The Autoconf team -- Akim, Alexandre, Jim, Paul, and Tom -- is happy to annonce the second beta of forthcoming Autoconf 2.55. Download, compile, install, torture, and enjoy!
- Why should I upgrade from 2.54? A few bug fixes, improved portability, no known incompatibility with 2.54 and 2.55, forthcoming Gettext release might require 2.55. Running `autoreconf -fv' should be enough. - Why should I upgrade from 2.13? This version is no longer maintained. It does not address recent architectures, recent compilers etc. We know that upgrading from 2.13 to 2.5x is not an easy task, especially because the Autoconf 2.13 was extremely tolerant to incorrect macro invocations, but waiting longer endangers the portability of your package and only delays the conversation to newer Autoconf versions. Worse: some maintainers now spend a significant amount of time fixing bugs in 2.13 or backporting macros from 2.55. - Where can I find it? ftp://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/autoconf/autoconf-2.54c.tar.gz (1.1 MB) ftp://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/autoconf/autoconf-2.54c.tar.bz2 (792 KB) And here are xdelta-style diffs ftp://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/autoconf/autoconf-2.54b-2.54c.xdelta (17 KB) Here are the MD5 and SHA1 signatures: ab431fb26babf82de8fda486afb94350 autoconf-2.54c.tar.gz db32dbbcd1bf2f8ca7713faa58bc905e autoconf-2.54c.tar.bz2 39bdbfc39b0581bda303e3b42a550714 autoconf-2.54b-2.54c.xdelta 807d67c59445ddac573dd8c9a42ac668b83020f0 autoconf-2.54c.tar.gz 9968922141aaf313ed145fe19d27669fd5f89189 autoconf-2.54c.tar.bz2 dd01917057f9f456e96259734ebc56a2b22f11ef autoconf-2.54b-2.54c.xdelta NEWS: Release tips: Have your configure.ac checked by autoscan ("autoscan"). Try the warning options ("autoreconf -fv -Wall"). ** Documentation - AC_CHECK_HEADER, AC_CHECK_HEADERS More information on proper use. - Writing Test Programs This sections explains how to write good test sources to use with AC_COMPILE_IFELSE etc. It documents AC_LANG_PROGRAMS and so forth. - AC_FOO_IFELSE vs. AC_TRY_FOO Explains why Autoconf moves from AC_TRY_COMPILE etc. to AC_COMPILE_IFELSE and AC_LANG_PROGRAM etc. ** autoreconf - Is more robust to different Gettext installations. - Produces messages (when --verbose) to be understood by Emacs' compile mode. - Supports -W/--warnings. - -m/--make Once the GNU Build System reinstalled, run `./config.status --recheck && ./config.status && make' if possible. ** autom4te - Supports --cache, and --no-cache. - ~/.autom4te.cfg makes it possible to disable the caching mechanism (autom4te.cache). See `Customizing autom4te' in the documentation. ** Obsolete options Support for the obsoleted options -m, --macrodir, -l, --localdir is dropped in favor of the safer --include/--prepend-include scheme. ** Macros - New macros AC_COMPILER_IFELSE, AC_FUNC_MBRTOWC, AC_HEADER_STDBOOL, AC_LANG_CONFTEST, AC_LANG_SOURCE, AC_LANG_PROGRAM, AC_LANG_CALL, AC_LANG_FUNC_TRY_LINK, AC_MSG_FAILURE, AC_PREPROC_IFELSE. - Obsoleted Obsoleted macros are kept for Autoconf backward compatibility, but should be avoided in configure.ac. Running autoupdate is advised. AC_DECL_SYS_SIGLIST. ** Bug Fixes - Portability of the Autoconf package to Solaris. - Spurious warnings caused by config.status. This bug is benign, but painful: on some systems (typically FreeBSD), warnings such as: config.status: creating Makefile mv: Makefile: set owner/group (was: 1357/0): Operation not permitted could be issued. This is fixed. - Parallel Builds Simultaneous executions of config.status are possible again. - Precious variables accumulation config.status could stack several copies of the precious variables assignments. ** Plans for 2.56 - ./configure <host> The compatibility hooks with the old scheme will be completely removed. Please, advice/use `--build', `--host', and `--target' only. - AC_CHECK_HEADER, AC_CHECK_HEADERS The tests will be stricter, please make sure your invocations are valid. - shell functions Shell functions will gradually be introduced, probably starting with Autotest. If you know machines which are in use that you suspect *not* to support shell functions, please run the test suite of Autoconf 2.55 on it, and report the results to [EMAIL PROTECTED] ChangeLog entries: ********************************************************************** ChangeLog 4 Nov 2002 08:47:39 -0000 1.2092 ********************************************************************** 2002-11-04 Akim Demaille <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Version 2.54c. * Makefile.maint (update, cvs-update, po-update, do-po-update): New. * config/texinfo.tex: Update. 