Re: [PATCH] Replaced obsoleted AC_HELP_STRING to AS_HELP_STRING

[Mike Frysinger <vapier@gentoo.org>]

On 15 Feb 2021 10:39, Adhemerval Zanella wrote:
> On 15/02/2021 10:29, Mike Frysinger wrote:
> > On 15 Feb 2021 09:59, Adhemerval Zanella via Libc-alpha wrote:
> >> On 15/02/2021 09:31, Naohiro Tamura wrote:
> >>> This patch replaced obsoleted AC_HELP_STRING to AS_HELP_STRING.
> >>> As of Glibc 2.33, INSTALL says "GNU 'autoconf' 2.69 (exactly)" is
> >>> required. So we can safely replace obsoleted macro without worrying
> >>> about older autoconf.
> >>> This change doesn't affect the contents of "configure" file.
> >>
> >> If this does not change or improve configure, why change configure.ac
> >> then?
> > 
> > why wait for autoconf to start warning that we're using a deprecated
> > macro and failing the build or confusing devs ?
> > 
> > patch LGTM
> 
> Because we use a macro to test for the specific autoconf version:

that's not an argument for continuing to use deprecated macros

> aclocal.m4:
> 
>   5 m4_define([GLIBC_AUTOCONF_VERSION], [2.69])
>   6 m4_if(m4_defn([AC_AUTOCONF_VERSION]), GLIBC_AUTOCONF_VERSION, [],
>   7       [m4_fatal(m4_flatten(
>   8 Exactly version GLIBC_AUTOCONF_VERSION of Autoconf is required but you have
>   9 m4_defn([AC_AUTOCONF_VERSION])
> 
> So autoconf will start to fail or dumping a warning only if the
> distro actually patch it to do so.
> 
> I don't have a strong opinion about this patch, but due the *current*
> constraints of the auto-generation (which requires an specific autoconf
> version), this patch does not improve anything really.

the macro is clearly deprecated upstream.  the version we're pinned to supports
the non-deprecated version.  i don't see why we're debating this.

it's a lot easier to upgrade versions when you don't have to dig through a pile
of warnings in the process.  if people want to do migrations ahead of time (and
have even written the patches), then let's merge them.
-mike