Ralf Wildenhues <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
> FWIW, I think NEWS should contain something along the lines below. OK?
> Also, the win by the move to AS_ECHO could be mentioned (so as to have a
> rationale for the incurred slowdown). Also, the fseeko regression of
> 2.61 isn't documented. (I think the current code is OK.)
Thanks, I installed this, which I hope incorporates all your suggestions.
2006-12-11 Paul Eggert <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
and Ralf Wildenhues <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
* NEWS: Document changes with echo and printf, and the lack
of limits on the total size of multi-line values of substituted
variables, and the AC_FUNC_FSEEKO fix.
--- NEWS 28 Nov 2006 03:29:47 -0000 1.416
+++ NEWS 11 Dec 2006 17:45:26 -0000 1.418
@@ -1,5 +1,8 @@
* Major changes in Autoconf 2.61a (??)
+** AC_FUNC_FSEEKO was broken in 2.61; it didn't make fseeko and ftello visible
+ on many platforms. This has been fixed.
+
** AC_FUNC_SETVBUF_REVERSED is now obsolete. It is still defined for backward
compatibility but it does nothing. The macro was already
obsolescent, as the last systems to have the problem were those
@@ -8,10 +11,25 @@
due to lack of ancient systems to test it on.
** config.status now uses awk instead of sed for most substitutions, for speed.
- It is now documented that Makefile.in should not contain
- overlapping variable occurrences, e.g., @[EMAIL PROTECTED]@. Autoconf's
- behavior was always iffy in such cases, and the awk implementation
- has changed the behavior.
+
+ - As a side effect multi-line values of substituted variables are
+ no longer limited in total size, though for portability each line
+ should not exceed the POSIX length limit for text lines.
+
+ - It is now documented that Makefile.in should not contain
+ overlapping variable occurrences, e.g., @[EMAIL PROTECTED]@.
+ Autoconf's behavior was always iffy in such cases, and the
+ awk implementation has changed the behavior.
+
+** Many uses of 'echo' have been rewritten so that Autoconf-generated
+ scripts have fewer problems with strings or file names containing
+ embedded special characters such as backslash or leading "-". This
+ was implemented by using `printf '%s\n' "$foo"' instead of `echo
+ "$foo"' when printf works. Due to the implementation technique
+ used, Autoconf-generated scripts now run considerably more slowly
+ on ancient implementations lacking printf. However, this should
+ not be a problem, since Autoconf-generated scripts in practice
+ invariably find a more-modern shell these days.
* Major changes in Autoconf 2.61 (2006-11-17)
