configure: "consider adding '-I m4' "

[dcstes]

when running "gmake configure" on the platforms/unix/config directory with autoconf 2.72 automake 1.17 pkgconf 2.2.0 on Linux OpenSUSE Tumbleweed it, this succesfully creates a configure script from configure.ac and the various included files.

This is with GNU m4 1.4.19.

I understand that the current supported version is autoconf 2.69, and this "Feature" request should not be misinterpreted please as if I request an upgrade to autoconf 2.72.

The automake/autoconf warns however prints a bunch of warnings

"Consider adding AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIRS([m4]) to configure.ac"
and
"Consider adding '-I m4' to AMFLAGS ACLOCAL'

The GNU configure script is a very useful tool , it determines a lot of parameters such as for example VM_TARGET_OS.

[dcstes]

Small correction : the version of GNU m4 on SUSE Tumbleweed (and also on SUSE Leap 16.0) is GNU M4 1.4.18 patch 12 - it is not 1.4.19 as I wrote before.

The message that indicates that autoconf 2.72 wants some changes is 👍
"Consider adding '-I m4' to ACLOCAL_AMFLAGS in Makefile.am'
and a similar message for configure.ac

The current Makefile.am and configure.ac (and included m4 files) generate despite the warnings succesfully a "configure" script with up to date config.guess and config.sub based on the automake 1.17 files.

[dcstes]

moving various files into a m4 subdirectory and then making the changes proposed by autoconf/automake seems to silence the warnings 'consider adding -I m4'

[dcstes]

If there is something I can test on SUSE (SLES or OpenSUSE) Linux or Solaris (UNIX), I could provide feedback on this.

My interest in good support for autoconf / configure comes from the fact that the .m4 and configure framework is essential in building OpenSmalltalk on those operating systems.