Mingw with Autotools is incomplete

[avih]

Commit 0571d11 is "Make mingw build properly from autotools", however, I think it's incomplete.

Specifically, ./configure fails for me, I think incorrectly, with:

checking for working terminal libraries... Cannot find terminal libraries - configure failed

while "terminal libraries" are likely not actually needed or used in a mingw build (it doesn't use curses or termcap or terminfo etc in a windows/mingw build as far as I know).

This was tested in w64devkit environment and configure generated by me on linux using make -f Makefile.aut, but I presume the same issue would happen with a pre-generated configure script distributed with a release tarball.

The same issue was observed on Alpine linux with the mingw-w64-gcc package installed (and invoking ./configure --host=<mingw-host>).

In both cases make -f Makefile.wng CC=<mingw-gcc> (the "stand alone" mingw makefile) does work.

If I workaround the terminal lib issue (just comment out the relevant exit 1 in configure) then it does complete successfully, and, assuming funcs.h and help.c exist (which make -f Makefile.aut does generate, though it only uses perl, and doesn't have fallbacks like the wng or wnm makefiles have to sh or a native binary), then make it does end up building successfully.

Some notable differences between the autotools mingw build and the Makefile.wng build:

1. defines.h is diffrent. See below the full diff, however, at the very least the some dirs are different, regex setup is missing, as well as some default file names like .less vs _less and more, and OUTBUF_SIZE is also different (see 1f88659).
2. During the build, there are a lot of these warnings, which don't exist with the Makefile.wng build:

funcs.h:443:12: warning: '_pclose' redeclared without dllimport attribute: previous dllimport ignored [-Wattributes]
  443 | public int pclose(FILE *f);
      |            ^~~~~~

For reference, here's a full diff (ignoring whitespace changes) of `defines.wn` to the generated `defines.h` (click me)

:

diff --git a/defines.wn b/defines.h
index 120d29e..e553a55 100644
--- a/defines.wn
+++ b/defines.h
@@ -1,28 +1,27 @@
-/*
- * Copyright (C) 1984-2025  Mark Nudelman
- *
- * You may distribute under the terms of either the GNU General Public
- * License or the Less License, as specified in the README file.
- *
- * For more information, see the README file.
- */
+/* defines.h.  Generated from defines.h.in by configure.  */
+/* defines.h.in.  Generated from configure.ac by autoheader.  */
 
 
-/* Windows definition file for less.  */
-/*
- * This file has 2 sections:
+/* Unix definition file for less.  -*- C -*-
+ *
+ * This file has 3 sections:
  * User preferences.
- * Settings always true for Windows systems. 
+ * Settings always true on Unix.
+ * Settings automatically determined by configure.
+ *
+ * * * * * *  WARNING  * * * * * *
+ * If you edit defines.h by hand, do "touch stamp-h" before you run make
+ * so config.status doesn't overwrite your changes.
  */
 
-
 /* User preferences.  */
 
 /*
  * SECURE is 1 if you wish to disable a bunch of features in order to
  * be safe to run by unprivileged users.
+ * SECURE_COMPILE is set by the --with-secure configure option.
  */
-#define	SECURE		0
+#define SECURE          SECURE_COMPILE
 
 /*
  * SHELL_ESCAPE is 1 if you wish to allow shell escapes.
@@ -59,7 +58,6 @@
  * EDIT_PGM is the name of the (default) editor to be invoked.
  */
 #define EDITOR          (!SECURE)
-#define	EDIT_PGM	"edit"
 
 /*
  * TAGS is 1 if you wish to support tag files.
@@ -67,7 +65,7 @@
 #define TAGS            (!SECURE)
 
 /*
- * USERFILE is 1 if you wish to allow a .less file to specify 
+ * USERFILE is 1 if you wish to allow a .lesskey or .less file to specify 
  * user-defined key bindings.
  */
 #define USERFILE        (!SECURE)
@@ -77,13 +75,13 @@
  * This will generally work if your system provides the "popen" function
  * and the "echo" shell command.
  */
-#define	GLOB		0
+#define GLOB            (!SECURE)
 
 /*
  * PIPEC is 1 if you wish to have the "|" command
  * which allows the user to pipe data into a shell command.
  */
-#define	PIPEC		1
+#define PIPEC           (!SECURE && HAVE_POPEN)
 
 /*
  * LOGFILE is 1 if you wish to allow the -o option (to create log files).
@@ -91,7 +89,7 @@
 #define LOGFILE         (!SECURE)
 
 /*
- * OSC8_SEARCH is 1 if you wish to allow the ^O^O and related commands
+ * OSC8_LINK is 1 if you wish to allow the ^O^O and related commands
  * (to open OSC8 hyperlinks).
  */
 #define OSC8_LINK       1
@@ -118,21 +116,42 @@
  * LESSHISTFILE is the filename of the history file
  * (in the HOME directory).
  */
-#define	LESSKEYFILE		"_less"
-#define	LESSKEYFILE_SYS		"c:\\_sysless"
-#define	DEF_LESSKEYINFILE	"_lesskey"
-#define	LESSKEYINFILE_SYS	"c:\\_syslesskey"
-#define LESSHISTFILE		"_lesshst"
-
-
-/* Settings always true for Windows systems.  */
+#define LESSKEYFILE             ".less"
+#define LESSKEYFILE_SYS         SYSDIR "/sysless"
+#define DEF_LESSKEYINFILE       ".lesskey"
+#define LESSKEYINFILE_SYS       SYSDIR "/syslesskey"
+#define LESSHISTFILE            ".lesshst"
 
+/* Autodetect mingw */
+#if defined(__MINGW32__)
+/*
+ * Define MSDOS_COMPILER if compiling under Microsoft C.
+ */
 #define MSDOS_COMPILER  WIN32C
 
 /*
  * Pathname separator character.
  */
 #define PATHNAME_SEP    "\\"
+#else
+/*
+ * Define MSDOS_COMPILER if compiling under Microsoft C.
+ */
+#define MSDOS_COMPILER  0
+
+/*
+ * Pathname separator character.
+ */
+#define PATHNAME_SEP    "/"
+#endif
+
+/* Settings always true on Unix.  */
+
+/*
+ * The value returned from tgetent on success.
+ * Some HP-UX systems return 0 on success.
+ */
+#define TGETENT_OK  1
 
 /*
  * HAVE_ANSI_PROTOS is 1 if your compiler supports ANSI function prototypes.
@@ -147,7 +166,7 @@
 /*
  * Define if you have the <sgstat.h> header file.
  */
-#define HAVE_SGSTAT_H	0
+/* #undef HAVE_SGSTAT_H */
 
