[PATCH] doc/autoconf.texi: fix spelling/grammar nits

[Jim Meyering]

I made some minor documentation improvements more than a year ago,
but had never shared them. I've just pushed this:

>From b8fd7ae75637970a7102358be737c7e8558f9e1b Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Jim Meyering <address@hidden>
Date: Thu, 23 Nov 2017 06:58:38 -0800
Subject: [PATCH] doc/autoconf.texi: fix spelling/grammar nits

---
 doc/autoconf.texi | 123 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++---------------
 1 file changed, 84 insertions(+), 39 deletions(-)

diff --git a/doc/autoconf.texi b/doc/autoconf.texi
index b3517c88..2ac66969 100644
--- a/doc/autoconf.texi
+++ b/doc/autoconf.texi
@@ -543,7 +543,7 @@ Top
 * make -k Status::              Exit status of @samp{make -k}
 * VPATH and Make::              @code{VPATH} woes
 * Single Suffix Rules::         Single suffix rules and separated dependencies
-* Timestamps and Make::         Subsecond timestamp resolution
+* Timestamps and Make::         Sub-second timestamp resolution

 @code{VPATH} and Make

@@ -2314,14 +2314,14 @@ Configuration Actions

 The variables set during the execution of @command{configure} are
 @emph{not} available here: you first need to set them via the
address@hidden  Nonetheless the following variables are precomputed:
address@hidden  Nonetheless the following variables are pre-computed:

 @table @code
 @item srcdir
 @vrindex srcdir
 The name of the top source directory, assuming that the working
 directory is the top build directory.  This
-is what the @command{configure} option @option{--srcdir} sets.
+is what @command{configure}'s @option{--srcdir} option sets.

 @item ac_top_srcdir
 @vrindex ac_top_srcdir
@@ -2494,7 +2494,7 @@ Preset Output Variables
 (@pxref{Configuration Actions}) may also be used during
 @command{configure} tests.  For example, it is permissible to reference
 @samp{$srcdir} when constructing a list of directories to pass via
-option @option{-I} during a compiler feature check.  When used in this
+the @option{-I} option during a compiler feature check.  When used in this
 manner, coupled with the fact that @command{configure} is always run
 from the top build directory, it is sufficient to use just
 @samp{$srcdir} instead of @samp{$top_srcdir}.
@@ -2725,7 +2725,7 @@ Preset Output Variables
 it contains zero or more runs of @code{../}, so it should not be
 appended with a slash for concatenation.  This helps for @command{make}
 implementations that otherwise do not treat @file{./file} and @file{file}
-as equal in the toplevel build directory.
+as equal in the top-level build directory.
 @end defvar

 @defvar abs_top_builddir
@@ -7110,7 +7110,7 @@ Generic Compiler Characteristics
 @caindex prog_fc_openmp
 @uref{http://@/www.openmp.org/, OpenMP} specifies extensions of C, C++,
 and Fortran that simplify optimization of shared memory parallelism,
-which is a common problem on multicore CPUs.
+which is a common problem on multi-core CPUs.

 If the current language is C, the macro @code{AC_OPENMP} sets the
 variable @code{OPENMP_CFLAGS} to the C compiler flags needed for
@@ -7357,7 +7357,7 @@ C Compiler
 architectures.  This can happen, for example, when generating Mac OS X
 universal binary files, which work on both PowerPC and Intel
 architectures.  In this case, the different variants might be for
-different architectures whose endiannesses differ.  If
+architectures with differing endianness.  If
 @command{configure} detects this, it executes @var{action-if-universal}
 instead of @var{action-if-unknown}.

