RE: [autoconf 2.49e] configure --help creates config.log

[Tim Van Holder]

> > directory.  If you want to treat srcdir as read-only, you 
> > should be running
> 
> True, but this shouldn't hold for the purely informational ./configure
> --help: I can see no use in creating config.log when there's no actual
True, as I stated; I was merely responding to your 'srcdir should be
read-only' statement.  The creation of config.log is definitely incorrect.
[Checking...]
As it turns out, the current CVS autoconf no longer has this problem.

> But this is awkward just to learn possible configure options.
Yes.  I suppose using --help as an example was misguided of me, as --help
should indeed have no side-effects.  Again, this was intended as a general
response to your 'read-only srcdir' assertion.

> distributions is improperly constructed, it's still controversial if
> generated files should be created in $(srcdir) or in $(builddir). 
Indeed.