 /*
  * HAVE_PERROR is 1 if your system has the perror() call.
@@ -163,19 +182,28 @@
 /*
  * HAVE_SHELL is 1 if your system supports a SHELL command interpreter.
  */
-#define	HAVE_SHELL	0
+#define HAVE_SHELL      1
 
 /*
  * Default shell metacharacters and meta-escape character.
  */
-#define	DEF_METACHARS	"; *?\t\n'\"()<>|&"
-#define	DEF_METAESCAPE	""
+#define DEF_METACHARS   "; *?\t\n'\"()<>[]|&^`#\\$%=~{},"
+#define DEF_METAESCAPE  "\\"
 
 /* 
  * HAVE_DUP is 1 if your system has the dup() call.
  */
 #define HAVE_DUP        1
 
+/* Define to 1 if you have the memcpy() function. */
+#define HAVE_MEMCPY 1
+
+/* Define to 1 if you have the strchr() function. */
+#define HAVE_STRCHR 1
+
+/* Define to 1 if you have the strstr() function. */
+#define HAVE_STRSTR 1
+
 /* Define to 1 to support reading lesskey source files (not just binary). */
 #define HAVE_LESSKEYSRC 1
 
@@ -197,7 +225,7 @@
 #define CMDBUF_SIZE     2048    /* Buffer for multichar commands */
 #define UNGOT_SIZE      200     /* Max chars to unget() */
 #define LINEBUF_SIZE    1024    /* Initial max size of line in input file */
-#define	OUTBUF_SIZE	8192	/* Output buffer: 8K avoids end-of-buffer bugs in win_flush */
+#define OUTBUF_SIZE     1024    /* Output buffer */
 #define PROMPT_SIZE     2048    /* Max size of prompt string */
 #define TERMBUF_SIZE    2048    /* Termcap buffer for tgetent */
 #define TERMSBUF_SIZE   1024    /* Buffer to hold termcap strings */
@@ -206,196 +234,264 @@
 #define LINENUM_POOL    1024    /* Size of line number pool */
 #endif
 
-/* Define to `long' if <sys/types.h> doesn't define.  */
-/* #define	off_t	long */
-
-/* Define if you need to in order for stat and other things to work.  */
-/* #undef _POSIX_SOURCE */
-
 /* Define as the return type of signal handlers (int or void).  */
 #define RETSIGTYPE void
 
+/* Settings automatically determined by configure.  */
 
-/*
- * Regular expression library.
- * Define exactly one of the following to be 1:
- * HAVE_POSIX_REGCOMP: POSIX regcomp() and regex.h
- * HAVE_RE_COMP: BSD re_comp()
- * HAVE_REGCMP: System V regcmp()
- * HAVE_V8_REGCOMP: Henry Spencer V8 regcomp() and regexp.h
- * NO_REGEX: pattern matching is supported, but without metacharacters.
- */
-/* #undef HAVE_POSIX_REGCOMP */
-/* #undef HAVE_RE_COMP */
-/* #undef HAVE_REGCMP */
-#ifdef MINGW
-    #ifdef USE_POSIX_REGCOMP
-	#define HAVE_POSIX_REGCOMP 1
-    #else
-	#ifdef USE_GNU_REGEX
-	    #define HAVE_GNU_REGEX  1
-        #else
-            #ifdef USE_REGEXP_C
-		#define HAVE_V8_REGCOMP 1
-		#define HAVE_REGEXEC2   1
-            #else
-                #define NO_REGEX 1
-	    #endif
-	#endif
-    #endif
-#else
-#define HAVE_V8_REGCOMP 1
-/* #undef NO_REGEX */
-#define HAVE_REGEXEC2 1
-#endif
 
-/* Define HAVE_VOID if your compiler supports the "void" type. */
-#define HAVE_VOID 1
+/* Define EDIT_PGM to your editor. */
+#define EDIT_PGM "vi"
 
 /* Define HAVE_CONST if your compiler supports the "const" modifier. */
 #define HAVE_CONST 1
 
-/* Define HAVE_TIME_T if your system supports the "time_t" type. */
-#define HAVE_TIME_T 1
+/* Define to 1 if you have the <ctype.h> header file. */
+#define HAVE_CTYPE_H 1
 
-/* Define HAVE_STRERROR if you have the strerror() function. */
-#define HAVE_STRERROR 1
+/* Define HAVE_ERRNO if you have the errno variable. */
+#define HAVE_ERRNO 1
+
+/* Define to 1 if you have the <errno.h> header file. */
+#define HAVE_ERRNO_H 1
+
+/* Define to 1 if you have the `fchmod' function. */
+/* #undef HAVE_FCHMOD */
+
+/* Define to 1 if you have the <fcntl.h> header file. */
+#define HAVE_FCNTL_H 1
 
 /* Define HAVE_FILENO if you have the fileno() macro. */
 #define HAVE_FILENO 1
 
-/* Define HAVE_ERRNO if you have the errno variable */
-#define HAVE_ERRNO 1
-/* Define MUST_DEFINE_ERRNO if you have errno but it is not defined in errno.h */
-#define MUST_DEFINE_ERRNO 0
+/* Define to 1 if you have the `fsync' function. */
+/* #undef HAVE_FSYNC */
+
+/* GNU regex library */
+/* #undef HAVE_GNU_REGEX */
+
+/* Define to 1 if you have the <inttypes.h> header file. */
+#define HAVE_INTTYPES_H 1
+
+/* Define to 1 if you have the <limits.h> header file. */
+#define HAVE_LIMITS_H 1
+
+/* Define HAVE_LOCALE if you have locale.h and setlocale. */
+/* #undef HAVE_LOCALE */
+
+/* Define to 1 if you have the `nanosleep' function. */
+#define HAVE_NANOSLEEP 1
+
+/* Define to 1 if you have the <ncursesw/termcap.h> header file. */
+/* #undef HAVE_NCURSESW_TERMCAP_H */
+
+/* Define to 1 if you have the <ncurses/termcap.h> header file. */
+/* #undef HAVE_NCURSES_TERMCAP_H */
+
+/* Define HAVE_OSPEED if your termcap library has the ospeed variable. */
+/* #undef HAVE_OSPEED */
+
+/* PCRE (Perl-compatible regular expression) library */
+/* #undef HAVE_PCRE */
+
+/* PCRE2 (Perl-compatible regular expression) library */
+/* #undef HAVE_PCRE2 */
+
+/* Define to 1 if you have the `poll' function. */
+/* #undef HAVE_POLL */
+
+/* Define to 1 if you have the `popen' function. */
+#define HAVE_POPEN 1
+
+/* POSIX regcomp() and regex.h */
+/* #undef HAVE_POSIX_REGCOMP */
+
+/* Define to 1 if you have the `realpath' function. */
+/* #undef HAVE_REALPATH */
+
+/* System V regcmp() */
+/* #undef HAVE_REGCMP */
+
+/* */
+#define HAVE_REGEXEC2 1
+
+/* BSD re_comp() */
+/* #undef HAVE_RE_COMP */
+
 /* Define HAVE_SETTABLE_ERRNO if the errno variable can be assigned to. */
 #define HAVE_SETTABLE_ERRNO 1
 