@@ -9829,7 +9829,7 @@ Defining Symbols
 @end example
 @end defmac

-Due to a syntactical bizarreness of the Bourne shell, do not use
+Due to a syntactical oddity of the Bourne shell, do not use
 semicolons to separate @code{AC_DEFINE} or @code{AC_DEFINE_UNQUOTED}
 calls from other macro calls or shell code; that can cause syntax errors
 in the resulting @command{configure} script.  Use either blanks or
@@ -10938,7 +10938,7 @@ Balancing Parentheses
 @end example

 @noindent
-In the above example, the @code{AS_IF} call underquotes its arguments.
+In the above example, the @code{AS_IF} call under-quotes its arguments.
 As a result, the unbalanced @samp{)} generated by the premature
 expansion of @code{my_case} results in expanding @code{AS_IF} with a
 truncated parameter, and the expansion is syntactically invalid:
@@ -11166,7 +11166,7 @@ autom4te Invocation
 @table @file
 @item @var{file}.m4f
 This file is an M4 frozen file.  Note that @emph{all the previous files
-are ignored}.  See the option @option{--melt} for the rationale.
+are ignored}.  See the @option{--melt} option for the rationale.

 @item @var{file}?
 If found in the library path, the @var{file} is included for expansion,
@@ -11409,7 +11409,7 @@ autom4te Invocation
 @itemx -p @var{macro}
 Cache the traces of @var{macro}, but do not enable traces.  This is
 especially important to save CPU cycles in the future.  For instance,
-when invoked, @command{autoconf} preselects all the macros that
+when invoked, @command{autoconf} pre-selects all the macros that
 @command{autoheader}, @command{automake}, @command{autoreconf}, etc.,
 trace, so that running @command{m4} is not needed to trace them: the
 cache suffices.  This results in a huge speed-up.
@@ -15720,7 +15720,7 @@ Signal Handling
 Various shells seem to handle @code{SIGQUIT} specially: they ignore it even
 if it is not blocked, and even if the shell is not running interactively
 (in fact, even if the shell has no attached tty); among these shells
-are at least Bash (from version 2 onwards), Zsh 4.3.12, Solaris 10
+are at least Bash (from version 2 onward), Zsh 4.3.12, Solaris 10
 @code{/bin/ksh} and @code{/usr/xpg4/bin/sh}, and AT&T @code{ksh93} (2011).
 Still, @code{SIGQUIT} seems to be trappable quite portably within all
 these shells.  OTOH, some other shells doesn't special-case the handling
@@ -15732,7 +15732,7 @@ Signal Handling
 not a bug, but a conscious design choice (although its overall value might
 be debatable).  The exact details of how this is attained vary from shell
 to shell.  For example, upon running @code{perl -e 'kill 2, $$'}, after
-the perl process has been interrupted AT&T @code{ksh93} (2011) will
+the perl process has been interrupted, AT&T @code{ksh93} (2011) will
 proceed to send itself a @code{SIGINT}, while Solaris 10 @code{/bin/ksh}
 and @code{/usr/xpg4/bin/sh} will proceed to exit with status 130 (i.e.,
 128 + 2). In any case, if there is an active trap associated with
@@ -17446,7 +17446,7 @@ Limitations of Builtins
 using a syntax-highlighting editor that searches for the balancing
 counterpart, or more importantly, when using a case statement as an
 underquoted argument to an Autoconf macro.  @xref{Balancing
-Parentheses}, for tradeoffs involved in various styles of dealing with
+Parentheses}, for trade-offs involved in various styles of dealing with
 unbalanced @samp{)}.

 Zsh handles pattern fragments derived from parameter expansions or
@@ -17797,11 +17797,11 @@ Limitations of Builtins
 when executing a child process.  However, some shells have extensions
 that involve interpreting some environment values specially, regardless
 of the variable name.  We currently know of one case: all versions of
-Bash released prior to 27 September 2014 intepret an environment
+Bash released prior to 27 September 2014 interpret an environment
 variable with an initial content substring of @code{() @{} as an
 exported function definition (this is the ``Shellshock'' remote
 execution bug, CVE-2014-6271 and friends, where it was possible to
-eploit the function parser to cause remote code execution on child bash
+exploit the function parser to cause remote code execution on child bash
 startup; newer versions of Bash use special environment variable
 @emph{names} instead of values to implement the same feature).

