Follow-up Comment #5, sr #110657 (project autoconf):
[comment #4 comment #4:] > For the record, despite this having been marked "won't do", I _would_ consider and review a patch (against current development trunk) that would make configure scripgs set $EGREP and $GREP to `egrep` on systems where `egrep -e` works but `grep -E -e` doesn't work. It's just that neither Paul nor I have the time, nor the necessary test environment, to develop such a patch. Hi, Thanks for "opening the way" for a patch :-) Attached is a patch which addresses the issue (the patch is against 2.71, as available in Debian testing). It removes the dependency of AC_PROG_EGREP on AC_PROG_GREP , and does the "acceptable" check itself instead. If no acceptable grep is found (for use with -E), it falls back on searching for an acceptable egrep. Moreover, I noticed that the only reason why AC_PROG_EGREP is brought in (in my case) is due to the macro AC_EGREP_CPP, which does not ever use the -e option (to supply multiple pattern, or pattern that start with a dash). So the patch has an additional fix, by defining an AC_PROG_EGREP_SIMPLE which relaxes the requirements. It now only needs to conform to extended regexp syntax, and work with long lines, but doesn't need to support -e. So this should also work on platforms were egrep doesn't support -e either. Then, in my example, AC_EGREP_CPP is only needed by AC_EGREP_HEADER, itself only needed by AC_TYPE_UID_T. And AC_TYPE_UID_T has a FIXME comment at the top saying "Rewrite using AC_CHECK_TYPE" :-) (file #53274) _______________________________________________________ Additional Item Attachment: File name: autoconf-grep.diff Size:2 KB <https://file.savannah.gnu.org/file/autoconf-grep.diff?file_id=53274> _______________________________________________________ Reply to this item at: <https://savannah.gnu.org/support/?110657> _______________________________________________ Message sent via Savannah https://savannah.gnu.org/