-/* Define HAVE_SYS_ERRLIST if you have the sys_errlist[] variable */
-#define HAVE_SYS_ERRLIST 1
+/* Define HAVE_SIGEMPTYSET if you have the sigemptyset macro. */
+/* #undef HAVE_SIGEMPTYSET */
 
-/* Define HAVE_OSPEED if your termcap library has the ospeed variable */
-#define HAVE_OSPEED 0
-/* Define MUST_DEFINE_OSPEED if you have ospeed but it is not defined
- * in termcap.h. */
-#define MUST_DEFINE_OSPEED 0
+/* Define to 1 if you have the `sigprocmask' function. */
+/* #undef HAVE_SIGPROCMASK */
 
-/* Define HAVE_LOCALE if you have locale.h and setlocale. */
-#define HAVE_LOCALE 0
+/* Define HAVE_SIGSETJMP if you have sigsetjmp and siglongjmp. */
+/* #undef HAVE_SIGSETJMP */
 
-/* Define HAVE_TERMIOS_FUNCS if you have tcgetattr/tcsetattr */
-#define HAVE_TERMIOS_FUNCS 0
+/* Define to 1 if you have the `sigsetmask' function. */
+/* #undef HAVE_SIGSETMASK */
 
-/* Define HAVE_UPPER_LOWER if you have isupper, islower, toupper, tolower */
-#define HAVE_UPPER_LOWER 1
+/* Define to 1 if the system has the type `sigset_t'. */
+/* #undef HAVE_SIGSET_T */
 
-/* Define if you have the _setjmp function.  */
-#define HAVE__SETJMP	1
-
-/* Define if you have the memcpy function.  */
-#define HAVE_MEMCPY 1
-
-/* Define if you have the popen function.  */
-#define HAVE_POPEN 1
-
-/* Define if you have the sigsetmask function.  */
-#define HAVE_SIGSETMASK	0
-
-/* Define if you have the sigprocmask function.  */
-#define HAVE_SIGPROCMASK	0
-
-/* Define if you have the sigset_t type and sigemptyset macro */
-#define HAVE_SIGSET_T	0
-#define HAVE_SIGEMPTYSET	0
-
-/* Define if you have the stat function.  */
-#define HAVE_STAT 1
-
-/* Define if you have the strchr function.  */
-#define HAVE_STRCHR 1
-
-/* Define if you have the system function.  */
-#define HAVE_SYSTEM	1
-
-/* Define if you have the snprintf function.  */
+/* Define to 1 if you have the `snprintf' function. */
 #define HAVE_SNPRINTF 1
 
-/* Define if you have the <ctype.h> header file.  */
-#define HAVE_CTYPE_H 1
+/* Define to 1 if you have the `stat' function. */
+#define HAVE_STAT 1
 
-/* Define if you have the <wctype.h> header file.  */
-#define HAVE_WCTYPE_H 1
+/* Define HAVE_STAT_INO if your struct stat has st_ino and st_dev. */
+#define HAVE_STAT_INO 1
 
-/* Define if you have the <errno.h> header file.  */
-#define HAVE_ERRNO_H 1
+/* Define to 1 if you have the <stdckdint.h> header file. */
+/* #undef HAVE_STDCKDINT_H */
 
-/* Define if you have the <fcntl.h> header file.  */
-#define HAVE_FCNTL_H 1
+/* Define to 1 if you have the <stdint.h> header file. */
+#define HAVE_STDINT_H 1
 
-/* Define if you have the <limits.h> header file.  */
-#define HAVE_LIMITS_H 1
-
-/* Define if you have the <stdio.h> header file.  */
+/* Define to 1 if you have the <stdio.h> header file. */
 #define HAVE_STDIO_H 1
 
-/* Define if you have the <string.h> header file.  */
-#define HAVE_STRING_H 1
-
-/* Define if you have the <stdlib> header file. */
+/* Define to 1 if you have the <stdlib.h> header file. */
 #define HAVE_STDLIB_H 1
 
-/* Define if you have the <sys/ioctl.h> header file.  */
-#define HAVE_SYS_IOCTL_H 0
+/* Define HAVE_STRERROR if you have the strerror() function. */
+#define HAVE_STRERROR 1
 
-/* Define if you have the <sys/ptem.h> header file.  */
-#define HAVE_SYS_PTEM_H	0
+/* Define to 1 if you have the <strings.h> header file. */
+#define HAVE_STRINGS_H 1
 
-/* Define if you have the <sys/stream.h> header file.  */
-#define HAVE_SYS_STREAM_H	0
+/* Define to 1 if you have the <string.h> header file. */
+#define HAVE_STRING_H 1
 
-/* Define if you have the <termcap.h> header file.  */
-#define HAVE_TERMCAP_H	0
+/* Define to 1 if you have the `strsignal' function. */
+/* #undef HAVE_STRSIGNAL */
 
-/* Define if you have the <termio.h> header file.  */
-#define HAVE_TERMIO_H	0
+/* Define to 1 if you have the `system' function. */
+#define HAVE_SYSTEM 1
 
-/* Define if you have the <termios.h> header file.  */
-#define HAVE_TERMIOS_H 0
+/* Define HAVE_SYS_ERRLIST if you have the sys_errlist[] variable. */
+#define HAVE_SYS_ERRLIST 1
 
-/* Define if you have the <time.h> header file.  */
+/* Define to 1 if you have the <sys/ioctl.h> header file. */
+/* #undef HAVE_SYS_IOCTL_H */
+
+/* Define to 1 if you have the <sys/stat.h> header file. */
+#define HAVE_SYS_STAT_H 1
+
+/* Define to 1 if you have the <sys/stream.h> header file. */
+/* #undef HAVE_SYS_STREAM_H */
+
+/* Define to 1 if you have the <sys/types.h> header file. */
+#define HAVE_SYS_TYPES_H 1
+
+/* Define to 1 if you have the <sys/wait.h> header file. */
+/* #undef HAVE_SYS_WAIT_H */
+
+/* Define to 1 if you have the <termcap.h> header file. */
+/* #undef HAVE_TERMCAP_H */
+
+/* Define HAVE_TERMINFO if you have the terminfo library. */
+/* #undef HAVE_TERMINFO */
+
+/* Define HAVE_TERMIOS_FUNCS if you have tcgetattr/tcsetattr. */
+/* #undef HAVE_TERMIOS_FUNCS */
+
+/* Define to 1 if you have the <termios.h> header file. */
+/* #undef HAVE_TERMIOS_H */
+
+/* Define to 1 if you have the <termio.h> header file. */
+/* #undef HAVE_TERMIO_H */
+
+/* Define to 1 if you have the <time.h> header file. */
 #define HAVE_TIME_H 1
 
