John D. Burger writes: > I have what I think is a style question: > > If I want to do something with the results of autoconf tests in my > configure script, what's the best way to check these results? For > instance, say I'd like to do this: > > AC_CHECK_LIB(norman, snStackPush) > AC_CHECK_HEADERS([norman.h]) > > # Gripe if neither the library nor the header is around > > if test $SOME_VAR = no && test $SOME_OTHER_VAR = no; then > AC_MSG_WARN([$PACKAGE requires libnorman]) > fi > > My question is, are SOME_VAR and SOME_OTHER_VAR things I should set > myself in the optional arguments to the AC_CHECK macros, or should I use > cache variables? I'm uneasy about using the latter, because I've had > trouble predicting the names of some macros' cache vars, and having to > slog through the generated configure > script makes me think I'm doing something wrong.
The names are fairly obvious, and there's a section in the autoconf manual that explains them (Results of Tests->Caching Results->Cache Variable Names). But you don't need to do it this way. If you check the documentation for AC_CHECK_LIB() and AC_CHECK_HEADERS(), you'll find that they can be used to execute stuff if your particular header/lib is not found. E.g. AC_CHECK_LIB(norman, snStackPush, AC_CHECK_HEADERS(norman.h,,AC_MSG_WARN(norman.h not found)), AC_MSG_WARN(snStackPush not found in libnorman) ) You can do more in the ACTION-IF-FOUND/ACTION-IF-NOT-FOUND parts, but then you should enclose these parts in [], resp.
