Update to 2.56. Set MAINTAINER to me.

* Major changes in Autoconf 2.56                       -*- outline -*-

  Released November 15th, 2002.

One packaging problem fixed (config/install-sh was not executable).


* Major changes in Autoconf 2.55

  Released November 14th, 2002.

Release tips:

           Have your configure.ac checked by autoscan ("autoscan").
             Try the warning options ("autoreconf -fv -Wall").

** Documentation

- AC_CHECK_HEADER, AC_CHECK_HEADERS
  More information on proper use.

- Writing Test Programs

  This sections explains how to write good test sources to use with
  AC_COMPILE_IFELSE etc.  It documents AC_LANG_PROGRAMS and so forth.

- AC_FOO_IFELSE vs. AC_TRY_FOO

  Explains why Autoconf moves from AC_TRY_COMPILE etc. to
  AC_COMPILE_IFELSE and AC_LANG_PROGRAM etc.

** autoreconf

- Is more robust to different Gettext installations.

- Produces messages (when --verbose) to be understood by Emacs'
  compile mode.

- Supports -W/--warnings.

- -m/--make
  Once the GNU Build System reinstalled, run `./config.status
  --recheck && ./config.status && make' if possible.

** autom4te

- Supports --cache, and --no-cache.

- ~/.autom4te.cfg makes it possible to disable the caching mechanism
  (autom4te.cache).  See `Customizing autom4te' in the documentation.

** config.status
  Supports --quiet.

** Obsolete options

  Support for the obsoleted options -m, --macrodir, -l, --localdir is
  dropped in favor of the safer --include/--prepend-include scheme.

** Macros

- New macros
  AC_COMPILER_IFELSE, AC_FUNC_MBRTOWC, AC_HEADER_STDBOOL,
  AC_LANG_CONFTEST, AC_LANG_SOURCE, AC_LANG_PROGRAM, AC_LANG_CALL,
  AC_LANG_FUNC_TRY_LINK, AC_MSG_FAILURE, AC_PREPROC_IFELSE.

- Obsoleted
  Obsoleted macros are kept for Autoconf backward compatibility, but
  should be avoided in configure.ac.  Running autoupdate is advised.
  AC_DECL_SYS_SIGLIST.

- AC_DEFINE/AC_DEFINE_UNQUOTED

  We have to stop using the old compatibility scheme --that tried to
  avoid useless backslashes-- because Libtool 1.4.3 contains a

  AC_DEFINE([error_t], [int],
            [Define to a type to use for \`error_t' if it is not
             otherwise available.])

  We have to quote the single quotes and backslashes with \.  The old
  compatibility scheme saw that ` was backslashed, and therefore did
  not quote the single quote...  Failure.  Hence, Autoconf 2.54 is not
  compatible with Libtool.  Autoconf 2.55 is, but in some cases might
  produce more \ than wanted.

  Please, note that in the future the same problem will happen with
  AC_MSG_*: use `autoreconf -f -Wall'.

** Bug Fixes

- Portability of the Autoconf package to Solaris.

- Spurious warnings caused by config.status.
  This bug is benign, but painful: on some systems (typically
  FreeBSD), warnings such as:

     config.status: creating Makefile
     mv: Makefile: set owner/group (was: 1357/0): Operation not permitted

  could be issued.  This is fixed.

- Parallel Builds
  Simultaneous executions of config.status are possible again.

- Precious variables accumulation

  config.status could stack several copies of the precious variables
  assignments.


** Plans for 2.57

- ./configure <host>

  The compatibility hooks with the old scheme will be completely
  removed.  Please, advice/use `--build', `--host', and `--target'
  only.

- AC_CHECK_HEADER, AC_CHECK_HEADERS

  The tests will be stricter, please make sure your invocations are
  valid.

- shell functions

  Shell functions will gradually be introduced, probably starting with
  Autotest.  If you know machines which are in use that you suspect
  *not* to support shell functions, please run the test suite of
  Autoconf 2.55 on it, and report the results to
  bug-autoconf@gnu.org.

- AC_MSG_*

  Special characters in AC_MSG_* need not be quoted.  Currently,
  Autoconf has heuristics to decide when a string is escaped, or has
  to be escaped.  This scheme is fragile, and will be removed; the
  only risk is uglified messages.  Please, run `autoreconf -f -Wall'
  to find occurrences that will be affected.

1 files changed, 3 insertions, 3 deletions

diff --git a/devel/autoconf/distinfo b/devel/autoconf/distinfo
index acbd90878d9..350cfcb3652 100644
--- a/devel/autoconf/distinfo
+++ b/devel/autoconf/distinfo
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-$NetBSD: distinfo,v 1.6 2002/10/03 19:30:58 wiz Exp $
+$NetBSD: distinfo,v 1.7 2002/11/15 13:55:07 wiz Exp $
 
-SHA1 (autoconf-2.54.tar.gz) = 5126d0f011a5c45f211ec7304739bd3e335bf37d
-Size (autoconf-2.54.tar.gz) = 1038536 bytes
+SHA1 (autoconf-2.56.tar.gz) = afff4a43d0b71a05de7b72e5a493a3e94219160c
+Size (autoconf-2.56.tar.gz) = 1069694 bytes