building up speed

Original commit message from CVS:
building up speed

COPYING

+		    GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE
+		       Version 2, June 1991
+
+ Copyright (C) 1989, 1991 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
+                       59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA  02111-1307  USA
+ Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies
+ of this license document, but changing it is not allowed.
+
+			    Preamble
+
+  The licenses for most software are designed to take away your
+freedom to share and change it.  By contrast, the GNU General Public
+License is intended to guarantee your freedom to share and change free
+software--to make sure the software is free for all its users.  This
+General Public License applies to most of the Free Software
+Foundation's software and to any other program whose authors commit to
+using it.  (Some other Free Software Foundation software is covered by
+the GNU Library General Public License instead.)  You can apply it to
+your programs, too.
+
+  When we speak of free software, we are referring to freedom, not
+price.  Our General Public Licenses are designed to make sure that you
+have the freedom to distribute copies of free software (and charge for
+this service if you wish), that you receive source code or can get it
+if you want it, that you can change the software or use pieces of it
+in new free programs; and that you know you can do these things.
+
+  To protect your rights, we need to make restrictions that forbid
+anyone to deny you these rights or to ask you to surrender the rights.
+These restrictions translate to certain responsibilities for you if you
+distribute copies of the software, or if you modify it.
+
+  For example, if you distribute copies of such a program, whether
+gratis or for a fee, you must give the recipients all the rights that
+you have.  You must make sure that they, too, receive or can get the
+source code.  And you must show them these terms so they know their
+rights.
+
+  We protect your rights with two steps: (1) copyright the software, and
+(2) offer you this license which gives you legal permission to copy,
+distribute and/or modify the software.
+
+  Also, for each author's protection and ours, we want to make certain
+that everyone understands that there is no warranty for this free
+software.  If the software is modified by someone else and passed on, we
+want its recipients to know that what they have is not the original, so
+that any problems introduced by others will not reflect on the original
+authors' reputations.
+
+  Finally, any free program is threatened constantly by software
+patents.  We wish to avoid the danger that redistributors of a free
+program will individually obtain patent licenses, in effect making the
+program proprietary.  To prevent this, we have made it clear that any
+patent must be licensed for everyone's free use or not licensed at all.
+
+  The precise terms and conditions for copying, distribution and
+modification follow.
+
+		    GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE
+   TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR COPYING, DISTRIBUTION AND MODIFICATION
+
+  0. This License applies to any program or other work which contains
+a notice placed by the copyright holder saying it may be distributed
+under the terms of this General Public License.  The "Program", below,
+refers to any such program or work, and a "work based on the Program"
+means either the Program or any derivative work under copyright law:
+that is to say, a work containing the Program or a portion of it,
+either verbatim or with modifications and/or translated into another
+language.  (Hereinafter, translation is included without limitation in
+the term "modification".)  Each licensee is addressed as "you".
+
+Activities other than copying, distribution and modification are not
+covered by this License; they are outside its scope.  The act of
+running the Program is not restricted, and the output from the Program
+is covered only if its contents constitute a work based on the
+Program (independent of having been made by running the Program).
+Whether that is true depends on what the Program does.
+
+  1. You may copy and distribute verbatim copies of the Program's
+source code as you receive it, in any medium, provided that you
+conspicuously and appropriately publish on each copy an appropriate
+copyright notice and disclaimer of warranty; keep intact all the
+notices that refer to this License and to the absence of any warranty;
+and give any other recipients of the Program a copy of this License
+along with the Program.
+
+You may charge a fee for the physical act of transferring a copy, and
+you may at your option offer warranty protection in exchange for a fee.
+
+  2. You may modify your copy or copies of the Program or any portion
+of it, thus forming a work based on the Program, and copy and
+distribute such modifications or work under the terms of Section 1
+above, provided that you also meet all of these conditions:
+
+    a) You must cause the modified files to carry prominent notices
+    stating that you changed the files and the date of any change.
+
+    b) You must cause any work that you distribute or publish, that in
+    whole or in part contains or is derived from the Program or any
+    part thereof, to be licensed as a whole at no charge to all third
+    parties under the terms of this License.
