From: Akim Demaille <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: 03 Mar 2000 09:41:51 +0100
I would like to understand why there are three `rm' while one seems
way enough. It seems like the author took a special care to remove
the conftest files before the user can touch them.
I don't know. This is a guess.
$2 and $3 in AC_TRY_CPP may contain autoconf macros. I assume that
removing conftest before invoking them is simply to make autoconf
macros more reliable. Some autoconf tests care just which conftest
files there are; e.g., AC_EXEEXT. Of course, those tests should be
careful to remove conftest files first, but they might not. Ensuring
that these tests start with a clean slate may help them work.
This may have particular application to compilers like the one on some
version of SCO3.2, which would use temporary files with the same name
as the file you are compiling--in this case, conftest.
It's not a terribly strong argument.
And then, why should AC_TRY_RUN_NATIVE (hence AC_TRY_COMPILE too) have
a special permission? It is used for AC_CHECK_SIZEOF.
Probably because the above thinking led to a standard approach, which
was then overridden, for convenience, when AC_CHECK_SIZEOF was
implemented.
Ian
