Re: [PATCH] aclocal: handle ACLOCAL_PATH environment variable

[Stefano Lattarini]

On Thursday 04 November 2010, Ralf Wildenhues wrote:
> * Stefano Lattarini wrote on Wed, Nov 03, 2010 at 04:24:51PM CET:
> > On Tuesday 02 November 2010, Paolo Bonzini wrote:
> > > +  # Add any directory listed in the `ACLOCAL_PATH' environment
> > > +  # variable.
> > > +  if (defined $ENV{"ACLOCAL_PATH"})
> > > +    {
> > > +      foreach my $dir (split /:/, $ENV{"ACLOCAL_PATH"})
> 
> > Shouldn't we use address@hidden@' here instead of `:', for better
> > portability to windows?
> 
> The last time this was proposed somebody remarked that it may not be
> best design to make semantics dependent on which shell is used (e.g.,
> using MinGW once with MSYS and the other time with COMMAND.COM means
> differing separators).
Why?  Shouldn't the shell always use `;' as PATH-seperator on Windows?
Using `:' seems like a mistake, since if prevents adding directories with
absolute paths like `C:\foo' to PATH.
> Now, it's not likely that automake is used from the latter, but still.
Hmm... I think I'm missing something fundamental here, as I still don't
understand why this situation should be problematic.  Anyone can help
me to better understand the issue?
 
> I thought of "the separator is `:' unless `;' is used anywhere, in which
> case that is to be used as separator".  Sucks a bit too,
IMHO yes.
> though, if you want to pass only one directory.  :-/

Thanks,
   Stefano