roland McGrath

* Bug fixes.

Major changes in Autoconf 2.7:

  Released November 22nd, 1995, by David J. MacKenzie

* Bug fixes.

Major changes in Autoconf 2.6:

  Released November 20th, 1995, by David J. MacKenzie

* Bug fixes.

Major changes in Autoconf 2.5:

  Released November 17th, 1995, by Roland McGrath

* New configure options --bindir, --libdir, --datadir, etc., with
  corresponding output variables.
* New macro: AC_CACHE_CHECK, to make using the cache easier.
* config.log contains the command being run as well as any output from it.
* AC_CHECK_LIB can check for libraries with "." or "/" or "+" in their name.
* AC_PROG_INSTALL doesn't cache a name for install-sh, for sharing caches.
* AC_CHECK_PROG, AC_PATH_PROG, AC_CHECK_PROGS, AC_PATH_PROGS, and
  AC_CHECK_TOOL can search a path other than $PATH.
* AC_CHECK_SIZEOF takes an optional size to use when cross-compiling.

Major changes in Autoconf 2.4:

  Released June 14th, 1995, by David J. MacKenzie

* Fix a few bugs found by Emacs testers.

Major changes in Autoconf 2.3:

  Released March 27th, 1995, by David J. MacKenzie

* Fix the cleanup trap in several ways.
* Handle C compilers that are picky about option placement.
* ifnames gets the version number from the right directory.

Major changes in Autoconf 2.2:

  Released March 8th, 1995, by David J. MacKenzie

* The ifnames utility is much faster but requires a "new awk" interpreter.
* AC_CHECK_LIB and AC_HAVE_LIBRARY check and add the new
  library before existing libs, not after, in case it uses them.
* New macros: AC_FUNC_GETPGRP, AC_CHECK_TOOL.
* Lots of bug fixes.
* Many additions to the TODO file :-)

Major changes in Autoconf 2.1:

  Released November 4th, 1994, by David J. MacKenzie

* Fix C++ problems.
* More explanations in the manual.
* Fix a spurious failure in the testsuite.
* Clarify some warning messages.
* autoreconf by default only rebuilds configure and config.h.in files
  that are older than any of their particular input files; there is a
  --force option to use after installing a new version of Autoconf.

Thanks to everybody who's submitted changes and additions to Autoconf!
I've incorporated many of them, and am still considering others for
future releases -- but I didn't want to postpone this release indefinitely.

Caution: don't indiscriminately rebuild configure scripts with
Autoconf version 2.  Some configure.in files need minor adjustments to
work with it; the documentation has a chapter on upgrading.  A few
configure.in files, including those for GNU Emacs and the GNU C
Library, need major changes because they relied on undocumented
internals of version 1.  Future releases of those packages will have
updated configure.in files.

It's best to use GNU m4 1.3 (or later) with Autoconf version 2.
Autoconf now makes heavy use of m4 diversions, which were implemented
inefficiently in GNU m4 releases before 1.3.

Major changes in Autoconf 2.0:

  Released October 26th, 1994, by David J. MacKenzie

** New copyright terms:
* There are no restrictions on distribution or use of configure scripts.

** Documentation:
* Autoconf manual is reorganized to make information easier to find
  and has several new indexes.
* INSTALL is reorganized and clearer and is now made from Texinfo source.

** New utilities:
* autoscan to generate a preliminary configure.in for a package by
  scanning its source code for commonly used nonportable functions,
  programs, and header files.
* ifnames to list the symbols used in #if and #ifdef directives in a
  source tree.
* autoupdate to update a configure.in to use the version 2 macro names.
* autoreconf to recursively remake configure and configuration header
  files in a source tree.

** Changed utilities:
* autoheader can take pieces of acconfig.h to replace config.h.{top,bot}.
* autoconf and autoheader can look for package-local definition files
  in an alternate directory.

** New macros:
* AC_CACHE_VAL to share results of tests between configure runs.
* AC_DEFUN to define macros, automatically AC_PROVIDE them, and ensure
  that macros invoked with AC_REQUIRE don't interrupt other macros.
* AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR, AC_CANONICAL_SYSTEM, AC_CANONICAL_HOST, AC_LINK_FILES to
  support deciding unguessable features based on the host and target types.
* AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS to recursively configure a source tree.
* AC_ARG_PROGRAM to use the options --program-prefix,
  --program-suffix, and --program-transform-name to change the names
  of programs being installed.
* AC_PREFIX_DEFAULT to change the default installation prefix.
* AC_TRY_COMPILE to compile a test program without linking it.
* AC_CHECK_TYPE to check whether sys/types.h or stdlib.h defines a given type.
* AC_CHECK_LIB to check for a particular function and library.
* AC_MSG_CHECKING and AC_MSG_RESULT to print test results, on a single line,
  whether or not the test succeeds.  They obsolete AC_CHECKING and AC_VERBOSE.
* AC_SUBST_FILE to insert one file into another.
* AC_FUNC_MEMCMP to check whether memcmp is 8-bit clean.
* AC_FUNC_STRFTIME to find strftime even if it's in -lintl.
* AC_FUNC_GETMNTENT to find getmntent even if it's in -lsun or -lseq.
* AC_HEADER_SYS_WAIT to check whether sys/wait.h is POSIX.1 compatible.

