Re: [Bug-gnulib] FYI: change jm_ to gl_ in AC_DEFINE'd names

[Jim Meyering]

Bruno Haible <address@hidden> wrote:
> Jim Meyering wrote:
>> I've just checked in this change:
>>
>> Change jm_ to gl_ in AC_DEFINE'd names
>
> Thanks. I've extended this to a few cache variable names as well, and
> updated gettext.

I'm sure you realize that changing the cache variable names
is a bit riskier in that it may well silently break any script
or macro that relies on the old name.
I chose to defer the cache-variable renaming because I've been
burned by this before.

One good way to avoid such a dependency is to configure before and
after the change on many different types of systems and to compare
the resulting generated files (cache, config.h, etc.).
But we can't expect everyone who uses these macros in their own
packages to be able to do that.

Of course, it does depend on the m4 macro in question.
For some, one has no choice but to use the cache variable
in shell code.  Those are the dangerous ones.