Re: [PATCHv4] _AC_DO _AC_DO_STDERR: Evaluate argument twice

[Zack Weinberg]

On Sun, Dec 6, 2020 at 2:51 AM Nikolai Merinov
<nikolai.merinov@member.fsf.org> wrote:
>
> I already supplied this patch in March this year but did not get
> feedback yet. Currently I updated patch according to actual autoconf
> code. Could you please review it once again?

Thank you for reminding us about your contribution.

I regret to say that this change is too risky to accept two days
before the planned 2.70 release.  Also, In order to accept it, we
would need you to file a copyright assignment for Autoconf.  If you
have already done this just say so; otherwise please read and follow
the instructions at
https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/gnulib.git/tree/doc/Copyright/request-assign.future
.  Cite this patch (by URL in the autoconf-patches email archive)
under "what changes have you made so far."

Please also file a tracking bug for this change at
https://savannah.gnu.org/support/?func=additem&group=autoconf so we
don't forget about it again.

Finally, I haven't reviewed the code in detail but I would like to see
more comprehensive tests. Right now you're only testing one word in
quotes in CFLAGS; blindly stripping the quotes would do the right
thing.  If I understand your goal correctly, you should be testing
things like `configure CC="cc -std=c89"` and
`CPPFLAGS="-Dfunction_like_macro(with, arguments)=..."` (put something
in the ... that actually uses the arguments).  Please also try to
think of situations where double evaluation would do the *wrong*
thing; that will help us understand the potential negative
consequences of this change.

zw