Re: checking for libraries that link but do not run

[Ben Pfaff]

Bob Friesenhahn <address@hidden> writes:

> On Mon, 5 Oct 2009, Ben Pfaff wrote:
>>
>> If your advice is correct, then any use of AC_RUN_IFELSE (if any
>> libraries are added to LIBS) must be incorrect, because Autoconf
>> does not have the correct knowledge to run a program.  It's hard
>> for me to believe that, because the Autoconf manual only mentions
>> problems with AC_RUN_IFELSE when cross-compiling and doesn't say
>> anything about other pitfalls.
>
> There are many pitfalls associated with running a program.  If you do
> choose to validate that a program will actually run from the build
> directory with the currently installed libraries, then you need to be
> prepared for dealing with the pitfalls. :-)
>
> Most configure scripts don't seem to try to run programs.  The
> configure script for my package does run a program for one of its
> tests.

I'm not sure what "be prepared for dealing with the pitfalls"
amounts to.  Can you point to an example of a correct way to deal
with the pitfalls?  What does your package do to deal with them?

Gnulib uses AC_RUN_IFELSE in many places.  I suspect that most
programs that use Gnulib will fall afoul of these problems too.
-- 
Ben Pfaff 
http://benpfaff.org