GNU bug report logs - #67516
[PATCH] aclocal: handle both # and dnl for serial number lines

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Message #5 received at submit <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Karl Berry <karl <at> freefriends.org>
To: ross.burton <at> intel.com
Cc: automake-patches <at> gnu.org
Subject: Re: [PATCH] aclocal: handle both # and dnl for serial number lines
Date: Tue, 28 Nov 2023 14:06:47 -0700

Hi Ross - you sent a change to automake-patches back in February 2017.
Sorry for the absurdly delayed reply.

    https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/automake-patches/2017-02/msg00001.html

    Instead of only accepting comment lines that start with # for serial
    lines, also accept dnl.
    ...
    -my $serial_line_rx = '^#\s*serial\s+(\S*)';
    +my $serial_line_rx = '^(?:#|dnl)\s*serial\s+(\S*)';

While there's no technical problem with the patch, I'm not sure
supporting dnl is desirable. It seems better for the serial line to
always end up in whatever file is generated, for the sake of debugging
and documentation, instead of being eliminated at m4-time. If there was
a specific case where it was better to eliminate it, please describe ...

Also, because it's been so many years and I don't think it's ever come
up as a request, clearly things go on in any case :).

(Thanks to Bogdan for unearthing this from the archives.) --best, karl.

Message #10 received at 67516-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Karl Berry <karl <at> freefriends.org>
To: 67516-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#67516: Acknowledgement ([PATCH] aclocal: handle both # and
 dnl for serial number lines)
Date: Tue, 28 Nov 2023 14:13:40 -0700

Message #13 received at 67516 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Nick Bowler <nbowler <at> draconx.ca>
To: Karl Berry <karl <at> freefriends.org>
Cc: 67516 <at> debbugs.gnu.org, ross.burton <at> intel.com
Subject: Re: [bug#67516] [PATCH] aclocal: handle both # and dnl for serial
 number lines
Date: Tue, 28 Nov 2023 16:27:21 -0500

On 2023-11-28 16:06, Karl Berry wrote:
> Hi Ross - you sent a change to automake-patches back in February 2017.
> Sorry for the absurdly delayed reply.
> 
>     https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/automake-patches/2017-02/msg00001.html
> 
>     Instead of only accepting comment lines that start with # for serial
>     lines, also accept dnl.
>     ...
>     -my $serial_line_rx = '^#\s*serial\s+(\S*)';
>     +my $serial_line_rx = '^(?:#|dnl)\s*serial\s+(\S*)';
> 
> While there's no technical problem with the patch, I'm not sure
> supporting dnl is desirable. It seems better for the serial line to
> always end up in whatever file is generated, for the sake of debugging
> and documentation, instead of being eliminated at m4-time. If there was
> a specific case where it was better to eliminate it, please describe ...

This shouldn't make any difference.  In all "normal" uses of aclocal
everything in these files is going to be diverted to KILL anyway so
neither form should result in any output text going into configure.

And with respect to how aclocal imports macro files into a project
(either as separate files w/ --install, or directly into aclocal.m4),
it just copies files verbatim so it doesn't matter what syntax is used.

But by the same token there would seem to be no technical reason to
prefer dnl over #...

Cheers,
  Nick

Message #16 received at 67516 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Mike Frysinger <vapier <at> gentoo.org>
To: Nick Bowler <nbowler <at> draconx.ca>
Cc: 67516 <at> debbugs.gnu.org, ross.burton <at> intel.com,
 Karl Berry <karl <at> freefriends.org>
Subject: Re: [bug#67516] [PATCH] aclocal: handle both # and dnl for serial
 number lines
Date: Fri, 1 Dec 2023 15:10:02 -0500

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

On 28 Nov 2023 16:27, Nick Bowler wrote:
> On 2023-11-28 16:06, Karl Berry wrote:
> > Hi Ross - you sent a change to automake-patches back in February 2017.
> > Sorry for the absurdly delayed reply.
> > 
> >     https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/automake-patches/2017-02/msg00001.html
> > 
> >     Instead of only accepting comment lines that start with # for serial
> >     lines, also accept dnl.
> >     ...
> >     -my $serial_line_rx = '^#\s*serial\s+(\S*)';
> >     +my $serial_line_rx = '^(?:#|dnl)\s*serial\s+(\S*)';
> > 
> > While there's no technical problem with the patch, I'm not sure
> > supporting dnl is desirable. It seems better for the serial line to
> > always end up in whatever file is generated, for the sake of debugging
> > and documentation, instead of being eliminated at m4-time. If there was
> > a specific case where it was better to eliminate it, please describe ...
> 
> This shouldn't make any difference.  In all "normal" uses of aclocal
> everything in these files is going to be diverted to KILL anyway so
> neither form should result in any output text going into configure.
> 
> And with respect to how aclocal imports macro files into a project
> (either as separate files w/ --install, or directly into aclocal.m4),
> it just copies files verbatim so it doesn't matter what syntax is used.
> 
> But by the same token there would seem to be no technical reason to
> prefer dnl over #...

only angle of concern i can think of is that people are using dnl in their code
without realizing it's basically silently ignored.  if we don't want to support
dnl, we should prob be chatty about it at some log level.
-mike

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Message #19 received at 67516 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Karl Berry <karl <at> freefriends.org>
To: vapier <at> gentoo.org
Cc: nbowler <at> draconx.ca, 67516 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: [bug#67516] [PATCH] aclocal: handle both # and dnl for serial
 number lines
Date: Fri, 1 Dec 2023 16:10:17 -0700

    without realizing it's basically silently ignored.  if we don't want
    to support dnl, we should prob be chatty about it at some log level.

The "Serials" node in the manual only mentions "#". I guess I don't see
a need to go out of our way to do anything else, given that this was the
only report about it (and the OP's email now bounces). --thanks, karl.

Message #22 received at 67516 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Mike Frysinger <vapier <at> gentoo.org>
To: Karl Berry <karl <at> freefriends.org>
Cc: nbowler <at> draconx.ca, 67516 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: [bug#67516] [PATCH] aclocal: handle both # and dnl for serial
 number lines
Date: Fri, 1 Dec 2023 20:00:06 -0500

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

On 01 Dec 2023 16:10, Karl Berry wrote:
>     without realizing it's basically silently ignored.  if we don't want
>     to support dnl, we should prob be chatty about it at some log level.
> 
> The "Serials" node in the manual only mentions "#". I guess I don't see
> a need to go out of our way to do anything else, given that this was the
> only report about it (and the OP's email now bounces). --thanks, karl.

i tend to see it as "if one person took the time to track us down and
complain, then chances are there's more who didn't".  which means some
people tried dnl, noticed, fought the system, then figured it out.  imo
if the diagnostics are easy & cheap to add, then saving a few people a
bit of pain is nice, especially when it's a common practice we adopt,
and not just this one thing in isolation.

all that said, i'm not interested in writing the patch for this particular
issue, especially when manual serial management is uncommon, and i rarely
do it myself.
-mike

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