Re: autoconf and OS/2

[Paul Eggert]

> From: Andreas Buening <address@hidden>
> Date: Thu, 27 Sep 2001 21:45:50 +0200
> 
> 1) The included mkinstalldirs doesn't work if the directory
>    name contains a drive letter, e.g. mkinstalldirs x:/dir.
>    The reason is the following code line which is used twice
>    in mkinstalldirs:
> 
>    if test ! -d "$pathcomp"; then
> 
>    This doesn't work if $pathcomp is a drive letter
>    because "x:" is no directory. ("cp foo x:" e.g. will
>    copy "foo" to the current directory of x: whatever this
>    may be for the current process).

Hmm, then why isn't "x:" a directory?  This seems to me to be a bug in
"test" on your platform.  If "x:" evaluates to the working directory
of drive x, then "test -d x:" ought to succeed.

However, this point may be moot now that mkinstalldirs uses mkdir -p.
If mkdir -p works on your platform, the test ! -d stuff will never be
executed, and so it's not worth worrying about.  See:
http://sources.redhat.com/cgi-bin/cvsweb.cgi/~checkout~/automake/lib/mkinstalldirs?rev=1.8&content-type=text/plain&cvsroot=automake


> +# Note: x: is also treated as an absolute path, so --prefix=x: is
> allowed.

I don't understand this point.  "x:" is a relative path, just as "x:y"
is.  Which directory "x:" stands for depends on the runtime context.
So "x:" shouldn't be treated as absolute, any more than "x:y" or "y"
should be treated as absolute.

> 3) if config.guess and/or config.sub fail there could be
>    a message where to download a new copy of these files, e.g.:

That's a good suggestion.

> 4) Backslashes in $PATH do not work,

There are many, many places where backslashes in $PATH will not work.
Not to mention commas, newlines, or probably several other characters.
In theory it would be nice to allow arbitrary characters in $PATH; but
in practice, it's probably better to document the current restrictions,
as there are more pressing things to worry about.