-/* Define if you have the <unistd.h> header file.  */
-#ifdef MINGW
+/* Define HAVE_TIME_T if your system supports the "time_t" type. */
+#define HAVE_TIME_T 1
+
+/* Define to 1 if you have the `ttyname' function. */
+/* #undef HAVE_TTYNAME */
+
+/* Define to 1 if you have the <unistd.h> header file. */
 #define HAVE_UNISTD_H 1
-#else
-#define HAVE_UNISTD_H 0
-#endif
 
-/* Define if you have the <values.h> header file.  */
-#ifdef _MSC_VER
-#define HAVE_VALUES_H 0
-#else
-#ifdef MINGW
-#define HAVE_VALUES_H 0
-#else
-#define HAVE_VALUES_H 1
-#endif
-#endif
+/* Define HAVE_UPPER_LOWER if you have isupper, islower, toupper, tolower. */
+#define HAVE_UPPER_LOWER 1
 
-#define	popen	_popen
+/* Define to 1 if you have the `usleep' function. */
+#define HAVE_USLEEP 1
 
-/*
- * _snprintf in msvcrt/ucrt is non-compliant (no '\0' on overflow).
- * ucrt has a C99 snprintf, and is the default since msvc 2015 (ver 1900).
- * mingw with msvcrt has its own C99 snprintf, and with ucrt there's no need.
- * so if we don't have a compliant snprintf, specify that there's none.
- */
-#if !defined (MINGW) && (!defined(_MSC_VER) || (_MSC_VER < 1900))
-#undef HAVE_SNPRINTF
-#define HAVE_SNPRINTF 0
-#endif
+/* Henry Spencer V8 regcomp() and regexp.h */
+#define HAVE_V8_REGCOMP 1
 
-#ifndef MINGW
-#pragma warning(disable:4996)
-#endif
+/* Define to 1 if you have the <values.h> header file. */
+/* #undef HAVE_VALUES_H */
+
+/* Define HAVE_VOID if your compiler supports the "void" type. */
+#define HAVE_VOID 1
+
+/* Define HAVE_WCTYPE if you have iswupper, iswlower, towupper, towlower. */
+#define HAVE_WCTYPE 1
+
+/* Define to 1 if you have the <wctype.h> header file. */
+#define HAVE_WCTYPE_H 1
+
+/* Define to 1 if you have the `_setjmp' function. */
+#define HAVE__SETJMP 1
+
+/* Define MUST_DEFINE_ERRNO if you have errno but it is not defined in
+   errno.h. */
+/* #undef MUST_DEFINE_ERRNO */
+
+/* Define MUST_DEFINE_OSPEED if you have ospeed but it is not defined in
+   termcap.h. */
+/* #undef MUST_DEFINE_OSPEED */
+
+/* pattern matching is supported, but without metacharacters. */
+/* #undef NO_REGEX */
+
+/* Define to the address where bug reports for this package should be sent. */
+#define PACKAGE_BUGREPORT ""
+
+/* Define to the full name of this package. */
+#define PACKAGE_NAME "less"
+
+/* Define to the full name and version of this package. */
+#define PACKAGE_STRING "less 1"
+
+/* Define to the one symbol short name of this package. */
+#define PACKAGE_TARNAME "less"
+
+/* Define to the home page for this package. */
+#define PACKAGE_URL ""
+
+/* Define to the version of this package. */
+#define PACKAGE_VERSION "1"
+
+/* Define SECURE_COMPILE=1 to build a secure version of less. */
+#define SECURE_COMPILE 0
+
+/* Define to 1 if the `S_IS*' macros in <sys/stat.h> do not work properly. */
+/* #undef STAT_MACROS_BROKEN */
+
+/* Define to 1 if all of the C90 standard headers exist (not just the ones
+   required in a freestanding environment). This macro is provided for
+   backward compatibility; new code need not use it. */
+#define STDC_HEADERS 1
+
+/* Number of bits in a file offset, on hosts where this is settable. */
+#define _FILE_OFFSET_BITS 64
+
+/* Define for large files, on AIX-style hosts. */
+/* #undef _LARGE_FILES */
+
+/* Define to empty if `const' does not conform to ANSI C. */
+/* #undef const */
+
+/* Define to `long int' if <sys/types.h> does not define. */
+/* #undef off_t */
+
+/* Define to `unsigned int' if <sys/types.h> does not define. */
+/* #undef size_t */

---

So I think the following are needed to really be able to say that the mingw autotools build is reasonably useful:

1. Fix configure it so that it doesn't expect "terminal library" if we're doing a mingw build.
2. Ensure the resulting defines.h is close enough to defines.wn, because it includes some windows-specific changes which are likely desirable.
3. Address that pclose warning.

CC @Keno (as the author of 0571d11).

[gwsw]

Hm, I accepted that change without much review since there didn't seem to be anything harmful in it, but it has never been my intention for the configure script to work for Windows builds. Those builds have a hardcoded Makefile.w* and defines.wn. I guess if it's not much effort to finish the work to make configure work for mingw, that would be ok, but I'm not really seeing the need for this. Is there something wrong with the hardcoded Makefile.wng and defines.wn when using mingw?

[avih]

Is there something wrong with the hardcoded Makefile.wng and defines.wn when using mingw?

Not that I know of, but commit 0571d11 exists for a reason which is presumably valid in some contexts, but I think the result is not what it says on the tin.

If no one cares, it's fine, but if someone cares, then now they know that this build is suboptimal as a mingw build, and also configure fails unless some (mingw) terminal library is installed - which might be possible, but it's not common and not actually required by "less" itself as far as I know.

I think it shouldn't be too hard to address these issues, if one really wants to, so just something to keep them on record until some decision is taken.

[avih]

@Keno also, just in case you're not aware, Makefile.wng does support cross-compiling too on any posix-like system, with the requirements being gnu make and standard posix userland (sh, awk, sed, grep, etc) - pretty much the same as Makefile.aut, but without the perl requirement, like so (as documented at the file itself):

make -f Makefile.wng SHELL=sh CC=<mingw-cc>

And it supports parallel and incremental builds as well, and it generates funcs.h and help.c (and defines.h too as a trivial copy of defines.wn).

