Re: Patch to check for required programs when building from source checkout

[Jim Meyering]

Eric Blake <address@hidden> wrote:
> According to Jim Meyering on 10/14/2008 7:13 AM:
>> Oh!  I was using a just-too-old (pre-7.0) version there.
>> Thanks for checking and keeping me honest.
>> IMHO this means automake is muddying the waters by giving
>> something-newer-than automake-1.10.1 the version string "1.10a".
>
> On the other hand, autoconf's m4_version_compare (which is what automake
> uses to determine if you are using a new enough version, when you request
> 1.10a), treats 1.10a > 1.10.1.  In other words, 1.10a is the alpha in
> preparation for 1.11, while 1.10.1 is the .1 patch release in the older
> 1.10 series.  Maybe this is a bug in filevercmp?

I think you're right.
And it's not automake that's muddying the waters ;-)
If filevercmp has to choose between conflicting standards,
going with what automake and m4 use sounds like the preferred choice.