Re: [PATCH] maint: use a wildcard to include all syntax check exceptions in dist

[Eric Blake]

Jim Meyering <jim <at> meyering.net> writes:

> Yes, I noticed that it worked, too.
> Note that "`... "..." ...`" is not portable
> (see Shell Substitutions in "info autoconf").
> I'm not sure about "$(... "..." ...)".

"$(... "..." ...)" is portable, insofar as $() is portable.  In other words, 
every shell that manages the new style of command substitution manages this 
particular syntax ("`""`" is tougher because of the rules on when embedded " 
must be escaped, while $() gets rid of those escaping ambiguities).  But 
autoconf still recommends against $(), since Solaris /bin/sh still doesn't grok 
it.
 
> > I'll also change the first '$((' to '$( (' so
> > that readers aren't confused with arithmetic expansion.

Also documented in the Autoconf portability section.

-- 
Eric Blake