Re: [PATCH 07/12] use a shell function for AC_CHECK_HEADER

[Ralf Wildenhues]

Hi Paolo,

* Paolo Bonzini wrote on Mon, Oct 27, 2008 at 11:16:12PM CET:
> Ralf Wildenhues wrote:
> > It looks to me like overall, the shell function changes will make user
> > code even more reliant on correct M4 quotation than before.
> 
> Why?

Because the changes introduce more elaborate M4 constructions overall,
relying more on correct user-side quoting than was needed before.
At least that's my impression, I do not have hard data for this.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to criticize.  The move to shell
function is worth much more than trying to forever support broken
user scripts.  However, it should be very clear that the next Autoconf
release quite necessarily is a less stable one for users than the last
one, even if it all it causes is to uncover some more latent issues
in user's configure.ac and .m4 macro files.  Long-term, that can only
be a good thing.

>  Anyway, shell functions will have to be mentioned in NEWS.

Certainly.

Cheers,
Ralf