Also, if something is incorrect or missing in Makefile.wng in some build environments, then we can try to address these issues too, to keep it the official "correct" way for a mingw build.

That being said, other than the configure issue, I think defines.wn did originate from defines.h.in, but they've since diverged, and I don't think it would be a bad idea to keep them in closer sync, or even identical-ish in the long term - the less duplicates the better IMO.

[gwsw]

Side note: while looking at some of the mingw stuff, I realized that there's no easy way to build a SECURE version of less in any non-autotools environment, other than hand-editing the defines.h file. So I just committed a5548df which allows you to do a secure build on mingw and on MSVC by setting the SECURE_COMPILE environment variable to 1.

[avih]

Side note 2: I noticed you touched Makefile.wnb and was wondering whether it's still functional, and ... almost. I got the free Borland 5.5(.1) suite, and with funcs.h and help.c generated elsewhere (e.g. using Makefile.aut/wng), it builds, but requires this diff or similar:

diff for use with Makefile.wnb

diff --git a/command.c b/command.c
index 1d28aea..a2483fb 100644
--- a/command.c
+++ b/command.c
@@ -1508,7 +1508,7 @@ public void commands(void)
 				 * want erase_char/kill_char to be treated
 				 * as line editing characters.
 				 */
-				constant char tbuf[2] = { c, '\0' };
+				char tbuf[2]; tbuf[0] = c; tbuf[1] = 0;
 				action = fcmd_decode(tbuf, &extra);
 			}
 			/*
diff --git a/less.h b/less.h
index 7cc54e0..3fa6a31 100644
--- a/less.h
+++ b/less.h
@@ -113,6 +113,10 @@ typedef unsigned long uintmax;
 #include <pc.h>
 #endif
 
+#if MSDOS_COMPILER==WIN32C && defined(__BORLANDC__) && !defined(ssize_t)
+#define ssize_t long
+#endif
+
 #if !HAVE_STDLIB_H
 char *getenv();
 off_t lseek();

Because apparently it doesn't know ssize_t, and it also dislikes that init to {c, 0} with non-const value c (even if constant is removed).

EDIT: The resulting binary seems functional on windows 10, and colors work too, but I only tried --version, --help, and viewing of main.c without much interaction.

The build did complain about some unused vars though.

Full log (click me)

