Re: using color-tests backwards-portably

[Ben Pfaff]

Ralf Wildenhues <address@hidden> writes:

> I think Automake should provide an API to allow users to say "if the
> Automake version is >= X, then expand this configure.ac code".  I think
> that would be general enough (it could use Automake conditionals to
> adjust Makefile.am files, it could check for >= X and not >= X+1 to
> enforce exact versions (or we could just provide a general version
> compare function) and it could then call AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE with the
> appropriate options).  Also, it would be explicit enough for the
> developer to be conscious about not using this by accident.

As an alternative, could Automake provide an API that allows
users to say "if feature X is supported, then expand this
configure.ac code"?  For example:

  AM_FEATURE_PREREQ([color-tests],
                    [AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE([foreign color-tests])],
                    [AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE([foreign])])

This seems to me more in keeping with the Autoconf philosophy.
-- 
Ben Pfaff 
http://benpfaff.org