On Mon, 2008-04-21 at 06:55 -0600, Eric Blake wrote: > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- > Hash: SHA1 > > According to Ralf Corsepius on 4/21/2008 3:12 AM: > |> checking for GNU M4 that supports accurate traces... > |> configure: error: no acceptable m4 could be found in $PATH. > |> GNU M4 1.4.5 or later is required; 1.4.11 is recommended > | > | RHEL 4 still ships an antiquated m4-1.4.1 > | > | (Time for me to abandon supporting RHEL-4, I suppose ;) > > Or manually install a newer m4 on that platform yourself. Our decision to > require newer m4 is intentional, as older m4 have bugs that can cause > autoconf to create broken configure output. Technically true, but ... replacing a central tool like m4 from a distro aiming at long term stability isn't necessarily a clever idea :/
I regret having to say so, but to me this has several implications: * RHEL and other "LTS distros" disqualify as development platforms. * Packages using autoconf will stay with outdated versions of autoconf because maintainers of "LTS" distros will refuse to install the infrastructure required by newer autoconfs. * Package vendors/distributors are being forced to find work-arounds to allow their customers/users to use their projects. For the moment, I have decided stay with autoconf-2.61 for our works to avoid this kind of hassle :( Ralf