MAKE Version 5.2  Copyright (c) 1987, 2000 Borland
	del defines.h
	copy defines.wn defines.h
        1 file(s) copied.
	bcc32 -c -I.  -O2 -w-pro -TWC -P-c -v- -d -f- -ff- -vi main.c
Borland C++ 5.5.1 for Win32 Copyright (c) 1993, 2000 Borland
main.c:
Warning W8057 main.c 215: Parameter 'arg' is never used in function set_security_feature
Warning W8004 main.c 252: 'posixly_correct' is assigned a value that is never used in function main
	bcc32 -c -I.  -O2 -w-pro -TWC -P-c -v- -d -f- -ff- -vi screen.c
Borland C++ 5.5.1 for Win32 Copyright (c) 1993, 2000 Borland
screen.c:
Warning W8004 screen.c 839: 'sys_width' is assigned a value that is never used in function scrsize
	bcc32 -c -I.  -O2 -w-pro -TWC -P-c -v- -d -f- -ff- -vi brac.c
Borland C++ 5.5.1 for Win32 Copyright (c) 1993, 2000 Borland
brac.c:
	bcc32 -c -I.  -O2 -w-pro -TWC -P-c -v- -d -f- -ff- -vi ch.c
Borland C++ 5.5.1 for Win32 Copyright (c) 1993, 2000 Borland
ch.c:
	bcc32 -c -I.  -O2 -w-pro -TWC -P-c -v- -d -f- -ff- -vi charset.c
Borland C++ 5.5.1 for Win32 Copyright (c) 1993, 2000 Borland
charset.c:
	bcc32 -c -I.  -O2 -w-pro -TWC -P-c -v- -d -f- -ff- -vi cmdbuf.c
Borland C++ 5.5.1 for Win32 Copyright (c) 1993, 2000 Borland
cmdbuf.c:
Warning W8004 cmdbuf.c 772: 'next' is assigned a value that is never used in function cmd_addhist
Warning W8004 cmdbuf.c 1474: 'name' is assigned a value that is never used in function histfile_find
Warning W8057 cmdbuf.c 1733: Parameter 'f' is never used in function make_file_private
Warning W8004 cmdbuf.c 1765: 'fout' is assigned a value that is never used in function save_cmdhist
	bcc32 -c -I.  -O2 -w-pro -TWC -P-c -v- -d -f- -ff- -vi command.c
Borland C++ 5.5.1 for Win32 Copyright (c) 1993, 2000 Borland
command.c:
	bcc32 -c -I.  -O2 -w-pro -TWC -P-c -v- -d -f- -ff- -vi cvt.c
Borland C++ 5.5.1 for Win32 Copyright (c) 1993, 2000 Borland
cvt.c:
	bcc32 -c -I.  -O2 -w-pro -TWC -P-c -v- -d -f- -ff- -vi decode.c
Borland C++ 5.5.1 for Win32 Copyright (c) 1993, 2000 Borland
decode.c:
	bcc32 -c -I.  -O2 -w-pro -TWC -P-c -v- -d -f- -ff- -vi edit.c
Borland C++ 5.5.1 for Win32 Copyright (c) 1993, 2000 Borland
edit.c:
Warning W8057 edit.c 239: Parameter 'line' is never used in function check_modeline
Warning W8004 edit.c 476: 'open_filename' is assigned a value that is never used in function edit_ifile
	bcc32 -c -I.  -O2 -w-pro -TWC -P-c -v- -d -f- -ff- -vi evar.c
Borland C++ 5.5.1 for Win32 Copyright (c) 1993, 2000 Borland
evar.c:
	bcc32 -c -I.  -O2 -w-pro -TWC -P-c -v- -d -f- -ff- -vi filename.c
Borland C++ 5.5.1 for Win32 Copyright (c) 1993, 2000 Borland
filename.c:
Warning W8004 filename.c 1008: 'isdir' is assigned a value that is never used in function is_dir
	bcc32 -c -I.  -O2 -w-pro -TWC -P-c -v- -d -f- -ff- -vi forwback.c
Borland C++ 5.5.1 for Win32 Copyright (c) 1993, 2000 Borland
forwback.c:
	bcc32 -c -I.  -O2 -w-pro -TWC -P-c -v- -d -f- -ff- -vi help.c
Borland C++ 5.5.1 for Win32 Copyright (c) 1993, 2000 Borland
help.c:
	bcc32 -c -I.  -O2 -w-pro -TWC -P-c -v- -d -f- -ff- -vi ifile.c
Borland C++ 5.5.1 for Win32 Copyright (c) 1993, 2000 Borland
ifile.c:
	bcc32 -c -I.  -O2 -w-pro -TWC -P-c -v- -d -f- -ff- -vi input.c
Borland C++ 5.5.1 for Win32 Copyright (c) 1993, 2000 Borland
input.c:
Warning W8004 input.c 151: 'new_pos' is assigned a value that is never used in function forw_line_seg
Warning W8004 input.c 534: 'edisp_pos' is assigned a value that is never used in function back_line
	bcc32 -c -I.  -O2 -w-pro -TWC -P-c -v- -d -f- -ff- -vi jump.c
Borland C++ 5.5.1 for Win32 Copyright (c) 1993, 2000 Borland
jump.c:
	bcc32 -c -I.  -O2 -w-pro -TWC -P-c -v- -d -f- -ff- -vi lesskey_parse.c
Borland C++ 5.5.1 for Win32 Copyright (c) 1993, 2000 Borland
lesskey_parse.c:
	bcc32 -c -I.  -O2 -w-pro -TWC -P-c -v- -d -f- -ff- -vi line.c
Borland C++ 5.5.1 for Win32 Copyright (c) 1993, 2000 Borland
line.c:
Warning W8004 line.c 1594: 'prev_ch' is assigned a value that is never used in function col_vs_pos
	bcc32 -c -I.  -O2 -w-pro -TWC -P-c -v- -d -f- -ff- -vi linenum.c
Borland C++ 5.5.1 for Win32 Copyright (c) 1993, 2000 Borland
linenum.c:
	bcc32 -c -I.  -O2 -w-pro -TWC -P-c -v- -d -f- -ff- -vi lsystem.c
Borland C++ 5.5.1 for Win32 Copyright (c) 1993, 2000 Borland
lsystem.c:
	bcc32 -c -I.  -O2 -w-pro -TWC -P-c -v- -d -f- -ff- -vi mark.c
Borland C++ 5.5.1 for Win32 Copyright (c) 1993, 2000 Borland
mark.c:
	bcc32 -c -I.  -O2 -w-pro -TWC -P-c -v- -d -f- -ff- -vi optfunc.c
Borland C++ 5.5.1 for Win32 Copyright (c) 1993, 2000 Borland
optfunc.c:
Warning W8057 optfunc.c 339: Parameter 's' is never used in function opt__S
Warning W8057 optfunc.c 519: Parameter 's' is never used in function opt_b
Warning W8057 optfunc.c 536: Parameter 's' is never used in function opt_i
Warning W8057 optfunc.c 578: Parameter 's' is never used in function opt__V
Warning W8057 optfunc.c 873: Parameter 's' is never used in function opt_query
Warning W8057 optfunc.c 917: Parameter 's' is never used in function opt_mousecap
Warning W8057 optfunc.c 935: Parameter 's' is never used in function opt_wheel_lines
Warning W8057 optfunc.c 959: Parameter 's' is never used in function opt_linenum_width
Warning W8057 optfunc.c 983: Parameter 's' is never used in function opt_status_col_width
Warning W8057 optfunc.c 1001: Parameter 's' is never used in function opt_filesize
Warning W8057 optfunc.c 1221: Parameter 's' is never used in function opt_nosearch_headers
Warning W8057 optfunc.c 1227: Parameter 's' is never used in function opt_nosearch_header_lines
Warning W8057 optfunc.c 1233: Parameter 's' is never used in function opt_nosearch_header_cols
Warning W8057 optfunc.c 1250: Parameter 's' is never used in function opt_no_paste
	bcc32 -c -I.  -O2 -w-pro -TWC -P-c -v- -d -f- -ff- -vi option.c
Borland C++ 5.5.1 for Win32 Copyright (c) 1993, 2000 Borland
option.c:
	bcc32 -c -I.  -O2 -w-pro -TWC -P-c -v- -d -f- -ff- -vi opttbl.c
Borland C++ 5.5.1 for Win32 Copyright (c) 1993, 2000 Borland
opttbl.c:
	bcc32 -c -I.  -O2 -w-pro -TWC -P-c -v- -d -f- -ff- -vi os.c
Borland C++ 5.5.1 for Win32 Copyright (c) 1993, 2000 Borland
os.c:
	bcc32 -c -I.  -O2 -w-pro -TWC -P-c -v- -d -f- -ff- -vi output.c
Borland C++ 5.5.1 for Win32 Copyright (c) 1993, 2000 Borland
output.c:
Warning W8012 output.c 438: Comparing signed and unsigned values in function flush
	bcc32 -c -I.  -O2 -w-pro -TWC -P-c -v- -d -f- -ff- -vi pattern.c
Borland C++ 5.5.1 for Win32 Copyright (c) 1993, 2000 Borland
pattern.c:
	bcc32 -c -I.  -O2 -w-pro -TWC -P-c -v- -d -f- -ff- -vi position.c
Borland C++ 5.5.1 for Win32 Copyright (c) 1993, 2000 Borland
position.c:
	bcc32 -c -I.  -O2 -w-pro -TWC -P-c -v- -d -f- -ff- -vi prompt.c
Borland C++ 5.5.1 for Win32 Copyright (c) 1993, 2000 Borland
prompt.c:
	bcc32 -c -I.  -O2 -w-pro -TWC -P-c -v- -d -f- -ff- -vi search.c
Borland C++ 5.5.1 for Win32 Copyright (c) 1993, 2000 Borland
search.c:
Warning W8004 search.c 382: 'was_active' is assigned a value that is never used in function undo_osc8
Warning W8012 search.c 1317: Comparing signed and unsigned values in function osc8_param_match
Warning W8012 search.c 1318: Comparing signed and unsigned values in function osc8_param_match
Warning W8012 search.c 1411: Comparing signed and unsigned values in function osc8_search_line1
Warning W8008 search.c 2029: Condition is always true in function chg_caseless
	bcc32 -c -I.  -O2 -w-pro -TWC -P-c -v- -d -f- -ff- -vi signal.c
Borland C++ 5.5.1 for Win32 Copyright (c) 1993, 2000 Borland
signal.c:
	bcc32 -c -I.  -O2 -w-pro -TWC -P-c -v- -d -f- -ff- -vi tags.c
Borland C++ 5.5.1 for Win32 Copyright (c) 1993, 2000 Borland
tags.c:
	bcc32 -c -I.  -O2 -w-pro -TWC -P-c -v- -d -f- -ff- -vi ttyin.c
Borland C++ 5.5.1 for Win32 Copyright (c) 1993, 2000 Borland
ttyin.c:
	bcc32 -c -I.  -O2 -w-pro -TWC -P-c -v- -d -f- -ff- -vi version.c
Borland C++ 5.5.1 for Win32 Copyright (c) 1993, 2000 Borland
version.c:
	bcc32 -c -I.  -O2 -w-pro -TWC -P-c -v- -d -f- -ff- -vi xbuf.c
Borland C++ 5.5.1 for Win32 Copyright (c) 1993, 2000 Borland
xbuf.c:
	bcc32 -c -I.  -O2 -w-pro -TWC -P-c -v- -d -f- -ff- -vi regexp.c
Borland C++ 5.5.1 for Win32 Copyright (c) 1993, 2000 Borland
regexp.c:
Warning W8066 regexp.c 534: Unreachable code in function regatom
Warning W8066 regexp.c 540: Unreachable code in function regatom
Warning W8004 regexp.c 638: 'place' is assigned a value that is never used in function reginsert
Warning W8066 regexp.c 902: Unreachable code in function regmatch
Warning W8066 regexp.c 931: Unreachable code in function regmatch
Warning W8066 regexp.c 980: Unreachable code in function regmatch
Warning W8066 regexp.c 984: Unreachable code in function regmatch
Warning W8066 regexp.c 989: Unreachable code in function regmatch
	ilink32 -Tpe -v- -ap -c -x -V4.0 -GF:AGGRESSIVE d:\run\borland\bcpp55\bin\..\lib\c0x32.obj  main.obj screen.obj brac.obj ch.obj charset.obj cmdbuf.obj command.obj cvt.obj decode.obj edit.obj evar.obj filename.obj forwback.obj help.obj ifile.obj input.obj jump.obj lesskey_parse.obj line.obj linenum.obj lsystem.obj mark.obj optfunc.obj option.obj opttbl.obj os.obj output.obj pattern.obj position.obj prompt.obj search.obj signal.obj tags.obj ttyin.obj version.obj xbuf.obj regexp.obj  , less,,d:\run\borland\bcpp55\bin\..\lib\import32.lib d:\run\borland\bcpp55\bin\..\lib\cw32.lib
Turbo Incremental Link 5.00 Copyright (c) 1997, 2000 Borland
	bcc32 -c -I.  -O2 -w-pro -TWC -P-c -v- -d -f- -ff- -vi lesskey.c
Borland C++ 5.5.1 for Win32 Copyright (c) 1993, 2000 Borland
lesskey.c:
	ilink32 -Tpe -v- -ap -c -x -V4.0 -GF:AGGRESSIVE d:\run\borland\bcpp55\bin\..\lib\c0x32.obj  lesskey.obj lesskey_parse.obj version.obj xbuf.obj  , lesskey,,d:\run\borland\bcpp55\bin\..\lib\import32.lib d:\run\borland\bcpp55\bin\..\lib\cw32.lib
Turbo Incremental Link 5.00 Copyright (c) 1997, 2000 Borland
	bcc32 -c -I.  -O2 -w-pro -TWC -P-c -v- -d -f- -ff- -vi lessecho.c
Borland C++ 5.5.1 for Win32 Copyright (c) 1993, 2000 Borland
lessecho.c:
	ilink32 -Tpe -v- -ap -c -x -V4.0 -GF:AGGRESSIVE d:\run\borland\bcpp55\bin\..\lib\c0x32.obj  lessecho.obj version.obj  , lessecho,,d:\run\borland\bcpp55\bin\..\lib\import32.lib d:\run\borland\bcpp55\bin\..\lib\cw32.lib
Turbo Incremental Link 5.00 Copyright (c) 1997, 2000 Borland

