Re: sed 4.0e (built with autoconf 2.59a) works on 45 platforms

[Paolo Bonzini]

> > > When cross-compiling, autoconf accepts a bare name for a tool
> > > (e.g. "ld" for a cross-linker); gcc has special macros to exclude
> > > cross tools without a prefix.  Is there a reason to do so?
> >
> > I assume so, but I don't know what it is.
>
> Canadian Cross building support.

Of course.  I meant the other way -- is there a reason why autoconf does not
do so.

> > When was this added to GCC and why?

It was added when the toplevel Cygnus configure script was converted to an
Autoconf configure.in; so it was actually the first time that Autoconf was
really used to detect tools for Canadian crosses: previously, the toplevel
configure detected it and passed it directly to the subdirectories (gcc,
binutils, bfd, etc.).

Maybe we are still in time to add a deprecation warning like that for shell
functions?

Paolo