** Changed macros:
* Many macros renamed systematically, but old names are accepted for
  backward compatibility.
* AC_OUTPUT adds the "automatically generated" comment to
  non-Makefiles where it finds @configure_input@ in an input file, to
  support files with various comment syntaxes.
* AC_OUTPUT does not replace "prefix" and "exec_prefix" in generated
  files when they are not enclosed in @ signs.
* AC_OUTPUT allows the optional environment variable CONFIG_STATUS to
  override the file name "config.status".
* AC_OUTPUT takes an optional argument for passing variables from
  configure to config.status.
* AC_OUTPUT and AC_CONFIG_HEADER allow you to override the input-file names.
* AC_OUTPUT automatically substitutes the values of CFLAGS, CXXFLAGS,
  CPPFLAGS, and LDFLAGS from the environment.
* AC_PROG_CC and AC_PROG_CXX now set CFLAGS and CXXFLAGS, respectively.
* AC_PROG_INSTALL looks for install-sh or install.sh in the directory
  specified by AC_CONFIG_AUXDIR, or srcdir or srcdir/.. or
  srcdir/../.. by default.
* AC_DEFINE, AC_DEFINE_UNQUOTED, and AC_SUBST are more robust and smaller.
* AC_DEFINE no longer prints anything, because of the new result reporting
  mechanism (AC_MSG_CHECKING and AC_MSG_RESULT).
* AC_VERBOSE pays attention to --quiet/--silent, not --verbose.
* AC_ARG_ENABLE and AC_ARG_WITH support whitespace in the arguments to
  --enable- and --with- options.
* AC_CHECK_FUNCS and AC_CHECK_HEADERS take optional shell commands to
  execute on success or failure.
* Checking for C functions in C++ works.

** Removed macros:
* AC_REMOTE_TAPE and AC_RSH removed; too specific to tar and cpio, and
  better maintained with them.
* AC_ARG_ARRAY removed because no one was likely using it.
* AC_HAVE_POUNDBANG replaced with AC_SYS_INTERPRETER, which doesn't
  take arguments, for consistency with all of the other specific checks.

** New files:
* Comes with config.sub and config.guess, and uses them optionally.
* Uses config.cache to cache test results.  An alternate cache file
  can be selected with the --cache-file=FILE option.
* Uses optional shell scripts $prefix/share/config.site and
  $prefix/etc/config.site to perform site or system specific initializations.
* configure saves compiler output to ./config.log for debugging.
* New files autoconf.m4 and autoheader.m4 load the other Autoconf macros.
* acsite.m4 is the new name for the system-wide aclocal.m4.
* Has a DejaGnu test suite.

Major changes in Autoconf 1.11:

* AC_PROG_INSTALL calls install.sh with the -c option.
* AC_SET_MAKE cleans up after itself.
* AC_OUTPUT sets prefix and exec_prefix if they weren't set already.
* AC_OUTPUT prevents shells from looking in PATH for config.status.

Plus a few other bug fixes.

Major changes in Autoconf 1.10:

* autoheader uses config.h.bot if present, analogous to config.h.top.
* AC_PROG_INSTALL looks for install.sh in srcdir or srcdir/.. and
  never uses cp.
* AC_PROG_CXX looks for cxx as a C++ compiler.

Plus several bugs fixed.

Major changes in Autoconf 1.9:

* AC_YYTEXT_POINTER replaces AC_DECLARE_YYTEXT.
* AC_SIZEOF_TYPE generates the cpp symbol name automatically,
  and autoheader generates entries for those names automatically.
* AC_FIND_X gets the result from xmkmf correctly.
* AC_FIND_X assumes no X if --without-x was given.
* AC_FIND_XTRA adds libraries to the variable X_EXTRA_LIBS.
* AC_PROG_INSTALL finds OSF/1 installbsd.

Major changes in Autoconf 1.8:

** New macros:
* New macros AC_LANG_C, AC_LANG_CPLUSPLUS, AC_LANG_SAVE, AC_LANG_RESTORE,
  AC_PROG_CXX, AC_PROG_CXXCPP, AC_REQUIRE_CPP
  for checking both C++ and C features in one configure script.
* New macros AC_CHECKING, AC_VERBOSE, AC_WARN, AC_ERROR for printing messages.
* New macros AC_FIND_XTRA, AC_MMAP, AC_SIZEOF_TYPE, AC_PREREQ,
  AC_SET_MAKE, AC_ENABLE.