Just FYI.

[gwsw]

Thanks, I committed some Borland fixes in 888e321. I fixed a few of the Borland warnings but I don't think it's worth adding a bunch of (void)x; statements to suppress the unused parameter warnings. There are still a couple of issues:

1. Currently using Makefile.wnb builds with MSDOS_COMPILER==WIN32C, not MSDOS_COMPILER==BORLANDC. Maybe this doesn't matter since it seems to build and run, but I'm concerned that there may be some features that don't work correctly since there are many points in the code that test for MSDOS_COMPILER==BORLANDC and these are being ignored. Changing to set MSDOS_COMPILER=BORLANDC produced a bunch of errors, but I'm not sure I want to spend time on this, given the apparent rarity of usage of the Borland compiler and my uncertainty about whether compiling with WIN32C is actually ok.
2. I tried to get the SECURE_COMPILE feature working with Makefile.wnb but I cannot figure out how conditionals work in the Borland make that I have (5.2). The gcc style ifeq statement doesn't seem to work, and googling suggested using %if but that doesn't seem to work either.

[avih]

I committed some Borland fixes in 888e321

Yeah, seems to work. Nice. Until I looked at lang.h now I thought it's a locale thingy, but I now realize it's a more a C-lang/compiler compat thing, so yeah, good place for ssize_t.

I would have kept the initializations though, even if unused in some code paths. I'm not generally fond of uninitialized vars unless their 1st assignment is relatively close to their definition (didn't try to check that for the removed inits).

I don't think it's worth adding a bunch of (void)x;

I don't think the warnings per-se are an issue, but I was more concerned (without trying to follow the code) whether it suggests some unexpected code paths are used (or rather not used) which may be logically erronous.

E.g. when I build mingw with -Wall -Wpedantic I don't see any of those unused vars warnings (and I presume these flags would have made them visible if they exist).

1. Currently using Makefile.wnb builds with MSDOS_COMPILER==WIN32C, not MSDOS_COMPILER==BORLANDC

Yes, but I think it's OK - it is a win32 build (file reports PE32 executable for MS Windows 4.00 (console), i386 ..., less --help works on NT 4, broken on NT 3.51, refuses to run on ME with "requires win32" error message - tested at https://copy.sh/v86/ with less.exe on a floppy image created with mtools), while the BORLANDC value is a presumably DOS build when using Makefile.dsb, and that file uses defines.ds which does set MSDOS_COMPILER to BORLANDC.

I didn't try the Borland DOS compiler (in recent decades), but we do know that DOS DJGPP works (or at least builds cleanly - just tried again now), so maybe the borland dos build works too, but it does seem that WIN32C is the correct value for this Borland 5.5 build.

I tried to get the SECURE_COMPILE feature working with Makefile.wnb but I cannot figure out how conditionals work in the Borland make that I have (5.2).

No idea about that. I don't think I ever used the borland make before yesterday (it does support -f Makefile.wnb though).

[gwsw]

I don't think the warnings per-se are an issue, but I was more concerned (without trying to follow the code) whether it suggests some unexpected code paths are used (or rather not used) which may be logically erronous.