@@ -18091,7 +18091,7 @@ Limitations of Builtins
 @end example

 @cindex @command{set -e}
-The option @option{-e} has historically been underspecified, with enough
+The @option{-e} option has historically been under-specified, with enough
 ambiguities to cause numerous differences across various shell
 implementations; see for example
 @uref{https://www.in-ulm.de/@/~mascheck/@/various/@/set-e/, this overview},
@@ -19126,7 +19126,7 @@ Limitations of Usual Tools
 @item @command{find}
 @c -----------------
 @prindex @command{find}
-The option @option{-maxdepth} seems to be GNU specific.
+The @option{-maxdepth} option seems to be GNU specific.
 Tru64 v5.1, NetBSD 1.5 and Solaris @command{find}
 commands do not understand it.

@@ -19421,7 +19421,7 @@ Limitations of Usual Tools

 In Mac OS X 10.3, @command{od} does not support the
 standard Posix options @option{-A}, @option{-j}, @option{-N}, or
address@hidden, or the XSI option @option{-s}.  The only
address@hidden, or the XSI option, @option{-s}.  The only
 supported Posix option is @option{-v}, and the only supported
 XSI options are those in @option{-bcdox}.  The BSD
 @command{hexdump} program can be used instead.
@@ -19926,7 +19926,7 @@ Portable Make
 * make -k Status::              Exit status of @samp{make -k}
 * VPATH and Make::              @code{VPATH} woes
 * Single Suffix Rules::         Single suffix rules and separated dependencies
-* Timestamps and Make::         Subsecond timestamp resolution
+* Timestamps and Make::         Sub-second timestamp resolution
 @end menu

 @node $< in Ordinary Make Rules
@@ -20013,7 +20013,7 @@ Backslash-Newline-Empty

 @noindent
 which fails with a syntax error, due to the Bash bug.  To avoid this
-problem, avoid nullable macros in the last line of a multiline command.
+problem, avoid nullable macros in the last line of a multi-line command.

 @c  This has been seen on ia64 hpux 11.20, and on one hppa hpux 10.20,
 @c  but another hppa hpux 10.20 didn't have it.  Bob Proulx
@@ -20474,7 +20474,7 @@ Newlines in Make Rules
 nlinit=`echo 'nl="'; echo '"'`; eval "$$nlinit"
 @end example

-For example, in order to create a multiline @samp{sed} expression that
+For example, in order to create a multi-line @samp{sed} expression that
 inserts a blank line after every line of a file, this code can be used:

 @example
@@ -21111,7 +21111,7 @@ Make Target Lookup

 It seems the sole solution that would please every @command{make}
 implementation is to never rely on @code{VPATH} searches for targets.
-In other words, @code{VPATH} should be reserved to unbuilt sources.
+In other words, @code{VPATH} should be reserved to sources that are not built.


 @node Single Suffix Rules
@@ -21768,7 +21768,7 @@ Volatile Objects
 Even when accessing objects defined with a volatile type,
 the C standard allows only
 extremely limited signal handlers: in C99 the behavior is undefined if a signal
-handler reads any nonlocal object, or writes to any nonlocal object
+handler reads any non-local object, or writes to any non-local object
 whose type is not @code{sig_atomic_t volatile}, or calls any standard
 library function other than @code{abort}, @code{signal}, and
 @code{_Exit}.  Hence C compilers need not worry about a signal handler
@@ -21806,7 +21806,7 @@ Volatile Objects
 from @code{volatile} than the C Standard requires, and installers who
 compile an application in a similar environment can sometimes benefit
 from the extra constraints imposed by kernels on compilers.
-Admittedly we are handwaving somewhat here, as there are few
+Admittedly we are hand-waving somewhat here, as there are few
 guarantees in this area; the rules of thumb may help to fix some bugs
 but there is a good chance that they will not fix them all.