+
+    c) If the modified program normally reads commands interactively
+    when run, you must cause it, when started running for such
+    interactive use in the most ordinary way, to print or display an
+    announcement including an appropriate copyright notice and a
+    notice that there is no warranty (or else, saying that you provide
+    a warranty) and that users may redistribute the program under
+    these conditions, and telling the user how to view a copy of this
+    License.  (Exception: if the Program itself is interactive but
+    does not normally print such an announcement, your work based on
+    the Program is not required to print an announcement.)
+
+These requirements apply to the modified work as a whole.  If
+identifiable sections of that work are not derived from the Program,
+and can be reasonably considered independent and separate works in
+themselves, then this License, and its terms, do not apply to those
+sections when you distribute them as separate works.  But when you
+distribute the same sections as part of a whole which is a work based
+on the Program, the distribution of the whole must be on the terms of
+this License, whose permissions for other licensees extend to the
+entire whole, and thus to each and every part regardless of who wrote it.
+
+Thus, it is not the intent of this section to claim rights or contest
+your rights to work written entirely by you; rather, the intent is to
+exercise the right to control the distribution of derivative or
+collective works based on the Program.
+
+In addition, mere aggregation of another work not based on the Program
+with the Program (or with a work based on the Program) on a volume of
+a storage or distribution medium does not bring the other work under
+the scope of this License.
+
+  3. You may copy and distribute the Program (or a work based on it,
+under Section 2) in object code or executable form under the terms of
+Sections 1 and 2 above provided that you also do one of the following:
+
+    a) Accompany it with the complete corresponding machine-readable
+    source code, which must be distributed under the terms of Sections
+    1 and 2 above on a medium customarily used for software interchange; or,
+
+    b) Accompany it with a written offer, valid for at least three
+    years, to give any third party, for a charge no more than your
+    cost of physically performing source distribution, a complete
+    machine-readable copy of the corresponding source code, to be
+    distributed under the terms of Sections 1 and 2 above on a medium
+    customarily used for software interchange; or,
+
+    c) Accompany it with the information you received as to the offer
+    to distribute corresponding source code.  (This alternative is
+    allowed only for noncommercial distribution and only if you
+    received the program in object code or executable form with such
+    an offer, in accord with Subsection b above.)
+
+The source code for a work means the preferred form of the work for
+making modifications to it.  For an executable work, complete source
+code means all the source code for all modules it contains, plus any
+associated interface definition files, plus the scripts used to
+control compilation and installation of the executable.  However, as a
+special exception, the source code distributed need not include
+anything that is normally distributed (in either source or binary
+form) with the major components (compiler, kernel, and so on) of the
+operating system on which the executable runs, unless that component
+itself accompanies the executable.
+
+If distribution of executable or object code is made by offering
+access to copy from a designated place, then offering equivalent
+access to copy the source code from the same place counts as
+distribution of the source code, even though third parties are not
+compelled to copy the source along with the object code.
+
+  4. You may not copy, modify, sublicense, or distribute the Program
+except as expressly provided under this License.  Any attempt
+otherwise to copy, modify, sublicense or distribute the Program is
+void, and will automatically terminate your rights under this License.
+However, parties who have received copies, or rights, from you under
+this License will not have their licenses terminated so long as such
+parties remain in full compliance.
+
+  5. You are not required to accept this License, since you have not
+signed it.  However, nothing else grants you permission to modify or
+distribute the Program or its derivative works.  These actions are
+prohibited by law if you do not accept this License.  Therefore, by
+modifying or distributing the Program (or any work based on the
+Program), you indicate your acceptance of this License to do so, and
+all its terms and conditions for copying, distributing or modifying
+the Program or works based on it.
+
+  6. Each time you redistribute the Program (or any work based on the
+Program), the recipient automatically receives a license from the
+original licensor to copy, distribute or modify the Program subject to
+these terms and conditions.  You may not impose any further
+restrictions on the recipients' exercise of the rights granted herein.
+You are not responsible for enforcing compliance by third parties to
+this License.
+
+  7. If, as a consequence of a court judgment or allegation of patent
+infringement or for any other reason (not limited to patent issues),
+conditions are imposed on you (whether by court order, agreement or
+otherwise) that contradict the conditions of this License, they do not
+excuse you from the conditions of this License.  If you cannot
+distribute so as to satisfy simultaneously your obligations under this
+License and any other pertinent obligations, then as a consequence you
+may not distribute the Program at all.  For example, if a patent
+license would not permit royalty-free redistribution of the Program by
+all those who receive copies directly or indirectly through you, then
+the only way you could satisfy both it and this License would be to
+refrain entirely from distribution of the Program.
