Re: [bug-gnulib] shell variable namespaces

[Bruno Haible]

Jim Meyering wrote:
> I see that there are many other uses of "$result" in that file.
> How about using a name that doesn't impinge on the configure.ac
> writer's name space?  E.g., s/result/gl_result/g in stdint.m4

There are many more shell variables used in macros that don't have a
particular prefix.

acl.m4                  use_acl
csharpcomp.m4           error
eoverflow.m4            have_eoverflow
gc.m4                   libgcrypt
gettext.m4              is_woe32dll
host-os.m4              os
intdiv0.m4              value
javacomp.m4             source_version target_version goodcode failcode \
                        cfversion
lib-link.m4             with_gnu_ld wl libext shlibext \
                        hardcode_libdir_flag_spec hardcode_libdir_separator \
                        hardcode_direct hardcode_minus_L enable_rpath \
                        use_additional additional_includedir \
                        additional_libdir rpathdirs ltrpathdirs \
                        names_already_handled names_next_round \
                        names_this_round already_handled uppername value \
                        found_dir found_la found_so found_a haveit basedir \
                        dir alldirs next
lib-prefix.m4           searchpath
ls-mntd-fs.m4           getfsstat_includes
nanosleep.m4            nanosleep_save_libs
perl.m4                 candidate_perl_names perl_specified found
po.m4                   srcdirpre useit desiredlanguages lang frobbedlang \
                        presentlang
ptrdiff_max.m4          result
signalblocking.m4       signals_not_posix
size_max.m4             result
stdint.m4               result

1) Do you think it's worth to change them all? Did you experience a
   collision between your variables in configure.ac and one in *.m4?

2) When using such namespaces, moving macros from/to gnulib needs renamings.
   Unnecessary diffs.

Bruno