Re: AS_DIRNAME

[Eric Blake]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

According to Eric Blake on 9/30/2009 5:20 AM:
> According to Ralf Wildenhues on 9/29/2009 11:49 PM:
>> I think we should document AS_DIRNAME, not doing so was probably an
>> omission, esp. since it is mentioned a couple of times in the manual.
> 
> At one point it was documented.  Then later, we pulled the documentation,
> since the interface is less than ideal (it doesn't handle trailing
> newlines, although those are rare); a better interface would start
> searching for shells that support the POSIX feature of ${var%/*}, so we
> don't even have to fork to implement this on decent machines.

Well, I haven't improved the implementation for 2.65; that will have to be
a later release.  But I have restored the documentation (sorry that it
took me a month).

- --
Don't work too hard, make some time for fun as well!

Eric Blake             address@hidden
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.9 (Cygwin)
Comment: Public key at home.comcast.net/~ericblake/eblake.gpg
Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org/

iEYEARECAAYFAkryPE0ACgkQ84KuGfSFAYD7ygCeMdQmUj2ywdny1bv+zvsqgy6Q
E+EAoLO5kOpaChh5FqivZ5aY9JMnFQ6z
=ldXl
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

>From 9d6e4a750dff8023e03ee30277bfa9016e9cd523 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Eric Blake <address@hidden>
Date: Wed, 4 Nov 2009 19:44:38 -0700
Subject: [PATCH] Redocument AS_DIRNAME, even with its flaws.

* doc/autoconf.texi (Common Shell Constructs) <AS_DIRNAME>:
Restore documenatation, since dirname mentions it.
Reported by Peter Johansson.

Signed-off-by: Eric Blake <address@hidden>
---
 ChangeLog         |    5 +++++
 doc/autoconf.texi |    5 +++--
 2 files changed, 8 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index e216f92..4d028c0 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -1,5 +1,10 @@
 2009-11-04  Eric Blake  <address@hidden>

+       Redocument AS_DIRNAME, even with its flaws.
+       * doc/autoconf.texi (Common Shell Constructs) <AS_DIRNAME>:
+       Restore documenatation, since dirname mentions it.
+       Reported by Peter Johansson.
+
        Update upstream files.
        * build-aux/announce-gen: Synchronize from upstream.
        * build-aux/config.guess: Likewise.
diff --git a/doc/autoconf.texi b/doc/autoconf.texi
index 7ca8771..0177831 100644
--- a/doc/autoconf.texi
+++ b/doc/autoconf.texi
@@ -12964,14 +12964,15 @@ Common Shell Constructs
 @end defmac

 @c Deprecated, to be replaced by a better API
address@hidden
 @defmac AS_DIRNAME (@var{file-name})
 @asindex{DIRNAME}
 Output the directory portion of @var{file-name}.  For example,
 if @code{$file} is @samp{/one/two/three}, the command
 @code{dir=`AS_DIRNAME(["$file"])`} sets @code{dir} to @samp{/one/two}.
+
+This interface may be improved in the future to avoid forks and losing
+trailing newlines.
 @end defmac
address@hidden ignore

 @defmac AS_ECHO (@var{word})
 @asindex{ECHO}
-- 
1.6.5.rc1