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Re: $(.FOO) documentation confusion


From: Paul Eggert
Subject: Re: $(.FOO) documentation confusion
Date: Fri, 16 Jun 2006 04:43:21 -0700
User-agent: Gnus/5.1008 (Gnus v5.10.8) Emacs/21.4 (gnu/linux)

Stepan Kasal <address@hidden> writes:

> I think that the manual would be clearer if the menu line were
> changed to:
>
> * Special Chars in Names::      Special Characters in Macro Names

Thanks.  I installed this.  It also bumps the M4 version number
recommended.  1.4.4 has a bug fix re missing files that I'd like to
see in there.  This should be two separate patches but I edited
autoconf.texi twice by mistake.

2006-06-16  Paul Eggert  <address@hidden>

        * README: Recomment m4 1.4.4 instead of 1.4.3..
        * doc/autoconf.texi: Likewise.
        (Special Chars in Names): Say that $(.FOO) is portable, as
        suggested by Stepan Kasal.

--- README      8 Jun 2005 07:13:50 -0000       1.23
+++ README      16 Jun 2006 11:41:02 -0000
@@ -11,15 +11,15 @@ operating system features that the packa
 macro calls.
 
 Producing configuration scripts using Autoconf requires GNU M4 and
-Perl.  You must install GNU M4 (version 1.4.3 or later) and Perl (5.005_03
+Perl.  You must install GNU M4 (version 1.4.4 or later) and Perl (5.005_03
 or later) before configuring Autoconf, so that Autoconf's configure
 script can find them.  The configuration scripts produced by Autoconf
 are self-contained, so their users do not need to have Autoconf (or
 GNU M4, Perl, etc.).
 
-You can get GNU M4 1.4.3 here:
+You can get GNU M4 1.4.4 here:
 
-ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/m4/m4-1.4.3.tar.gz
+ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/m4/m4-1.4.4.tar.gz
 
 The file INSTALL should be distributed with packages that use
 Autoconf-generated configure scripts and Makefiles that conform to the
@@ -41,7 +41,7 @@ similarly for the other mailing lists.
 -----
 
 Copyright (C) 1992, 1993, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004,
-2005 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
+2005, 2006 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
 
 This file is part of GNU Autoconf.
 
--- doc/autoconf.texi   15 Jun 2006 13:20:05 -0000      1.1049
+++ doc/autoconf.texi   16 Jun 2006 11:41:02 -0000
@@ -484,7 +484,7 @@ Portable Make Programming
 
 * $< in Ordinary Make Rules::   $< in ordinary rules
 * Failure in Make Rules::       Failing portably in rules
-* Special Chars in Names::      $(.FOO), $(_FOO), $(007), etc.
+* Special Chars in Names::      Special Characters in Macro Names
 * Backslash-Newline-Newline::   Empty last lines in macro definitions
 * Backslash-Newline Comments::  Spanning comments across line boundaries
 * Long Lines in Makefiles::     Line length limitations
@@ -689,7 +689,7 @@ Autoconf imposes some restrictions on th
 
 Autoconf requires @acronym{GNU} M4 in order to generate the scripts.  It uses
 features that some versions of M4, including @acronym{GNU} M4 1.3,
-do not have.  You should use version 1.4.3 or later of @acronym{GNU} M4.
+do not have.  You should use version 1.4.4 or later of @acronym{GNU} M4.
 
 @xref{Autoconf 1}, for information about upgrading from version 1.
 @xref{History}, for the story of Autoconf's development.  @xref{FAQ},
@@ -13617,7 +13617,7 @@ itself.
 @menu
 * $< in Ordinary Make Rules::   $< in ordinary rules
 * Failure in Make Rules::       Failing portably in rules
-* Special Chars in Names::      $(.FOO), $(_FOO), $(007), etc.
+* Special Chars in Names::      Special Characters in Macro Names
 * Backslash-Newline-Newline::   Empty last lines in macro definitions
 * Backslash-Newline Comments::  Spanning comments across line boundaries
 * Long Lines in Makefiles::     Line length limitations
@@ -13667,7 +13667,8 @@ complicated @command{make} actions into 
 Posix limits macro names to nonempty strings containing only
 @acronym{ASCII} letters and digits, @samp{.}, and @samp{_}.  Many
 @command{make} implementations allow a wider variety of characters, but
-portable makefiles should avoid them.
+portable makefiles should avoid them.  It is portable to start a name
+with a special character, e.g., @samp{$(.FOO)}.
 
 Some ancient @command{make} implementations don't support leading
 underscores in macro names.  An example is @acronym{NEWS-OS} 4.2R.
@@ -18009,7 +18010,7 @@ __file__
 __line__
 @end example
 
-Autoconf requires version 1.4.3 or later of @acronym{GNU} M4.
+Autoconf requires version 1.4.4 or later of @acronym{GNU} M4.
 
 Since only software maintainers need to use Autoconf, and since @acronym{GNU}
 M4 is simple to configure and install, it seems reasonable to require




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