* 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.
- 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!
To cite announce on freshmeat for Changes:
Various bugfixes and enhancements collected during the past two years
since the last release. Way too many to mention them all here. The
ChangeLog is included in the package.
