Autoconf 2.52i is released

[Akim Demaille]

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@,
  @address@hidden

** 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  <address@hidden>

        Version 2.52i.

2002-03-04  Akim Demaille  <address@hidden>

        * 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  <address@hidden>

        * lib/freeze.mk ($(build_libdir)/m4sugar/version.m4): New, for
        parallel builds.

2002-03-04  Akim Demaille  <address@hidden>

        * 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  <address@hidden>

        * 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  <address@hidden>

        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  <address@hidden>

        * doc/autoconf.texi (Changequote is Evil): New.

2002-03-03  Kevin Ryde  <address@hidden>

        * doc/autoconf.texi (Portable Shell): Mention 32-byte #! length limit
        on old systems like SunOS.

2002-03-01  Peter Eisentraut  <address@hidden>

        * 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  <address@hidden>

        * lib/autotest/general.m4 (AT_INIT): Suggest a title to the
        message to be sent.

2002-02-28  Kevin Ryde  <address@hidden>

        * doc/autoconf.texi (Function Portability): Add va_copy and va_list.

2002-02-25  Akim Demaille  <address@hidden>

        * lib/autoconf/functions.m4 (AC_FUNC_SETPGRP): Fix the test.
        From Akinori Musha.

2002-02-13  Alexandre Duret-Lutz  <address@hidden>

        * lib/Autom4te/XFile.pm (getline, getlines): New functions,
        translate \r\n to \n.