Bruno Haible <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > libtool.m4 also tries other workarounds: searching for an 'echo' program > in $PATH:/usr/ucb (but how is this better than 'cat'?) or using a built-in > 'print -r' command (which shells except ksh have this?) or using 'printf' > (is that portable nowadays?).
I think printf is portable nowadays, at least to the platforms that gnulib-tool is likely to run on. One advantage of using printf is that it won't mishandle a string that happens to equal "-n". Autoconf prefers "printf" in its "echo" substitute. (The substitute purposely does not treat "-n" specially; "-n" is just another string, which is The Right Thing, usually.) Autoconf falls back on some other stuff if 'printf' doesn't work, but I doubt whether that matters for gnulib-tool purposes.