** Changed macros:
* AC_FIND_X looks for X in more places.
* AC_PROG_INSTALL defaults to install.sh instead of cp, if it's in srcdir.
  install.sh is distributed with Autoconf.
* AC_DECLARE_YYTEXT has been removed because it can't work, pending
  a rewrite of quoting in AC_DEFINE.
* AC_OUTPUT adds its comments in C format when substituting in C files.
* AC_COMPILE_CHECK protects its ECHO-TEXT argument with double quotes.

** New or changed command line options:
* configure accepts --enable-FEATURE[=ARG] and --disable-FEATURE options.
* configure accepts --without-PACKAGE, which sets withval=no.
* configure accepts --x-includes=DIR and --x-libraries=DIR.
* Giving --with-PACKAGE no argument sets withval=yes instead of withval=1.
* configure accepts --help, --version, --silent/--quiet, --no-create options.
* configure accepts and ignores most other Cygnus configure options, and
  warns about unknown options.
* config.status accepts --help, --version options.

** File names and other changes:
* Relative srcdir values are not made absolute.
* The values of @prefix@ and @exec_prefix@ and @top_srcdir@ get substituted.
* Autoconf library files are installed in ${datadir}/autoconf, not ${datadir}.
* autoheader optionally copies config.h.top to the beginning of config.h.in.
* The example Makefile dependencies for configure et al. work better.
* Namespace cleanup: all shell variables used internally by Autoconf
  have names beginning with `ac_'.

More big improvements are in process for future releases, but have not
yet been (variously) finished, integrated, tested, or documented enough
to release yet.

Major changes in Autoconf 1.7:

* New macro AC_OBSOLETE.
* Bugs in Makefile.in fixed.
* AC_LONG_FILE_NAMES improved.

Major changes in Autoconf 1.6:

* New macro AC_LONG_64_BITS.
* Multiple .h files can be created.
* AC_FIND_X looks for X files directly if it doesn't find xmkmf.
* AC_ALLOCA defines C_ALLOCA if using alloca.c.
* --with-NAME can take a value, e.g., --with-targets=sun4,hp300bsd.
* Unused --no-create option to configure removed.
* autoheader doesn't change the timestamp of its output file if
  the file didn't change.
* All macros that look for libraries now use AC_HAVE_LIBRARY.
* config.status checks three optional environment variables to
  modify its behavior.
* The usual bug fixes.

Major changes in Autoconf 1.5:

* New macros AC_FIND_X, AC_OFF_T, AC_STAT_MACROS_BROKEN, AC_REVISION.
* autoconf and autoheader scripts have GNU standards conforming
  --version and --help options (they print their message and exit).
* Many bug fixes.

Major changes in Autoconf 1.4:

* New macros AC_HAVE_POUNDBANG, AC_TIME_WITH_SYS_TIME, AC_LONG_DOUBLE,
  AC_GETGROUPS_T, AC_DEFINE_UNQUOTED.
* autoconf and autoheader use the M4 environment variable to determine the
  name of the m4 program to use.
* The --macrodir option to autoconf and autoheader specifies the directory
  in which acspecific.m4, acgeneral.m4, etc. reside if not the default.
* autoconf and autoheader can take `-' as their file names, which means to
  read stdin as input.
* Resulting configure scripts can take a --verbose option which causes them
  to print the results of their tests.
* AC_DEFINE quotes its second argument in such a way that spaces, magic
  shell characters, etc. will be preserved during various stages of
  expansion done by the shell.  If you don't want this, use
  AC_DEFINE_UNQUOTED instead.
* Much textual processing done with external calls to tr and sed have been
  internalized with builtin m4 `patsubst' and `translit' calls.
* AC_OUTPUT doesn't hardwire the file names it outputs.  Instead, you can
  set the shell variables `gen_files' and `gen_config' to the list of
  file names to output.
* AC_DECLARE_YYTEXT does an AC_SUBST of `LEX_OUTPUT_ROOT', which may be
  "lex.yy" or "lexyy", depending on the system.
* AC_PROGRAMS_CHECK takes an optional third arg.  If given, it is used as
  the default value.
* If AC_ALLOCA chooses alloca.c, it also defines STACK_DIRECTION.
* AC_CONST works much more reliably on more systems.
* Many bug fixes.

Major changes in Autoconf 1.3:

configure no longer requires awk for packages that use a config.h.
Support handling --with-PACKAGE options.
New `autoheader' script to create `config.h.in' from `configure.in'.
Ignore troublesome -lucb and -lPW when searching for alloca.
Rename --exec_prefix to --exec-prefix for GNU standards conformance.
Improve detection of STDC library.
Add AC_HAVE_LIBRARY to check for non-default libraries.
Function checking should work with future GNU libc releases.

Major changes in Autoconf 1.2:

The --srcdir option is now usually unnecessary.
Add a file containing sample comments describing CPP macros.
A comment in config.status tells which host it was configured on.
Substituted variable values can now contain commas.
Fix bugs in various feature checks.

Major changes in Autoconf 1.1:

Added AC_STRCOLL macro.
Made AC_GETLOADAVG check for more things.
AC_OUTPUT argument is now optional.
Various bug fixes.

-----

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