These macros are used to find functions not covered by the “particular”
test macros. If the functions might be in libraries other than the
default C library, first call AC_CHECK_LIB
for those libraries.
If you need to check the behavior of a function as well as find out
whether it is present, you have to write your own test for
it (see Writing Tests).
If C function function is available, run shell commands action-if-found, otherwise action-if-not-found. If you just want to define a symbol if the function is available, consider using
AC_CHECK_FUNCS
instead. This macro checks for functions with C linkage even whenAC_LANG(C++)
has been called, since C is more standardized than C++. (see Language Choice, for more information about selecting the language for checks.)
For each function enumerated in the blank-or-newline-separated argument list, define
HAVE_
function (in all capitals) if it is available. If action-if-found is given, it is additional shell code to execute when one of the functions is found. You can give it a value of ‘break’ to break out of the loop on the first match. If action-if-not-found is given, it is executed when one of the functions is not found.
For each function enumerated in the blank-or-newline-separated argument list, define
HAVE_
function (in all capitals) if it is available. This is a once-only variant ofAC_CHECK_FUNCS
. It generates the checking code at most once, so that configure is smaller and faster; but the checks cannot be conditionalized and are always done once, early during the configure run.
Autoconf follows a philosophy that was formed over the years by those who have struggled for portability: isolate the portability issues in specific files, and then program as if you were in a Posix environment. Some functions may be missing or unfixable, and your package must be ready to replace them.
Suitable replacements for many such problem functions are available from Gnulib (see Gnulib).
Specify that ‘function.c’ must be included in the executables to replace a missing or broken implementation of function.
Technically, it adds ‘function.$ac_objext’ to the output variable
LIBOBJS
if it is not already in, and callsAC_LIBSOURCE
for ‘function.c’. You should not directly changeLIBOBJS
, since this is not traceable.
Specify that file might be needed to compile the project. If you need to know what files might be needed by a configure.ac, you should trace
AC_LIBSOURCE
. file must be a literal.This macro is called automatically from
AC_LIBOBJ
, but you must call it explicitly if you pass a shell variable toAC_LIBOBJ
. In that case, since shell variables cannot be traced statically, you must pass toAC_LIBSOURCE
any possible files that the shell variable might causeAC_LIBOBJ
to need. For example, if you want to pass a variable$foo_or_bar
toAC_LIBOBJ
that holds either"foo"
or"bar"
, you should do:AC_LIBSOURCE([foo.c]) AC_LIBSOURCE([bar.c]) AC_LIBOBJ([$foo_or_bar])There is usually a way to avoid this, however, and you are encouraged to simply call
AC_LIBOBJ
with literal arguments.Note that this macro replaces the obsolete
AC_LIBOBJ_DECL
, with slightly different semantics: the old macro took the function name, e.g.,foo
, as its argument rather than the file name.
Like
AC_LIBSOURCE
, but accepts one or more files in a comma-separated M4 list. Thus, the above example might be rewritten:AC_LIBSOURCES([foo.c, bar.c]) AC_LIBOBJ([$foo_or_bar])
Specify that
AC_LIBOBJ
replacement files are to be found in directory, a name relative to the top level of the source tree. The replacement directory defaults to ., the top level directory, and the most typical value is lib, corresponding to ‘AC_CONFIG_LIBOBJ_DIR([lib])’.configure might need to know the replacement directory for the following reasons: (i) some checks use the replacement files, (ii) some macros bypass broken system headers by installing links to the replacement headers (iii) when used in conjunction with Automake, within each makefile, directory is used as a relative path from
$(top_srcdir)
to each object named inLIBOBJS
andLTLIBOBJS
, etc.
It is common to merely check for the existence of a function, and ask for its
AC_LIBOBJ
replacement if missing. The following macro is
a convenient shorthand.
Like
AC_CHECK_FUNCS
, but uses ‘AC_LIBOBJ(function)’ as action-if-not-found. You can declare your replacement function by enclosing the prototype in ‘#ifndef HAVE_function’. If the system has the function, it probably declares it in a header file you should be including, so you shouldn't redeclare it lest your declaration conflict.