[sr #107986] autoconf should reject or specifically warn about obviously wrong configure.ac files

[Eric Blake]

Follow-up Comment #1, sr #107986 (project autoconf):

1. AC_INIT is essential, AC_OUTPUT is optional but useful; and makes the most
sense if any AC_CONFIG_ were used.  It's probably possible to wire up
something along those lines (for AC_INIT: have the autoconf driver trace
AC_INIT, and error out if the trace was not present; for AC_OUTPUT: have
AC_INIT install an m4_wrap that warns if AC_OUTPUT has not been expanded). 
Patches welcome.

Yes, a warning for a trailing space in a package version name or number might
make sense; we can't warn everywhere, and it should not be outright forbidden,
but hopefully the warning will help.  Patches welcome.

3. It's hard to pro-actively fix everything, without knowing what sort of
mistakes are being commonly made, and without bloating the tool or slowing it
down for the common and correct use cases.


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