Re: shell quoting fixes

[Paul Eggert]

Ralf Wildenhues <address@hidden> writes:

> You are removing some variables here.  These have not been documented,
> but I can find usage out in the wild, e.g. here:
> http://mail-archives.apache.org/mod_mbox/httpd-cvs/200002.mbox/address@hidden

Thanks for catching that.  I'd guess that circa-2000 change was in
response to an earlier change to the way Autoconf defines these
undocumented variables.  So it appears that the Apache folks are
already used to tracking undocumented Autoconf internals -- which
means they should take in stride this latest change.

But I agree that we're better off avoiding a change like this
right now.  So I installed this further patch:

2006-05-20  Paul Eggert  <address@hidden>

        * lib/autoconf/general.m4 (AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIRS): Bring back
        ac_config_guess, ac_config_sub, and ac_configure, since evidently
        some other programs unwisely rely on these undocumented vars.
        But put in warning comments about them.
        Problem reported by Ralf Wildenhues in
        
<http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/autoconf-patches/2006-05/msg00068.html>.
        * NEWS: Document that these variables are intended to go away.

Index: lib/autoconf/general.m4
===================================================================
RCS file: /cvsroot/autoconf/autoconf/lib/autoconf/general.m4,v
retrieving revision 1.917
diff -p -u -r1.917 general.m4
--- lib/autoconf/general.m4     19 May 2006 02:57:46 -0000      1.917
+++ lib/autoconf/general.m4     21 May 2006 00:17:22 -0000
@@ -1601,6 +1601,15 @@ done
 if test -z "$ac_aux_dir"; then
   AC_MSG_ERROR([cannot find install-sh or install.sh in $1])
 fi
+
+# These three variables are undocumented and unsupported,
+# and are intended to be withdrawn in a future Autoconf release.
+# They can cause serious problems if a builder's source tree is in a directory
+# whose full name contains unusual characters.
+ac_config_guess="$SHELL $ac_aux_dir/config.guess"  # Please don't use this var.
+ac_config_sub="$SHELL $ac_aux_dir/config.sub"  # Please don't use this var.
+ac_configure="$SHELL $ac_aux_dir/configure"  # Please don't use this var.
+
 AC_PROVIDE([AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR_DEFAULT])dnl
 ])# AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIRS
 
Index: NEWS
===================================================================
RCS file: /cvsroot/autoconf/autoconf/NEWS,v
retrieving revision 1.370
diff -p -u -r1.370 NEWS
--- NEWS        20 May 2006 05:39:03 -0000      1.370
+++ NEWS        21 May 2006 00:17:22 -0000
@@ -1,5 +1,9 @@
 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.59d
 
+** ac_config_guess, ac_config_sub, ac_configure
+  These never-documented variables have been marked with a comment
+  saying that we intend to remove them in a future release.
+
 ** AC_PROG_CC_STDC
   Passing 'ac_cv_prog_cc_stdc=no' to 'configure' now sets ac_cv_prog_cc_c99
   and ac_cv_prog_cc_c89 to 'no' as well, for backward compatibility with