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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