@@ -24822,7 +24822,7 @@ AC_ACT_IFELSE vs AC_TRY_ACT
 quoting their arguments;

 @item
-the combinatoric explosion is solved by decomposing on the one hand the
+the combinatorial explosion is solved by decomposing on the one hand the
 generation of sources, and on the other hand executing the program;

 @item
@@ -25403,7 +25403,7 @@ Writing Testsuites
 @table @samp
 @item ignore
 The content of the output is ignored, but still captured in the test
-group log (if the testsuite is run with option @option{-v}, the test
+group log (if the testsuite is run with the @option{-v} option, the test
 group log is displayed as the test is run; if the test group later
 fails, the test group log is also copied into the overall testsuite
 log).  This action is valid for both @var{stdout} and @var{stderr}.
@@ -25494,7 +25494,7 @@ Writing Testsuites
 e.g. module @samp{testme} in the example above, those modules must be
 already compiled.

-If the testsuite is run in verbose mode, with option @option{--verbose},
+If the testsuite is run in verbose mode and with the @option{--verbose} option,
 EUnit is also run in verbose mode to output more details about
 individual unit tests.
 @end defmac
@@ -26377,7 +26377,7 @@ Debugging
 mismatched or unbalanced parentheses or braces (@pxref{Balancing
 Parentheses}),

address@hidden under- or overquoted macro arguments (@pxref{Autoconf
address@hidden under- or over-quoted macro arguments (@pxref{Autoconf
 Language}, @pxref{Quoting and Parameters}, @pxref{Quotation and Nested
 Macros}),

