At some point in the past, autoconf was *meant* to simplify porting programs. These days, it's more a "use gnu-linux, or die" (no wonder bsd is dying).
I'm really, really, fed up of all these EXCUSES for configure tests (remember, a configure test is supposed to test for a *feature*) that are solely program --version gnu string with required version => okay, we work. anything else => okay, we refuse to work. Between a "test" for mkdir -p being thread-safe, which ends up being --version=coreutils, a "test" for tar supporting ustar archives, which ends up being --version for gnu-tar, and numerous other examples, I'm really becoming fed-up with that. This is utter complacency from the part of the guys who write these tests. They can ask *us* if they want to support other OSes, instead of silently going over to GNU-make/GNU-bash/GNU-tar/GNU-m4/GNU-mkdir... Since you read this mailing-list, I assume you have at least a remote interest in BSD. I have a simple request for you: each time you run into software that does this idiotic kind of test, please interact with the idiots upstream for whom all the world is linux, and try to get them to replace their "joke" of an autoconf macro with actual genuine tests that actually CHECK FOR THE FUCKING FEATURE.