2002-11-03 Akim Demaille <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> * bin/autoreconf.in (&autoreconf_current_directory): New, extracted from... (&autoreconf): here. ($help, $make, &parse_args, &autoreconf_current_directory): Support -m/--make. * doc/autoconf.texi (autoreconf Invocation): Adjust. 2002-10-31 Bruno Haible <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> * lib/autoconf/functions.m4 (_AC_FUNC_MALLOC_IF): Change message. Change name of cache variable to ac_cv_func_malloc_0_nonnull. (AC_FUNC_MALLOC): Change description of HAVE_MALLOC macro. (_AC_FUNC_REALLOC_IF): Change message. Change name of cache variable to ac_cv_func_realloc_0_nonnull. (AC_FUNC_REALLOC): Change description of HAVE_REALLOC macro. 2002-10-31 Akim Demaille <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> The test suite was no longer checking for trailing envvars and files. * tests/atspecific.m4 (AC_STATE_SAVE): Don't use quadrigraphs here. (AT_CHECK_ENV): Make sure the `state-ls.before file exists. 2002-10-31 Akim Demaille <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> * lib/autoconf/programs.m4 (AC_PROG_MAKE_SET): Use and display `$(MAKE)' instead of '${MAKE}' to emphasize that we refer to the Make variable, not a shell variable. Suggested by Bruno Haible. 2002-10-31 Akim Demaille <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> * bin/autom4te.in (load_configuration): Reject #args out of any language. 2002-10-31 Akim Demaille <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> * lib/autoconf/general.m4 (_AC_MSG_LOG_CONFTEST): New. (_AC_PREPROC_IFELSE, _AC_COMPILE_IFELSE, _AC_LINK_IFELSE) (_AC_RUN_IFELSE): Use it. * lib/autoconf/lang.m4 (_AC_COMPILER_OBJEXT): (_AC_COMPILER_EXEEXT_DEFAULT): Likewise. * lib/autoconf/c.m4 (AC_LANG_SOURCE): Don't include confdefs.h, inline it. 2002-10-30 Akim Demaille <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> * bin/autom4te.in (&parse_args, $help): Support --no-cache. * doc/autoconf.texi (autom4te Invocation): Adjust. Suggested by Tim van Holder. 2002-10-29 Paul Eggert <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> * doc/autoconf.texi (Particular Functions): AC_FUNC_MALLOC and AC_FUNC_REALLOC check for compatibility with glibc, not POSIX. Problem reported by Bruno Haible. 2002-10-29 Akim Demaille <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> * doc/autoconf.texi (Header Templates): Put also in words what the pictures says to assist free style readers. (Customizing autom4te): s/--cache=/--cache /. 2002-10-29 Akim Demaille <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> * lib/autoconf/functions.m4 (_AC_FUNC_VFORK): Include stdlib.h and sys/wait.h. sparc_address_test returns void. Use it with an argument, as prototyped. From Bruno Haible. 2002-10-29 Akim Demaille <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> * doc/autoconf.texi (Subdirectories): Cygnus dirs have configure.in, not configure.ac. Reported by Bruno Haible. 2002-10-29 Akim Demaille <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> * tests/torture.at (Deep Package): New test. (Configuring subdirectories): Don't use a testSubDir as Autotest now does it itself. 2002-10-29 Akim Demaille <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> * bin/autoreconf.in (&parse_args, $help): Support --warnings. * doc/autoconf.texi (Invoking autom4te): Rename as... (autom4te Invocation): this, for consistency with the other nodes. 2002-10-29 Akim Demaille <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> * lib/autom4te.in (Autoconf): s/automate/autom4te/. Reported by Ralf Corsepius. 2002-10-29 Akim Demaille <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> * lib/m4sugar/m4sh.m4 (_AS_QUOTE): The warning about quoted characters is a back as an `obsolete' warning now. Reported by Ralf Corsepius. 2002-10-28 Akim Demaille <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> * configure.ac: Bump to 2.54c. Deprecate macros with unusual interfaces.
