From: Eric Blake Date: Sat, 12 Dec 2009 14:03:46 +0000 (-0700) Subject: Improve wording about m4 quote characters. X-Git-Tag: v2.66~107 X-Git-Url: http://git.ipfire.org/cgi-bin/gitweb.cgi?a=commitdiff_plain;h=3fbac862d74fcae50f2e49ac2298a856a441742c;p=thirdparty%2Fautoconf.git Improve wording about m4 quote characters. * doc/autoconf.texi (Autoconf Language): Autoconf quote characters come from m4sugar, not raw m4. (Active Characters): Mention that it is m4sugar which changes quotes from `' to []. * THANKS: Update. Suggested by Josef Vukovic. Signed-off-by: Eric Blake --- diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog index 528ff2b0..205c5350 100644 --- a/ChangeLog +++ b/ChangeLog @@ -1,3 +1,13 @@ +2009-12-12 Eric Blake + + Improve wording about m4 quote characters. + * doc/autoconf.texi (Autoconf Language): Autoconf quote characters + come from m4sugar, not raw m4. + (Active Characters): Mention that it is m4sugar which changes + quotes from `' to []. + * THANKS: Update. + Suggested by Josef Vukovic. + 2009-12-12 Ralf Wildenhues Revert "Improve AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIRS a bit." to fix shtool usage. diff --git a/THANKS b/THANKS index 623a2978..a7afaf15 100644 --- a/THANKS +++ b/THANKS @@ -193,6 +193,7 @@ John R. Cary cary@txcorp.com John W. Eaton jwe@bevo.che.wisc.edu Jonathan Kamens jik@kamens.brookline.ma.us Josef Tran josef@timetrackertechnology.com +Josef Vukovic josefvukovic@googlemail.com Joseph S. Myers jsm28@cam.ac.uk Jules Colding colding@42tools.com Julian Onions j.onions@nexor.co.uk diff --git a/doc/autoconf.texi b/doc/autoconf.texi index 3144610a..76bb279d 100644 --- a/doc/autoconf.texi +++ b/doc/autoconf.texi @@ -1133,12 +1133,13 @@ quotation. When calling macros that take arguments, there must not be any white space between the macro name and the open parenthesis. Arguments should -be enclosed within the M4 quote characters @samp{[} and @samp{]}, and be +be enclosed within the quote characters @samp{[} and @samp{]}, and be separated by commas. Any leading blanks or newlines in arguments are ignored, unless they are quoted. You should always quote an argument that might contain a macro name, comma, parenthesis, or a leading blank or newline. This rule applies recursively for every macro -call, including macros called from other macros. +call, including macros called from other macros. For more details on +quoting rules, see @ref{Programming in M4}. For instance: @@ -9864,7 +9865,9 @@ former helps one to follow the latter. To fully understand where proper quotation is important, you first need to know what the special characters are in Autoconf: @samp{#} introduces a comment inside which no macro expansion is performed, @samp{,} -separates arguments, @samp{[} and @samp{]} are the quotes themselves, +separates arguments, @samp{[} and @samp{]} are the quotes +themselves@footnote{By itself, M4 uses @samp{`} and @samp{'}; it is the +M4sugar layer that sets up the preferred quotes of @samp{[} and @samp{]}.}, @samp{(} and @samp{)} (which M4 tries to match by pairs), and finally @samp{$} inside a macro definition.