Re: [PATCH] m4sugar: factor away _AS_ECHO_PREPARE.

[Gary V. Vaughan]

Hi Paul,

On 29 Jan 2013, at 06:13, Paul Eggert <address@hidden> wrote:
> This change would break gnulib's gl_CACHE_VAL_SILENT.
> Is there some way you can fix that?

Sure, since gl_CACHE_VAL_SILENT is already using undocumented
internals of Autoconf, how about:

m4_pushdef([_AS_ECHO_N], [:
])
...
m4_popdef([_AS_ECHO_N])

> It's OK if we
> have to modify gl_CACHE_VAL_SILENT, it's just that
> we need to modify it in a way that'll work with both
> old and new Autoconf.

However, is there a rationale for sometimes having Autoconf show
the '(cached) ' message, except for gnulib tests?  Maybe a better
approach is to weigh the pros and cons of showing '(cached) ' and
then consistently display it for all tests, or take it out of
Autoconf altogether?  That would also decouple gnulib from having
to keep a careful eye on changes to internal APIs in Autoconf for
at least this one usage.

> Also, any such patch to Autoconf should update
> the documentation a bit for "@item @command {echo}",
> and it needs a NEWS item.

Okay, I'll reroll the patch with those additions presently.

Cheers,
-- 
Gary V. Vaughan (gary AT gnu DOT org)