Re: config files substitution with awk

[Paul Eggert]

Ralf Wildenhues <address@hidden> writes:

> It helps to keep m4 from expanding $0, without needing to think about
> level of m4 quotation currently in place.  AFAIK it's portable.

Yes, I just checked the Unix Version 7 sources, and it seems to have
worked there. 

> I am still pondering abandoning sub completely though, and using substr
> and length to do the replacement manually, due to the \& escaping
> issues.

Sounds like it might be a win.

> Also I wonder how to get around this limitation (autoconf.texi):
> |      Traditional Awk `split' supports only two arguments.

That part of autoconf.texi seems to be incorrect.  Sorry about that.
The Unix V7 grammar for awk says 'split' takes either two or three
arguments.  I don't now remember why I put that statement into the
manual; I should remove it.