[sr #111256] provide AC_CHECK_TOOL* variants that support a custom test

Bruno Haible <[email protected]> Thu, 12 Jun 2025 12:54:53 -0400 (EDT)
Newsgroups	gmane.comp.sysutils.autoconf.bugs
Message-ID	<[email protected]>
URL:
  <https://savannah.gnu.org/support/?111256>

                 Summary: provide AC_CHECK_TOOL* variants that support a
custom test
                   Group: Autoconf
               Submitter: haible
               Submitted: Do 12 Jun 2025 18:54:49 CEST
                Priority: 5 - Unprioritized
                Severity: 3 - Normal
                  Status: None
                 Privacy: Public
             Assigned to: None
        Originator Email:
             Open/Closed: Open
         Discussion Lock: Any
        Operating System: None


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Follow-up Comments:


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Date: Do 12 Jun 2025 18:54:49 CEST   By: Bruno Haible <haible>
The macros AC_CHECK_PROGS, AC_CHECK_TOOL, AC_CHECK_TOOLS, AC_PATH_PROG,
AC_PATH_PROGS, documented in
https://www.gnu.org/savannah-checkouts/gnu/autoconf/manual/autoconf-2.72/html_node/Generic-Programs.html
, search for the programs under different names or (in case of AC_PATH_*) in
different directories. It would be useful to be able to add a custom test to
the search, for example
  - a version number test, or
  - a sanity check.

For the AC_PATH_PROG, AC_PATH_PROGS macros this can already be done through
AC_PATH_PROGS_FEATURE_CHECK, or through the AM_PATH_PROG_WITH_TEST macro (from
gnulib/m4/progtest.m4) that predates AC_PATH_PROGS_FEATURE_CHECK.

Can we have similar variants also for AC_CHECK_PROGS, AC_CHECK_TOOL,
AC_CHECK_TOOLS ?

My immediate use-case is that I have a macro that looks for a D compiler:

AC_CHECK_TOOLS([DC], [gdc ldc2 dmd egdc])

and I want to not use a compiler that has installation problems, like the one
in current Cygwin, through a test like:

echo > empty.d
${DC} -c empty.d; rc=$?
rm -f empty.d empty.o empty.obj
exit $rc

Without copying gobs of code from Autoconf's implementation of AC_CHECK_TOOLS,
I need to decompose the AC_CHECK_TOOLS invocation into 8 checks:
${host_alias}-gdc
${host_alias}-ldc2
${host_alias}-dmd
${host_alias}-egdc
gdc
ldc2
dmd
egdc
and add my custom test after each. I would like to have a simpler way of
writing the same thing.








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