[Python-Dev] Updating to autoconf 2.5x

[Guido van Rossum]

> Side note: I recently found that the socket module is using 
> bleeding edge glibc APIs as well, in fact it was the only
> module that needed the most recent glibc version installed
> on my machine (2.2.1). 

Which API?

> All other modules were happy with plain glibc 2.2. I found 
> out about this when installing an application on RedHat which 
> didn't have glibc 2.2.1 installed.
> 
> This may be a marginal problem, but do we really need to
> live on the bleeding edge of C libraries ? And if so, is
> there a way to configure Python to only use, say, glibc 2.2
> APIs (to enhance binary compatibility) ?

If we're using bleeding edge APIs, they should be properly tested for
in configure.in and the code should use #ifdef.

--Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)