AC_CHECK_LIB, C++ and the use of main

[Patrik Jonsson]

Hi,

A while ago I wanted to find out how to check for C++ libraries using
autoconf, and came across this old post from the archives:

>On Thu, Mar 28, 2002 at 07:13:14PM -0500, Allan Clark wrote:
>
>> How do I make a AC_CHECK_LIB for a C++ library?
>>
>> My example looks for cgi_base::configureForServer on different systems
>> like this:
>> > AC_CHECK_LIB(cgi, configureForServer__8cgi_basePci)
>> > AC_CHECK_LIB(cgi, configureForServer__8cgi_baseFPci)
>
>First do AC_LANG_CPLUSPLUS (or the equivalent) to switch to compiling >in
>C++).
>
>Then you can simply do :
>
>AC_CHECK_LIB(cgi, main)
>
>(yes, using "main" works - it's a special value in this context).


I've used this happily until now. What this test seems to do is try a
program like the following:

int
main ()
{
return main ();
  ;
  return 0;
}


The problem is that this is illegal in ISO C++. gcc doesn't complain
unless run with --pedantic, but the compiler I'm using now (IBM Visual
Age C++ xlC v8) will not accept calling main, so the test always fails.
Since gcc is taking a more and more restrictive view of the standards,
it seems it's just going to be a matter of time before the test fails
with gcc, too.

Can anyone give me another (standards-compliant) way of testing for a
C++ library, without using main or knowledge about mangled function
names? I've searched around the web for this and found nothing, but it
seems it should be a pretty obvious issue.

Thanks,

/Patrik Jonsson

signature.asc
Description: OpenPGP digital signature