* Major changes in Autoconf 2.61 (2006-11-17)
** New macros AC_C_FLEXIBLE_ARRAY_MEMBER, AC_C_VARARRAYS.
** AC_ARG_ENABLE and AC_ARG_WITH now allow '.' in feature and package names.
* Major changes in Autoconf 2.60b (2006-10-22)
** BIN_SH
Autoconf-generated shell scripts no longer export BIN_SH, due to
configuration hassles with this. Installers who need BIN_SH in
their environment should set it before invoking 'configure' and
'make'. As far as we know, this affects only Unixware installations.
** Obsolescent macros
The documentation now says that the following macros are obsolescent,
as they are superseded by Gnulib:
AC_FUNC_FNMATCH AC_FUNC_FNMATCH_GNU AC_FUNC_GETLOADVG AC_REPLACE_FNMATCH
New programs should use the Gnulib counterparts of these macros.
We have no current plans to remove them from Autoconf.
** AC_COMPUTE_INT no longer caches or reports results.
** AC_CHECK_DECL now also works with aggregate objects.
** AC_USE_SYSTEM_EXTENSIONS now defines _TANDEM_SOURCE for NonStop platforms.
** GNU M4 1.4.7 or later is now recommended.
** m4_mkstemp
New M4sugar macro, which is more secure than the POSIX M4 maketemp.
** m4_maketemp
Now an alias for m4_mkstemp.
* Major changes in Autoconf 2.60a (2006-08-25)
** GNU M4 1.4.6 or later is now recommended.
** The check for C99 now tests for varargs macros, as documented.
It also tests that the preprocessor supports 64-bit integers.
** Autoconf now uses constructs like "#ifdef HAVE_STDLIB_H" rather than
"#if HAVE_STDLIB_H", so that it now works with "gcc -Wundef -Werror".
** The functionality of the undocumented _AC_COMPUTE_INT is now provided
by a public and documented macro, AC_COMPUTE_INT. The parameters to the
two macros are different, so autoupdate will not change the old private name
to the new one. _AC_COMPUTE_INT may be removed in a future release.
** AC_TYPE_LONG_LONG_INT and AC_TYPE_UNSIGNED_LONG_LONG_INT now require
that long long types be at least 64 bits wide, as C99 and tradition
requires. Formerly, they accepted implementations of any width.
when you do not preserve timestamps in mk, this can cause
config.guess and config.sub to be newer than config.guess.1 and
config.sub.1. In that case, the man pages need to be rebuilt, and
build fails because pkgsrc lacks help2man. Work around this situation.
* Major changes in Autoconf 2.60
Released 2006-06-23, by Ralf Wildenhues.
** Autoconf no longer depends on whether m4wrap is FIFO (as Posix requires)
or LIFO (as in GNU M4 1.4.x). GNU M4 2.0 is expected to conform to Posix
here, so m4wrap/m4_wrap users should no longer depend on LIFO behavior.
** Provide a way to turn off warnings about the changed directory variables.
* Major changes in Autoconf 2.59d
Released 2006-06-05, by Ralf Wildenhues.
** GNU make now recommended for VPATH builds
INSTALL now suggests VPATH builds (e.g., "sh ../srcdir/configure")
only if you use GNU make. In practice, other 'make' implementations
have too many subtle incompatibilities in their support for VPATH.
Many packages (including Autoconf itself) are portable to other
'make' implementations, but some packages are not, and recommending
GNU make keeps the installation instructions simpler.
** Even more safety checks for the new Directory variables:
Warn about suspicious `${datarootdir}' found in config files output.
** AC_TRY_COMMAND, AC_TRY_EVAL, ac_config_guess, ac_config_sub, ac_configure
These never-documented macros and variables have been marked with
comments saying that they may be removed in a future release,
because their use can lead to unintended code being executed.
If you need functionality that only these macros or variables
currently supply, please write bug-autoconf@gnu.org.
** AC_SUBST, AC_DEFINE
Literal arguments to these are passed to m4_pattern_allow now.
** AC_PROG_CC_STDC
Passing 'ac_cv_prog_cc_stdc=no' to 'configure' now sets ac_cv_prog_cc_c99
and ac_cv_prog_cc_c89 to 'no' as well, for backward compatibility with
obsolete K&R tests in the Automake test suite.
