Re: Broken makefile given Autoconf version mismatch

[Noah Misch]

On Sun, Apr 16, 2006 at 12:58:08PM +0200, Alexandre Duret-Lutz wrote:
> I'm leery of assuming that Autoconf's version will always be at
> this spot in the output of --version.  Sometimes people customize their
> copy and tweak --version to reflect so:
> 
> % gcc --version
> gcc (GCC) 4.0.3 (Debian 4.0.3-1)
> Copyright (C) 2006 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
> This is free software; see the source for copying conditions.  There is NO
> warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
> 
> This sounds legitimate for me.  --version really is a human
> thing in my opinion.

With respect to `--version' output, GNU Coding Standards state, `The first line
is meant to be easy for a program to parse; the version number proper starts
after the last space.'  Customizing `gcc --version' in this way certainly is
common, but it does violate the Coding Standards.