None of the warnings indicate any real problem in the code. They're mostly either cases where a variable set as a default and some #ifdeffed code changes it, or several functions are called through a pointer and some of the functions don't use a parameter.

E.g. when I build mingw with -Wall -Wpedantic I don't see any of those unused vars warnings (and I presume these flags would have made them visible if they exist).

I don't think gcc -Wall prints warnings for unused parameters, despite the "all" name. You have to explicitly use -Wunused-parameter.

[avih]

I don't think gcc -Wall prints warnings for unused parameters, despite the "all" name. You have to explicitly use -Wunused-parameter.

I thought all and pedantic would show that, but indeed adding -Wunused-parameter does show quite few unused with mingw. Thanks.

BTW, re if in borland make, there's builtins.mak at the "bin" dir, which has this at the end:

!if !$d(BCEXAMPLEDIR)
BCEXAMPLEDIR = $(MAKEDIR)\..\EXAMPLES
!endif

but indeed some actual docs would be better.

[avih]

This has some borland docs:
http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/borland/borland_C++/

I don't see 5.5 "make" docs, but Borland_C++_Version_3.1_Tools_and_Utilities_1992.pdf has "make" docs, and apparently $d(xxx) checks whether it's defined, whatever that means. That's the closest I got so far.

And if it supports make FOO=BAR invocation then maybe it would be enough with that syntax.

EDIT: Borland_C++_Version_5_Users_Guide_1997.pdf does have "make" directives docs (page 331). Still not 5.5, but much closer than 3.1 from 92.

[gwsw]

Thanks, I think I have SECURE_COMPILE working for Borland now.

[avih]

Nice.

About a5548df, is the removal of lesskey_parse.o for a secure build strictly required? or is it removed just to ensure that nothing in it is called accidentally? i.e. to break the build if something accidentally tries to call some functions in it (I think it's fine to remove it even if not strictly required, but was just wondering).

Also re a5548df, as far as I can tell, the "Fix SECURE build" part is unrelated to windows, right?

I bisected the --with-secure issue, and as far as I can tell it got broken in 03bdeff - more than a month ago. Does that sound right?

And prior to that, as far as I can tell, it was also broken at 09377f7 and fixed at 26c7a12 - about 8 months later.

If these are largely correct, then apparently --with-secure build is also susceptible to long-ish breakages, similar to mingw builds.

Unrelated to the fact that a CI build/test could cover this too, per push, I think it might be useful to have some script, maybe even committed to the tree, which tests various build which are not tested frequently during development, which would be useful to run preiodically, for instance before adding a new tag.

At this time, these appear to be mingw and --with-secure.

Do you want me to have a go at writing such pre-tag-test script (name TBD), and open a PR for it?

I imagine it shouldn't be more than few lines. In a nutshell, it would do the following:

1. Refuse to run if the tree has modified or untracked files, because we need to reset and clean it before each build (reset because the unicode thing in Makefile.aut changes the date comment in tracked files, and clean because it's important to start from scratch), and each of the following items starts with git reset --hard && git clean -xfd:
2. Ensure --with-secure build succeeds.
3. Ensure that a mingw build succeeds.
4. Ensure that a normal (default) build succeeds.
5. Ensure that the test(s) succeed (make check ?).

And we could add more things to it over time, so that even without CI we have something which is easy to run periodiccally as a sanity test.

[gwsw]

About a5548df, is the removal of lesskey_parse.o for a secure build strictly required?

No, it's not required. Leaving it compiled in should not affect any functionality. It just seems prudent to leave it compiled out to ensure that there is no code path that could result in calling it, especially since such a code path could potentially be a security flaw.

Also re a5548df, as far as I can tell, the "Fix SECURE build" part is unrelated to windows, right?

Correct, I actually noticed it on Linux.

Do you want me to have a go at writing such pre-tag-test script (name TBD), and open a PR for it?

Sure, that would be great.

The other possible configuration option to test would be --with-regex. However there are nine possibilities, and there have been few if any cases that I recall where one regex config was broken without all of them being broken, so I don't know if it's worth the trouble. Also doing so would require having 8 different regex libraries installed on your system, and I'm not even sure how to find some of the older ones anymore. And make check is problematic when testing different regexes. For example, some of the tests do searches using metacharacters, which certainly won't work when configured with --with-regex=none.

[avih]

The other possible configuration option to test would be --with-regex. However there are nine possibilities, and there have been few if any cases that I recall where one regex config was broken without all of them being broken, so I don't know if it's worth the trouble.

The only trouble is deciding which configurations the test should include and/or default to. I'm thinking none/v8/posix/pcre are likely the ones we want to test relatively frequently? (and of course pcre requires it to be installed, and posix regex requires that the system supports it).

I'll open a PR and we can keep discussing it there, but I want to also allow any custom subset to be added, so that even if the script supports all 9 configurations, it might still default to less than that, and it would still be possible to use it to test any subset of configs.

And make check is problematic when testing different regexes.

Sure, and we can't test all combos anyway. for that I thought the test would be with default build, i.e.

make -f Makefile.aut && ./configure && make check

and maybe "check" won't even be part of the default set, because it does take considerably longer to complete than just building in various configs, and this is meant to be sanity test to ensure it still builds in some configs we care about but which are not typically tested during development.

Let's keep discussing it once I open a PR.

As for this issue (mingw autoconf), I think I have a way to identify a mingw build during configure, or maybe support --with-mingw[=yes|no] to replace/override the detection, but I don't know how to skip the terminal library test if this is a mingw build. I'm really unfamiliar with autotools from the development side...

As for defines.wn, what do you think about making it two parts:

1. Verbatim copy of defines.h.in.
2. followed by a "windows overrides" part which only changes whatever requires override for windows.

This should make it way easier to keep it in sync with defines.h.in, and hopefully the override part would be relatively small, so it overall would be much easier to maintain.

Still not sure how to integrate that with a "true" mingw autotools build, but one step at a time, and I think such change to desines.wn might ultimately also make it easier to integrate with an autotools build.

[avih]

As for defines.wn, what do you think about making it two parts (verbatim defines.h.in plus overrides)

Hmm.. I don't think this would work well, because defines.h.in largely doesn't set any of the detectable HAVE_FOO defines, so the "windows override" part would not be very small at all. Basically, it sets to HAVE_{DUP,MEMCPY,STRCHR,STRSTR} as 1, and pretty much everything else is undefined...

So maybe the "reference" to include in defines.wn, just before the "windows overrides" part, should be defines.h which was generated for some "standard" (TBD) unix build, maybe like so?

./configure --with-regex=regcomp

(with instructions at the file on how to update this part, e.g. maybe delete the #define SECURE_COMPILE 0 line etc).