Re: KDE 3.5.5 autoconf errors

[Ralf Wildenhues]

[ FYI, this thread is
<http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.sysutils.autoconf.general/8828> ]

* Matthew Woehlke wrote on Tue, Jan 09, 2007 at 10:41:14PM CET:
> 
> "# Generated by GNU Autoconf 2.59."
> 
> I don't have autoconf > 2.59 on that box, but I am forwarding this to 
> kde-devel to see if anyone else can help (and to let them know about the 
> problem). Any autoconf folks that want to look could download any KDE 
> 3.5.5 package to see an example of this problem (at least I guess any 
> package will do, I am building artwork ATM).

But we don't necessarily have your exact system to test on, so if you do
not post the corresponding bits of config.log that show the errors that
belong to these warnings, then helping you is so much more work.

> I might try to check 
> re-generating configure on another box that has 2.60.

Look Matthew, there are two distinct issues this thread is about:

- Autoconf-2.59 in some situations caused a misworded error message to
  be output that contained the string "AC_PACKAGE_NAME".  That is
  confusing for users, and has been fixed in newer versions.  I think
  the fix was a mere rewording of the error message:
  <http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.sysutils.autoconf.patches/2989/focus=2991>
  By all means this bug is fixed in newer Autoconf versions, but also
  it is a very very low priority bug, so not much of a reason to
  upgrade.  The other way to avoid the poor wording is to use the newer
  style of AC_INIT invocation, the one that uses 3 arguments with a bug
  report address as third.

- The issues that prompts the message: namely the need for prerequisite
  headers in some tests in the configury of the KDE package in question.
  This bug should be fixed in the appropriate KDE package, and in order
  for that to be done, *you* *need* to post the errors that the compiler
  printed for these tests, to the KDE people.  Find them in config.log.
  These underlying errors are pretty indifferent to the Autoconf version
  used, be that 2.59 or 2.61.

> This looks like a problem in 2.59; I have configure scripts for kdevelop 
> SVN generated by 2.59 and 2.60, and 2.59 has the problem. 2.60 doesn't 
> seem to have anything like the 'Report this...' message,

Wrong.  The warning is just worded a bit differently (and doesn't
contain a reference to who to report to, since it knows none).

> however (that seems strange? ...or is 2.60 the later version that
> always goes by the compiler result?).

Nope.  Neither 2.60 nor 2.61 do.  Given the flow of feedback the
bug-autoconf list is still getting about these prerequisite header
messages from old Autoconf versions, we should probably still wait
another few years before doing this semantic change in Autoconf.

> KDE folks, is 3.5.6 using autoconf > 2.59? If not, maybe it should?

This question should be decided, but mostly on different grounds than
what this thread is about.

Cheers,
Ralf