Hi John, Eric, thanks for the bug report.
* John Calcote wrote on Sat, Apr 18, 2009 at 01:31:18AM CEST: > When you enter './config.status --help' at the command line, you get: > > $ ./config.status --help > `config.status' instantiates files from templates according to the > current configuration. > > Usage: ./config.status [OPTION]... [FILE]... > ... > > The 'Usage' line above should read: > > Usage: ./config.status [OPTION]... [TAG]... > > in order to be consistent with the documentation in the manual. The use > of file in this location can also be somewhat confusing relative to > other uses of the term FILE in this same help text. For example, in the > --file and --header options: > > ... > --file=FILE[:TEMPLATE] > instantiate the configuration file FILE > --header=FILE[:TEMPLATE] > instantiate the configuration header FILE > ... > > A user might confuse the use of FILE in the Usage line with the use of > FILE in these options. Well, it's not a big problem if those two are confused with each other, as in the normal use case (where FILE has been listed in some AC_CONFIG_FILES macro), you can use FILE and --file=FILE synonymously. Still, you do have a point in that the documentation could be a bit more consistent. Here's my try at it. What do you think about this? Cheers, Ralf 2009-04-18 Ralf Wildenhues <[email protected]> Improve and clarify `config.status' usage documentation. * doc/autoconf.texi (config.status Invocation): Fix markup in synopsis. Use `tag' instead of `file' notation for the non-option arguments, to be consistent with the documentation of the AC_CONFIG_* macros. * lib/autoconf/status.m4 (_AC_OUTPUT_CONFIG_STATUS): Likewise, use `tag' notation for non-option arguments. Report by John Calcote. diff --git a/doc/autoconf.texi b/doc/autoconf.texi index 38b0972..81e0619 100644 --- a/doc/autoconf.texi +++ b/doc/autoconf.texi @@ -20047,12 +20047,14 @@ config.status Invocation Synopsis: @example -./config.status @var{opti...@dots{} [...@var{file}@dots{}] +./config.status @ovar{opti...@dots{} @ovar{t...@dots{} @end example -It configures the @var{files}; if none are specified, all the templates -are instantiated. The files must be specified without their -dependencies, as in +It configures the @var{tag}s; if none are specified, all the templates +are instantiated. A @var{tag} specifies a file, or tag associated with +some other configuration action by a @code{AC_CONFIG_FOOS} macro +(@pxref{Configuration Actions}). The files must be specified without +their dependencies, as in @example ./config.status foobar diff --git a/lib/autoconf/status.m4 b/lib/autoconf/status.m4 index 72e6893..a8ab3e2 100644 --- a/lib/autoconf/status.m4 +++ b/lib/autoconf/status.m4 @@ -1395,10 +1395,11 @@ _ACEOF cat >>$CONFIG_STATUS <<\_ACEOF || ac_write_fail=1 ac_cs_usage="\ -\`$as_me' instantiates files from templates according to the -current configuration. +\`$as_me' instantiates files and other configuration actions +from templates according to the current configuration. Unless the files +and actions are specified as TAGs, all are instantiated by default. -Usage: $[0] [[OPTION]]... [[FILE]]... +Usage: $[0] [[OPTION]]... [[TAG]]... -h, --help print this help, then exit -V, --version print version number and configuration settings, then exit
