Four years later, since the last renewal took place, the latest release of the Macro Processor M4 from gnu m4 1.4.20 is being used as an essential tool for configuring sendmail and generating configure scripts in tools like autoconf. M4 allows dynamic text generation based on templates, passing input text through itself, and substituting the results of executing macros indicated in the text. Macros can call both custom and pre-made functions, enabling file inclusion, arithmetic operations, string data manipulation, and running system commands.
In the new version, the following updates have been made:
- The execution of “Eval” expressions has been significantly accelerated.
- Compatibility with new standards for the SI language has been ensured.
- Corrections from gnulib have been applied to resolve tolerance issues.
- In the “Syscmd” and “Esyscmd” commands, the processing of command string expressions starting with “+” and “-” characters has been established.
- Proper activation of binary mode when loading transferred files on non-Unix platforms has been implemented, ensuring correct processing of binary files different from text files.
/Reports, release notes, official announcements.