** AC_PROG_CXX_C_O
New macro.
** AC_PROG_MKDIR_P
New macro.
** AS_MKDIR_P
Now more robust with special characters in file names, or when
multiple processes create the same directory at the same time.
** Obsolescent macros
The documentation now says that the following macros are obsolescent:
they test for problems that are so old that they are no longer of
practical importance on current systems.
AC_C_BACKSLASH_A AC_FUNC_MEMCMP AC_HEADER_DIRENT
AC_C_CONST AC_FUNC_SELECT_ARGTYPES AC_HEADER_STAT
AC_C_PROTOTYPES AC_FUNC_SETPGRP AC_HEADER_STDC
AC_C_STRINGIZE AC_FUNC_SETVBUF_REVERSED AC_HEADER_SYS_WAIT
AC_C_VOLATILE AC_FUNC_STAT AC_HEADER_TIME
AC_FUNC_CLOSEDIR_VOID AC_FUNC_STRFTIME AC_ISC_POSIX
AC_FUNC_GETPGRP AC_FUNC_UTIME_NULL AC_PROG_GCC_TRADITIONAL
AC_FUNC_LSTAT AC_FUNC_VPRINTF AC_STRUCT_TM
New programs need not use these macros. We have no current plans to
remove them.
** autoreconf
For compatibility with future Libtool 2.0, autoreconf will invoke
libtoolize with the option `--ltdl' now, if LT_CONFIG_LTDL_DIR is
used.
* Major changes in Autoconf 2.59c
Released 2006-04-12, by Ralf Wildenhues.
** 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. As a temporary measure, if any of those are
found but no mention of `datarootdir', the substitutions will be
replaced with values that do not contain `${datarootdir}', and a
warning will be issued.
** @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_CHECK_DECLS_ONCE, AC_CHECK_FUNCS_ONCE, AC_CHECK_HEADERS_ONCE
New "once-only" variants of commonly-used macros, to make 'configure'
smaller and faster in common cases.
** AC_FUNC_STRTOLD
New macro to check for strtold with C99 semantics.
** AC_HEADER_ASSERT
New macro that lets builder disable assertions at 'configure'-time.
** AC_PATH_X
Now checks for X11/Xlib.h and XrmInitialize (X proper) rather than
X11/Intrinsic.h and XtMalloc (Xt).
** AC_PRESERVE_HELP_ORDER
New macro that causes `configure' to display help strings for AC_ARG_ENABLE
and AC_ARG_WITH arguments in one region, in the order defined. The default
behavior is to group options of each classes separately.
** AC_PROG_CC, AC_PROG_CXX
No longer automatically arrange to declare the 'exit' function of C,
when a C++ compiler is used. Standard Autoconf macros no longer use
'exit', so this is no longer an issue for them. If you use C++, and
want to call 'exit', you'll have to arrange for its declaration
yourself. But we now suggest you return from 'main' instead.
** 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_STRUCT_DIRENT_D_INO, AC_STRUCT_DIRENT_D_TYPE
New macros for checking commonly-used members of struct dirent.
** AC_SUBST
The substituted 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.
** AC_TYPE_LONG_DOUBLE, AC_TYPE_LONG_DOUBLE_WIDER
New macros to check for long double, and whether it is wider than double.
The old macro AC_C_TYPE_LONG_DOUBLE has been marked as obsolete;
applications should switch to the new macro.
** AC_TYPE_INT8_T, AC_TYPE_INT16_T, AC_TYPE_INT32_T, AC_TYPE_INT64_T,
AC_TYPE_INTMAX_T, AC_TYPE_INTPTR_T, AC_TYPE_LONG_LONG_INT, AC_TYPE_SSIZE_T,
AC_TYPE_UINT8_T, AC_TYPE_UINT16_T, AC_TYPE_UINT32_T, AC_TYPE_UINT64_T,
AC_TYPE_UINTMAX_T, AC_TYPE_UINTPTR_T, AC_TYPE_UNSIGNED_LONG_LONG_INT
New macros to check for C99 and POSIX types.
** AC_USE_SYSTEM_EXTENSIONS
New macro to enable extensions to Posix.