@@ -26813,7 +26813,7 @@ Concept Index
 @c  LocalWords:  Systemology Checkpointing Changequote INTERCAL changequote dfn
 @c  LocalWords:  Quadrigraphs builtins Shellology acconfig Bugward LIBOBJ Imake
 @c  LocalWords:  LIBOBJS IFELSE cindex flushright Pinard Metaconfig uref Simons
address@hidden  LocalWords:  distclean uninstall noindent versioning Tromey dir
address@hidden  LocalWords:  distclean uninstall noindent versioning Tromey dir 
vr
 @c  LocalWords:  SAMS samp aclocal acsite underquoted emph itemx prepend SUBST
 @c  LocalWords:  evindex automake Gettext autopoint gettext symlink libtoolize
 @c  LocalWords:  defmac INIT tarname ovindex cvindex BUGREPORT PREREQ asis PROG
@@ -26836,7 +26836,7 @@ Concept Index
 @c  LocalWords:  PowerPC GNUC libPW pragma Olibcalls CHOWN chown CLOSEDIR VFORK
 @c  LocalWords:  closedir FNMATCH fnmatch vfork FSEEKO LARGEFILE fseeko SVR sc
 @c  LocalWords:  largefile GETGROUPS getgroups GETLOADAVG DGUX UMAX NLIST KMEM
address@hidden  LocalWords:  SETGID getloadavg nlist GETMNTENT irix
address@hidden  LocalWords:  SETGID getloadavg nlist GETMNTENT irix acxindex 
autom
 @c  LocalWords:  getmntent UnixWare GETPGRP getpgid getpgrp Posix's pid LSTAT
 @c  LocalWords:  lstat rpl MEMCMP memcmp OpenStep MBRTOWC mbrtowc MKTIME mktime
 @c  LocalWords:  localtime MMAP mmap OBSTACK obstack obstacks ARGTYPES timeval
@@ -26846,7 +26846,7 @@ Concept Index
 @c  LocalWords:  linux netinet ia Tru XFree DIRENT NDIR dirent ndir multitable
 @c  LocalWords:  NAMLEN strlen namlen MKDEV SYSMACROS makedev RESOLV resolv DNS
 @c  LocalWords:  inet structs NAMESER arpa NETDB netdb UTekV UTS GCC's kB
address@hidden  LocalWords:  STDBOOL BOOL stdbool cplusplus bool Bool stdarg tm
address@hidden  LocalWords:  STDBOOL BOOL stdbool cplusplus bool Bool stdarg tm 
te
 @c  LocalWords:  ctype strchr strrchr rindex bcopy memmove memchr WEXITSTATUS
 @c  LocalWords:  WIFEXITED TIOCGWINSZ GWINSZ termios preprocess preprocessable
 @c  LocalWords:  DECLS strdup calloc BLKSIZE blksize RDEV rdev TZNAME tzname pw
@@ -26869,11 +26869,11 @@ Concept Index
 @c  LocalWords:  drivespec Posixy DJGPP doschk prettybird LPT pfew Zsh's yu yaa
 @c  LocalWords:  yM uM aM firebird IP subdir misparses ok Unpatched abc bc zA
 @c  LocalWords:  CDPATH DUALCASE LINENO prepass Subshells lineno NULLCMD cmp wc
address@hidden  LocalWords:  MAILPATH scanset arg NetBSD Almquist printf expr cp
address@hidden  LocalWords:  Oliva awk Aaaaarg cmd regex xfoo GNV OpenVMS VM
address@hidden  LocalWords:  sparc Proulx nbar nfoo maxdepth acdilrtu TWG mc
address@hidden  LocalWords:  MAILPATH scanset arg NetBSD Almquist printf expr 
cp pR
address@hidden  LocalWords:  Oliva awk Aaaaarg cmd regex xfoo GNV OpenVMS VM 
url fc
address@hidden  LocalWords:  sparc Proulx nbar nfoo maxdepth acdilrtu TWG mc 
ing FP
 @c  LocalWords:  mkdir exe uname OpenBSD Fileutils mktemp umask TMPDIR guid os
address@hidden  LocalWords:  fooXXXXXX Unicos utimes hpux hppa unescaped
address@hidden  LocalWords:  fooXXXXXX Unicos utimes hpux hppa unescaped 
SUBST'ed
 @c  LocalWords:  pmake DOS's gmake ifoo DESTDIR autoconfiscated pc coff mips gg
 @c  LocalWords:  dec ultrix cpu wildcards rpcc rdtsc powerpc readline
 @c  LocalWords:  withval vxworks gless localcache usr LOFF loff CYGWIN Cygwin
@@ -26891,9 +26891,54 @@ Concept Index
 @c  LocalWords:  GOBJC OTP ERLC erl valloc decr dumpdef errprint incr
 @c  LocalWords:  esyscmd len maketemp pushdef substr syscmd sysval translit txt
 @c  LocalWords:  sinclude foreach myvar tolower toupper uniq BASENAME STDIN
address@hidden  LocalWords:  Dynix basename aname cname macroexpands xno xcheck
address@hidden  LocalWords:  LIBREADLINE lreadline lncurses libreadline
-
address@hidden  LocalWords:  Dynix basename aname cname macroexpands xno xcheck 
iso
address@hidden  LocalWords:  LIBREADLINE lreadline lncurses libreadline vrindex 
SYS
