This is our release candidate. Please, test it sorely. If no regression is found as compared to 2.52, Autoconf 2.53 should be released soon.
A special thanks to all the people who helped making this release. ftp://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/autoconf/autoconf-2.52i.tar.gz (967 kB) ftp://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/autoconf/autoconf-2.52i.tar.bz2 (740 kB) And here are xdelta-style diffs ftp://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/autoconf/autoconf-2.52h-2.52i.xdelta (23 kB) Here are the MD5 and SHA1 signatures for the compressed tar files: b215f656372950844d3b04d40b7c0b8b autoconf-2.52i.tar.gz 77d0b398554eec369fd58527a9953c99 autoconf-2.52i.tar.bz2 9ccd1f140f70ddec67270a26bd5940673c1a33a7 autoconf-2.52i.tar.gz 151e1cf9b35097ad32577589166e868e17b0a01d autoconf-2.52i.tar.bz2 NEWS: * Major changes in Autoconf 2.52i -*- outline -*- ** Requirements Perl 5.005_03 or later is required: autom4te is written in Perl and is needed by autoconf. autoheader, autoreconf, ifnames, and autoscan are rewritten in Perl. ** Documentation - AC_INIT Argument requirements, output variables, defined macros. - M4sugar, M4sh, Autotest First sketch. - Double quoting macros AC_TRY_CPP, AC_TRY_COMPILE, AC_TRY_LINK and AC_TRY_RUN. - Licensing The Autoconf manual is now distributed under the terms of the GNU FDL. - Section `Hosts and Cross-Compilation' Explains the rationale for the 2.5x changes in the cross-compilation chain, and in the relationships between build, host, and target types. Emphasizes that `cross-compilation' == `--host is given'. If you are working on compilers etc., be sure to read this section. - Section `AC_LIBOBJ vs. LIBOBJS' Explains why assigning LIBOBJS directly is now an error. Details how to update the code. ** configure - $LINENO Now used instead of hard coded line numbers. This eases the comparison of `configure's, and diminishes the pressure over control version archives. Automatic replacement for shells that don't support this feature. - New output variables @builddir@, @top_builddir@, @abs_srcdir@, @abs_top_srcdir@, @abs_builddir@, @abs_top_builddir@. ** Emacs Autoconf and Autotest modes are provided. ** Executables - autom4te New, used by the Autoconf suite to cache and speed up most processing. - --force, -f Supported by autom4te, autoconf and autoheader. - --include, -I Replaces --autoconf-dir and --localdir in autoconf, autoheader, autoupdate, and autoreconf. - autoreconf No longer passes --cygnus, --foreign, --gnits, --gnu, --include-deps: automake options are to be given via AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS. - autoreconf Runs gettextize and libtoolize when appropriate. - autoreconf --m4dir is no longer supported. - autoreconf Now runs only in the specified directories, defaulting to `.', but understands AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS for dependent directories. Before, it used to run on all the `configure.ac' found in the current tree. Independent packages are properly updated. ** Bug fixes - The top level $prefix is propagated to the AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS configures. - AC_TRY_RUN Under the user pressure, $? is finally available. Probably a mistake. - AC_F77_LIBRARY_LDFLAGS now supports the HP/UX f90 compiler. - Precious variables accumulation config.status could stack several copies of the precious variables assignments. - AC_PATH_PROG and family. Works properly when given a literal path. - AC_FUNC_SETPGRP Somewhere since 2.13, the result had been reversed. ** C Macros - AC_C_BIGENDIAN supports the cross-compiling case. - AC_C_BIGENDIAN accepts ACTION-IF-TRUE, ACTION-IF-FALSE, and ACTION-IF-UNKNOWN arguments. All are facultative, and the default for ACTION-IF-TRUE is to define WORDS_BIGENDIAN like AC_C_BIGENDIAN always did. - AC_C_LONG_DOUBLE now succeeds only if `long double' has more range or precision than `double'. ** Generic macros - AC_INIT It now defines the preprocessor symbols PACKAGE_NAME, PACKAGE_TARNAME, PACKAGE_VERSION, PACKAGE_STRING, and PACKAGE_BUGREPORT. - AC_INIT Admits a fourth optional parameter: the