** AH_HEADER
New macro which is defined to the name of the first declared config header
or undefined if no config headers have been declared yet.
** AS_HELP_STRING
The macro correctly handles quadrigraphs now.
** AS_BOURNE_COMPATIBLE, AS_SHELL_SANITIZE, AS_CASE
These macros are new or published now.
** 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 `${LIBOBJDIR}alloca.o'. LIBOBJDIR is meant to be defined from
`Makefile.in' in case the object files lie in a different directory.
The LIBOBJDIR feature is experimental.
** autoreconf
Supports --no-recursive now.
** New macros to support Erlang/OTP.
New macros for configuring paths to Erlang tools and libraries:
AC_ERLANG_PATH_ERLC, AC_ERLANG_NEED_ERLC, AC_ERLANG_PATH_ERL,
AC_ERLANG_NEED_ERL, AC_ERLANG_CHECK_LIB, AC_ERLANG_SUBST_ROOT_DIR,
AC_ERLANG_SUBST_LIB_DIR.
New macros for configuring installation of Erlang libraries:
AC_ERLANG_SUBST_INSTALL_LIB_DIR, AC_ERLANG_SUBST_INSTALL_LIB_SUBDIR.
** The manual now mentions Gnulib more prominently.
** New macros to support Objective C.
AC_PROG_OBJC, AC_PROG_OBJCPP.
* Major changes in Autoconf 2.59b
Released 2004-08-20, by Paul Eggert.
** AC_CHECK_ALIGNOF
New macro that computes the default alignment of a type.
** AC_CHECK_TOOL, AC_PATH_TOOL, AC_CHECK_TOOLS
When cross-compiling, these macros will give a warning if the tool
is not prefixed. In the future, unprefixed cross tools will not
be detected; please consult the info documentation for information
about the reason of this change.
** AC_CHECK_TARGET_TOOL, AC_PATH_TARGET_TOOL, AC_CHECK_TARGET_TOOLS
New macros that detect programs whose name is prefixed with the
target type, if the build type and target type are different.
** AC_REQUIRE_AUX_FILE
New trace macro that declares expected auxiliary files.
** AC_PROG_GREP
New macro that tests for a grep program that accepts as a long a line
as possible.
** AC_PROG_EGREP, AC_PROG_FGREP
These macros now require AC_PROG_GREP, and try EGREP="$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.
run-time dependency (DEPENDS) on a tool is to append a ":run" modifier
to the tool name, e.g.,
USE_TOOLS+= perl:run
Tools without modifiers or with an explicit ":build" modifier will
cause build dependencies (BUILD_DEPENDS) on those tools to be added.
This makes the notation a bit more compact.
* Major changes in Autoconf 2.59 -*- outline -*-
Released 2003-11-04, by Akim Demaille
** ac_abs_builddir etc.
Absolute paths 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 2.56 -*- outline -*-
Released November 15th, 2002.
One packaging problem fixed (config/install-sh was not executable).
* Major changes in Autoconf 2.55
Released November 14th, 2002.
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 2.57
- ./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.
Summary of changes:
- removal of USE_GTEXINFO
- addition of mk/texinfo.mk
- inclusion of this file in package Makefiles requiring it
- `install-info' substituted by `${INSTALL_INFO}' in PLISTs
- tuning of mk/bsd.pkg.mk:
removal of USE_GTEXINFO
INSTALL_INFO added to PLIST_SUBST
`${INSTALL_INFO}' replace `install-info' in target rules
print-PLIST target now generate `${INSTALL_INFO}' instead of `install-info'
- a couple of new patch files added for a handful of packages
- setting of the TEXINFO_OVERRIDE "switch" in packages Makefiles requiring it
- devel/cssc marked requiring texinfo 4.0
- a couple of packages Makefiles were tuned with respect of INFO_FILES and
makeinfo command usage
See -newly added by this commit- section 10.24 of Packages.txt for
further information.
- 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
- Using autoscan to maintain a configure.ac.
- Fixed Fortran name-mangling and link tests on a number of systems,
e.g. NetBSD; see AC_F77_DUMMY_MAIN, below.
- 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'.
... and many others, esp. bugfixes. Check the docs!