address@hidden  LocalWords:  syncodeindex define'd caindex CAindex MacKenzie 
DIRS
address@hidden  LocalWords:  Runtime runtime Submakes submakes MAKEFLAGS 
whitespace
address@hidden  LocalWords:  Timestamps Unportability Canonicalizing stdalign 
dirN
address@hidden  LocalWords:  acinclude AMFLAGS LIBS OBJCXXFLAGS GOFLAGS 
runstatedir
address@hidden  LocalWords:  metacharacter EXPENSIVEP errno setjmp wctype sys 
mawk
address@hidden  LocalWords:  nawk ggrep egrep gegrep fgrep gfgrep LEX lex 
yytext nm
address@hidden  LocalWords:  yywrap xflex lexyy YFLAGS yacc divnum libs fuindex 
ffs
address@hidden  LocalWords:  environ sigaction extern ftello nonnull STRTOLD 
LLONG
address@hidden  LocalWords:  strtold vfprintf ULLONG strcasecmp strncasecmp 
MSVC th
address@hidden  LocalWords:  NDEBUG Xenix INO libc ISDIR ISREG Tektronix Amdahl 
ino
address@hidden  LocalWords:  typedef pxref fileblocks submembers INTMAX intmax 
UINT
address@hidden  LocalWords:  INTPTR intptr SSIZE ssize uint UINTPTR uintptr 
OPENMP
address@hidden  LocalWords:  openmp OpenMP omp Alignas Alignof Noreturn UTF 
vals gl
address@hidden  LocalWords:  offsetof VARARRAYS VLA CCC stdcxx nullptr
address@hidden  LocalWords:  constexpr decltype unicode fstreams iostreams 
iomanip
address@hidden  LocalWords:  stringstreams GXX OBJCPP OBJCXX objcxx GOBJCXX 
erlc tx
address@hidden  LocalWords:  OBJCXXCPP FIXEDFORM GFC argc argv shellvar fpp 
MODEXT
address@hidden  LocalWords:  freeform fixedform MODINC MODOUT gccgo GOC xmkmf 
fseek
address@hidden  LocalWords:  interpval ftell Interix macOS PTHREAD NonStop 
XOPEN xc
address@hidden  LocalWords:  IEC ATTRIBS BFP DFP O'Donell Sebor ERTS Erlang's 
erts
address@hidden  LocalWords:  erlang Wundef scalable USG NOTMAKE DOUCH
address@hidden  LocalWords:  IVE changesyntax ifnotinfo oline num cfg debugfile 
cdr
address@hidden  LocalWords:  debugmode traceoff traceon patsubst dumpdefs 
ifelse aa
address@hidden  LocalWords:  mkstemp undivert lifo errprintn BINSH sanitization 
bcd
address@hidden  LocalWords:  cleardivert bmatch bpatsubsts subst cond nblank 
ifval
address@hidden  LocalWords:  ifblank ifnblank ifvaln fputc fgetc argn mapall 
dvarv
address@hidden  LocalWords:  shiftn abcd elt noquote mkargs joinall SHA prereq 
dup
address@hidden  LocalWords:  listc setb seta ARITH HNUM xcurly xoccupied
address@hidden  LocalWords:  TESTA TESTB TESTC hoc xpg xxyzzyz dtksh nosuch 
fifos
address@hidden  LocalWords:  fifo Stardent sig WIF WIFSIGNALED SIGQUIT tty perl 
ret
address@hidden  LocalWords:  SIGINT NUL SFN PRN aeiou MSYS SIGTERM xhi arith 
UWIN
address@hidden  LocalWords:  CLICOLOR FPATH POSIXLY Shellshock CVE OSF doit ec 
ci
address@hidden  LocalWords:  notreached cim nc ACL faccessat Alexandre getline 
sqrt
address@hidden  LocalWords:  CONVFMT FS OFMT CDS chgrp futimens utimensat oo 
esc od
address@hidden  LocalWords:  ownerships mape readdir mkfifo mknod testsuites 
XSI rf
address@hidden  LocalWords:  bcdox hexdump filelist rmdir flushleft busybox nl 
HAZy
address@hidden  LocalWords:  ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ Fantazy FAntAZy adc 
unix xb
address@hidden  LocalWords:  SUBMAKEFLAGS ehBc ehB hBc hvB dmake hostname 
nlinit xf
address@hidden  LocalWords:  DCOMMENT bart pathnames ifhtml randx
address@hidden  LocalWords:  sumc hic ic fwrapv ftrapv SIGFPE memset fmudflap 
ctime
address@hidden  LocalWords:  asctime lvalues lvalue Multithreaded decstation 
gdb na
address@hidden  LocalWords:  enableval lesskey FHS superset waitpid libfoo 
cposix
address@hidden  LocalWords:  mem RESTARTABLE bzero DejaGNU EUNIT subfile optarg 
ive
address@hidden  LocalWords:  nolog expout experr erlflags EUnit testme eunit 
myprog
address@hidden  LocalWords:  configmake vx bashdb tvtwm questers UUCP McGrath
address@hidden  LocalWords:  ispell
 @c Local Variables:
 @c fill-column: 72
 @c ispell-local-dictionary: "american"
--