HEAD: NEWS rewrite and update

[Ralf Wildenhues]

I've done a test round of CVS HEAD some weeks ago, and fixed
the bulk of the failures that I encountered.  There are still
some left; most notably I've been neglecting w32 systems, due
to their testing being so cumbersome and less parallelizable
for me (ssh access to Cygwin or MinGW for me anyone?).
I intend to get to most of that soon enough, but anyway
I think it's a good idea to get HEAD slowly into shape.

So here's a rewrite, reformat, and update of NEWS since 1.9f.
Please do me a favor and look over this, if you can see errors,
important omissions, or do not like the sorting or what not else.

It may be useful for 2.0 to do the same with the 1.9f/1.9d/1.9b
changes, or even merge all the fluff together.  WDYT?

I'm seriously thinking of just listing all regressions we still
have and releasing another alpha, just like I did in that patch.
Or even releasing 2.0 with them, if nobody has time to fix them
before.  Thoughts or volunteers for fixing any of those?
(It will *require* good test cases to go along with them.)

FWIW, I'll try to post the test results eventually, when cleaned up.

FWIW2: Don't even think about CVS branching now.  Slap slap.

FWIW3: We could start to think about how we will number the thing
eventually.  1.9h?  2.1h?  2.1b?  And the stable?  2.0?  2.2?

Thanks,
Ralf

2007-02-24  Ralf Wildenhues  <address@hidden>

        * NEWS: Rewrite all news since 1.9f and put in categories,
        update.

Index: NEWS
===================================================================
RCS file: /cvsroot/libtool/libtool/NEWS,v
retrieving revision 1.199
diff -u -r1.199 NEWS
--- NEWS        28 Jan 2007 20:23:57 -0000      1.199
+++ NEWS        24 Feb 2007 13:02:40 -0000
@@ -1,49 +1,105 @@
 NEWS - list of user-visible changes between releases of GNU Libtool
 
