Re: Supporting parameters that include the = character in configure.bat

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: Ben Key <address@hidden>
> Date: Mon, 11 Apr 2011 21:41:50 -0500
> Cc: address@hidden
> 
> I am working on a patch for configure.bat to support using parameters that
> include the = character.  As part of this patch I need to make changes to
> the nt/INSTALL file.  The section that needs to be changed is as follows.
> 
> Because of limitations of the stock Windows command shell, certain
> characters (quotes, backslashes and equal signs) can be problematic
> and should not be used in arguments to configure.  That means that
> forward slashes must be used in paths passed to the compiler and
> linker via the --cflags and --ldflags options, and that it is
> currently not possible to pass a macro like -DFOO=BAR (though -DFOO
> is perfectly valid).
> 
> The change I am making to configure.bat modifies the parsing of the --cflags
> and --ldflags options to add support for parameters like -DFOO=BAR as long
> as the parameter is enclosed in quotes.  I need some input on how I should
> rewrite this section of the document.  The part that confuses me is the
> statement that quotes should not be used in arguments to configure.

Simply remove the part about quotes (with the caveat about command
extensions), because it is no longer true with your changes.

The reason it is there now is that using quotes will have caused the
quotes to wind up in a C macro, which will then trigger weird
compilation errors.  People actually bumped into this, which is why
that portion of the instructions was written.

The part about backslashes should stay, though: these are treated as
escape characters by the C preprocessor, which will generally ruin any
file names that use backslashes in the values of the --cflags or --ldflags.