Re: Requirements: configuration test dependencies

[Tom Tromey]

>> FWIW: this is one of the things that Metaconf (the package used to
>> build Perl-style Configure scripts) does better than autoconf.  When
>> you write a Metaconf test, you include dependencies.  Metaconf
>> extracts these, and builds a Makefile that is used to build the
>> resulting Configure script.

Alexandre> Aren't AC_REQUIRE and AC_BEFORE supposed to fulfill these
Alexandre> needs?

That's a bit different.  AC_REQUIRE and AC_BEFORE give you an error if
you mess up.  Metaconf instead orders the tests properly.

And, anyway, AC_REQUIRE and AC_BEFORE have limitations which make it
impossible to do certain things with them.

Tom