-New in 1.9h: 2005-??-??; CVS version 2.1a, Libtool team:
-* New tests for support of Automake subdir-objects.
-* Fix libltdl on static platforms.
-* New LT_CONFIG_LTDL_DIR macro.
-* New libtoolize options: --non-recursive, --recursive, --subproject.  These
-  options control the way libltdl is installed by libtoolize.
-* New recursive and non-recursive build modes for libltdl that don't require
-  a subconfigure.
-* New multi-module-loader safe libltdl handle iteration APIs:
-  lt_dlhandle_iterate, lt_dlhandle_fetch, lt_dlhandle_map.
-* New lt_dlinterface_register to maintain separation of concerns between
-  modules loaded by different libraries.
-* Removed deprecated APIs from libltdl: lt_dlcaller_register,
-  lt_dlhandle_next, lt_dlhandle_find, lt_dlforeach, lt_dlmutex_register,
-  lt_dlmutex_lock, lt_dlmutex_unlock, lt_dlmutex_seterror,
-  lt_dlmutex_geterror, lt_dlmalloc, lt_dlrealloc, lt_dlfree.
-* Support for Portland Group compiler on GNU/Linux.
-* Support for linux-dietlibc (`diet' as well as `diet-dyn', separately).
-* Shell optimizations which break use of the stdin file descriptor in libtool.
-* `libtoolize --install' now also installs `install-sh'.
-* Support for DragonFly BSD, improved support for FreeBSD.
-* Allow shell special characters like `$' in source file names, but not
-  in object names, to enhance GCJ support.
-* Detection of compiler wrappers like distcc/ccache and $host_alias prefix.
-* Initial Support for FC (modern Fortran).
-* Fixed a regression that prevented use of libltdl without autotools.
-* Fixed a branch-1-5/HEAD regression to only link uninstalled libraries
-  statically with `-static'.
-* Support for Interix 3 (Windows SFU).
-* Basic support for PIE (position-independent executables).
-* Initial support for RDOS.
-* Fix error with -version-info on systems with version_type=none, such
-  as BeOS.
-* Initial support for the Sun compiler suite on GNU/Linux.
-* Improved support for GNU/kFreeBSD and GNU/NetBSD.
-* Search paths with GCC on multilib systems like x86_64 have been fixed.
-* The Libtool and libltdl macros and the testsuite now assume a C89
-  environment, consequently do not test for headers such as string.h,
-  strings.h, memory.h any more.
-* Fix regression in libltdl symbol exports on Cygwin. Side effect:
-  LT_GLOBAL_DATA and LT_SCOPE are now explicitly defined as
-  declspec(dllexport), bypassing auto-export logic on Cygwin.
-  This tracks existing behavior on MinGW.
-* Bug fixes.
+New in 1.9h: 2007-??-??; CVS version 2.1a, Libtool team:
+
+* Regressions over 1.5.24 that we intend to fix:
+
+  - On systems which need a library prefix like `lib', such as BeOS, libltdl
+    currently does not build.  The new structure of libltdl with preopened
+    modules exposes some long-lived bugs here.
+
+  - Since libltdl does not use the RTLD_GLOBAL global flag with dlopen any 
more,
+    some setups may fail.  A mechanism to allow the user to choose the mode
+    has not been implemented yet.
+
+  - In 1.9b, a new variable inherited_linker_flags has been added to the 
libtool
+    library files.  This variable takes flags that should be used by dependent
+    libraries and programs, but that do not fit into `dependency_libs' for both
+    clarity and backward-compatibility.  Currently, these flags are not 
uniquified
+    and thus accumulate.
+
+* Important incompatible changes and obsoleted features:
+
+  - Removed deprecated APIs from libltdl: lt_dlcaller_register,
+    lt_dlhandle_next, lt_dlhandle_find, lt_dlforeach, lt_dlmutex_register,
+    lt_dlmutex_lock, lt_dlmutex_unlock, lt_dlmutex_seterror,
+    lt_dlmutex_geterror, lt_dlmalloc, lt_dlrealloc, lt_dlfree.
+  - The Libtool and libltdl macros and the testsuite now assume a C89
+    environment, consequently do not test for headers such as string.h,
+    strings.h, memory.h any more.
+  - Fix regression in libltdl symbol exports on Cygwin. Side effect:
+    LT_GLOBAL_DATA and LT_SCOPE are now explicitly defined as
+    declspec(dllexport), bypassing auto-export logic on Cygwin.
+    This tracks existing behavior on MinGW.
+  - The libtool script has been optimized a bit for more modern shells.
+    This breaks use of the stdin file descriptor in libtool, and can break
+    if a different shell is used to execute the libtool script than the one
+    it was configured for.
+  - GNU make is currently needed to build the Libtool package itself.
+  - The macros AC_ENABLE_SHARED, AC_DISABLE_SHARED, AC_ENABLE_STATIC, and
+    AC_DISABLE_STATIC have been un-deprecated after their deprecation in 1.9b.
+  - Fixed a branch-1-5/HEAD regression to only link uninstalled libraries
+    statically with `-static'.  In order to compensate for this, there is a new
+    link flag `-static-libtool-libs' to provide the previous `-static' 
semantics.
+
+* New features:
+
+  - Fix installation of libltdl so that it does not need Autoconf and Automake
+    installed, in order to be usable in another package.  This lifts the
+    restrictions introduced in 1.9b.
+  - New LT_CONFIG_LTDL_DIR macro to specify a different directory name for a
+    convenience libltdl.
+  - libtoolize has been completely overhauled.
+  - `libtoolize --install' now also installs `install-sh'.
+  - New libtoolize options: --non-recursive, --recursive, --subproject.  These
+    options control the way libltdl is installed into a package by libtoolize.
+    The new recursive and non-recursive build modes for libltdl don't require
+    a subconfigure any more.
+    The Libtool package itself builds libltdl nonrecursively.
+  - New multi-module-loader safe libltdl handle iteration APIs:
+    lt_dlhandle_iterate, lt_dlhandle_fetch, lt_dlhandle_map.
+  - New lt_dlinterface_register to maintain separation of concerns between
+    modules loaded by different libraries.
+  - Allow shell special characters like `$' in source file names, but not
+    in object names, to enhance GCJ support.
+  - An entire new Autotest-based testsuite in addition to the old one.
+    Both testsuites have been made more useful for testing cross-compilers.
+    The new testsuite exposes many more issues, but may also be a little rocky
+    on exotic systems.
+
+* Changes in supported systems or compilers:
+
+  - Detection of compiler wrappers like distcc/ccache and $host_alias prefix.
+  - Basic support for PIE (position-independent executables).
+  - Support for DragonFly BSD, improved support for FreeBSD.
+  - Improved support for GNU/kFreeBSD and GNU/NetBSD.
+  - Support for Interix 3 (Windows SFU).
+  - Improved support for UnixWare.
+  - Initial support for RDOS.
+  - Initial Support for FC (modern Fortran).
+  - Support for Portland Group compiler and the Sun compiler suite on 
GNU/Linux.
+  - Support for linux-dietlibc (`diet' as well as `diet-dyn', separately).
+  - Building libltdl with a C++ compiler has been undusted.
+  - On (AIX?,) HP-UX, and OpenBSD, hardcoding has been changed to prefer rpath 
over
+    absolute dependent library names.  This fixes DESTDIR installs, among 
others,
+    on the non-HP-UX/PA systems.
+  - Use of C++ templates together with shared libraries has been improved on 
some
+    systems and with some compilers, but is still ongoing work.  Feedback is
+    desirable here.
+
+* Bug fixes:
+
+  - Fix libltdl on static platforms.
+  - Search paths with GCC on multilib systems like x86_64 have been fixed.
+  - Fixed a regression that prevented use of libltdl without autotools.
+  - Fix error with -version-info on systems with version_type=none, such
+    as BeOS.
+  - Fix symbol exporting for cases where command line length limits are 
exceeded.
+  - Improve linking with C++ libraries on Solaris with Sun compiler.
+  - Fix installation of libraries that are required by installation commands
+    such as `ln' or `rm'.
+  - Loads of smaller bug fixes.
+
 
 New in 1.9f: 2004-10-23; CVS version 1.9e, Libtool team:
 * Fix a regression in 1.9d, where ECHO was always set to 'echo' and the