tar name. - AC_CONFIG_COMMANDS, HEADERS, FILES, LINKS. Provide the user with srcdir, ac_srcdir, ac_top_srcdir, ac_builddir, ac_top_builddir, ac_abs_srcdir, ac_abs_top_srcdir, ac_abs_builddir, ac_abs_top_builddir. - AC_CONFIG_COMMANDS, HEADERS, FILES, LINKS and AC_OUTPUT. Are much less expensive when using long lists of files. - AC_PREFIX_PROGRAM Works with shell variables, and non alphanumeric names. ** Library macros - AC_FUNC_STRERROR_R now sets STRERROR_R_CHAR_P, not HAVE_WORKING_STRERROR_R, because POSIX 1003.1-200x draft 7 says strerror_r returns int, not char *. - AC_FUNC_STRTOD substitutes POW_LIB. - AC_FUNC_STRNLEN New. ChangeLog entries: ********************************************************************** ChangeLog 5 Mar 2002 08:42:27 -0000 1.1862 ********************************************************************** 2002-03-05 Akim Demaille <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Version 2.52i. 2002-03-04 Akim Demaille <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> * doc/autoconf.texi (AC_LIBOBJ vs. LIBOBJS): New. * lib/autoconf/general.m4 (AC_INIT): More informative error message for LIBOBJ. 2002-03-04 Akim Demaille <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> * lib/freeze.mk ($(build_libdir)/m4sugar/version.m4): New, for parallel builds. 2002-03-04 Akim Demaille <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> * doc/autoconf.texi (Transforming Names): Equality between target and host is irrelevant. (Specifying Names, Canonicalizing): Remove all references to the backward compatibility hooks. Rather, collect them all into... (Hosts and Cross-Compilation): this new section. * doc/install.texi (System Type): Ditto. * lib/autoconf/general.m4 (AC_CANONICAL_HOST): Explicitly state that `--host' implies cross-compilation. 2002-03-04 Akim Demaille <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> * doc/autoconf.texi (Evaluation Macros): New. * lib/m4sugar/m4sugar.m4 (m4_lquote): Remove, it is totally useless. (_m4_foreach): Define the variant with immediate evaluation so that it contains exactly the items, not an expression which evaluation is the current item. (m4_re_string, m4_re_word): Don't over quote them. 2002-03-04 Akim Demaille <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Instead of having stacking `shift's evaluated at the end, let `foreach' loops immediately evaluate them. * lib/m4sugar/m4sugar.m4 (m4_quote, m4_dquote): Use $@ rather than $*. This is the n-th time I change my mind, but hopefully this is the last... (m4_lquote): New. (m4_text_wrap): Use m4_foreach, which is finally correct _and_ efficient. (m4_foreach_quoted, m4_car_quoted, _m4_foreach_quoted): Remove, as it was only a hack for m4_text_wrap. (m4_car2): Remove, replaced by... (m4_cdr): New. (_m4_foreach): Adjust. * lib/autoconf/general.m4 (_AC_INIT_PREPARE): Adjust, and use m4_bpatsubst for clarification. 2002-03-04 Akim Demaille <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> * doc/autoconf.texi (Changequote is Evil): New. 2002-03-03 Kevin Ryde <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> * doc/autoconf.texi (Portable Shell): Mention 32-byte #! length limit on old systems like SunOS. 2002-03-01 Peter Eisentraut <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> * lib/autoconf/c.m4, lib/autoconf/fortran.m4, lib/autoconf/functions.m4, lib/autoconf/general.m4, lib/autoconf/headers.m4, lib/autoconf/lang.m4, lib/autoconf/programs.m4, lib/autoconf/status.m4: Improve spelling of messages. 2002-02-28 Akim Demaille <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> * lib/autotest/general.m4 (AT_INIT): Suggest a title to the message to be sent. 2002-02-28 Kevin Ryde <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> * doc/autoconf.texi (Function Portability): Add va_copy and va_list. 2002-02-25 Akim Demaille <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> * lib/autoconf/functions.m4 (AC_FUNC_SETPGRP): Fix the test. From Akinori Musha. 2002-02-13 Alexandre Duret-Lutz <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> * lib/Autom4te/XFile.pm (getline, getlines): New functions, translate \r\n to \n.
