Re: Getting web content past distcheck

[Stepan Kasal]

Hello,

On Fri, Oct 15, 2004 at 10:13:15AM +0200, address@hidden wrote:
> > WEBDIR=${WEBDIR-\$(pkgdatadir)}
> 
> Isn't it ${WEBDIR:-\$(pkgdatadir)}?
>                 ^^^

``man bash'' says:

... omitting the colon results in a test only for a parameter that is unset.

As for the portability, autoconf manual says:

`${VAR:-VALUE}'
     Old BSD shells, including the Ultrix `sh', don't accept the colon
     for any shell substitution, and complain and die.

And it doesn't seem to have anything against plain ${VAR-VALUE}.

We usually want to respect a parameter if it is set to empty string.
This, together with the small portability issue, probably led to the
decision to use ${VAR-VALUE} in autoconf.

HTH,
        Stepan Kasal