Re: [PATCH 2/2] AC_SITE_LOAD: append '.exe' to ac_executable_extensions on OS/2

[KO Myung-Hun]

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Hi/2.

Eric Blake wrote:
> On 05/28/2015 11:43 PM, KO Myung-Hun wrote:
>> Codes searching for the executables uses '' and 
>> $ac_executable_extensions as extensions of the executables. But
>> it is used without any initializing. That is, it is an empty
>> string by default. As a result, without appending '.exe' to it on
>> OS/2, searching for the executables fails on OS/2.
>> 
>> * lib/autoconf/general.m4 (AC_SITE_LOAD): Append '.exe' to 
>> ac_executable_extensions if it does not contain '.exe' on OS/2.
> 
> Weird. The code adding support for $ac_executable_extensions has
> been present since 2001, but nothing has ever set it.  That
> pre-dates my involvement with autoconf, so I'm not sure of the
> rationale.
> 
> There was definitely some work done for OS/2 at the time 
> (https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/autoconf-patches/2001-09/msg00134.html
>
> 
for example), but I'm not finding good rationale for the patch as committed.
> 
> Oh, searching a bit further found this:
> 
> https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/autoconf-patches/2001-06/msg00041.html
>
>  which mentions that ac_executable_extensions should be set by 
> config.site.

And

https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/autoconf-patches/2001-06/msg00041.html

says that it should become part of autoconf itself if possible.

> So again, I'm not sure you need this patch (which would only help
> for packages that have been built with new autoconf) when you can
> instead tweak your config.site (and work with all existing
> packages).
> 

Again, it's not good idea that all users should do additional works to
configure. And more and more projects will use newer autoconf. As
well, autoreconf is another friend.

> I will, however, accept a patch to the manual to document 
> ac_executable_extensions, and that it is the user's responsibility
> to set it to a sane value in config.site if they are on a platform
> where .exe (or .bat or ...) is required.
> 

The user would not read autoconf manual due to configure failure.

- -- 
KO Myung-Hun

Using Mozilla SeaMonkey 2.7.2
Under OS/2 Warp 4 for Korean with FixPak #15
In VirtualBox v4.1.32 on Intel Core i7-3615QM 2.30GHz with 8GB RAM

Korean OS/2 User Community : http://www.ecomstation.co.kr

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