+
+If any portion of this section is held invalid or unenforceable under
+any particular circumstance, the balance of the section is intended to
+apply and the section as a whole is intended to apply in other
+circumstances.
+
+It is not the purpose of this section to induce you to infringe any
+patents or other property right claims or to contest validity of any
+such claims; this section has the sole purpose of protecting the
+integrity of the free software distribution system, which is
+implemented by public license practices.  Many people have made
+generous contributions to the wide range of software distributed
+through that system in reliance on consistent application of that
+system; it is up to the author/donor to decide if he or she is willing
+to distribute software through any other system and a licensee cannot
+impose that choice.
+
+This section is intended to make thoroughly clear what is believed to
+be a consequence of the rest of this License.
+
+  8. If the distribution and/or use of the Program is restricted in
+certain countries either by patents or by copyrighted interfaces, the
+original copyright holder who places the Program under this License
+may add an explicit geographical distribution limitation excluding
+those countries, so that distribution is permitted only in or among
+countries not thus excluded.  In such case, this License incorporates
+the limitation as if written in the body of this License.
+
+  9. The Free Software Foundation may publish revised and/or new versions
+of the General Public License from time to time.  Such new versions will
+be similar in spirit to the present version, but may differ in detail to
+address new problems or concerns.
+
+Each version is given a distinguishing version number.  If the Program
+specifies a version number of this License which applies to it and "any
+later version", you have the option of following the terms and conditions
+either of that version or of any later version published by the Free
+Software Foundation.  If the Program does not specify a version number of
+this License, you may choose any version ever published by the Free Software
+Foundation.
+
+  10. If you wish to incorporate parts of the Program into other free
+programs whose distribution conditions are different, write to the author
+to ask for permission.  For software which is copyrighted by the Free
+Software Foundation, write to the Free Software Foundation; we sometimes
+make exceptions for this.  Our decision will be guided by the two goals
+of preserving the free status of all derivatives of our free software and
+of promoting the sharing and reuse of software generally.
+
+			    NO WARRANTY
+
+  11. BECAUSE THE PROGRAM IS LICENSED FREE OF CHARGE, THERE IS NO WARRANTY
+FOR THE PROGRAM, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW.  EXCEPT WHEN
+OTHERWISE STATED IN WRITING THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND/OR OTHER PARTIES
+PROVIDE THE PROGRAM "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED
+OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
+MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  THE ENTIRE RISK AS
+TO THE QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF THE PROGRAM IS WITH YOU.  SHOULD THE
+PROGRAM PROVE DEFECTIVE, YOU ASSUME THE COST OF ALL NECESSARY SERVICING,
+REPAIR OR CORRECTION.
+
+  12. IN NO EVENT UNLESS REQUIRED BY APPLICABLE LAW OR AGREED TO IN WRITING
+WILL ANY COPYRIGHT HOLDER, OR ANY OTHER PARTY WHO MAY MODIFY AND/OR
+REDISTRIBUTE THE PROGRAM AS PERMITTED ABOVE, BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR DAMAGES,
+INCLUDING ANY GENERAL, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING
+OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE PROGRAM (INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED
+TO LOSS OF DATA OR DATA BEING RENDERED INACCURATE OR LOSSES SUSTAINED BY
+YOU OR THIRD PARTIES OR A FAILURE OF THE PROGRAM TO OPERATE WITH ANY OTHER
+PROGRAMS), EVEN IF SUCH HOLDER OR OTHER PARTY HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE
+POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
+
+		     END OF TERMS AND CONDITIONS
+
+	    How to Apply These Terms to Your New Programs
+
+  If you develop a new program, and you want it to be of the greatest
+possible use to the public, the best way to achieve this is to make it
+free software which everyone can redistribute and change under these terms.
+
+  To do so, attach the following notices to the program.  It is safest
+to attach them to the start of each source file to most effectively
+convey the exclusion of warranty; and each file should have at least
+the "copyright" line and a pointer to where the full notice is found.
+
+    <one line to give the program's name and a brief idea of what it does.>
+    Copyright (C) 19yy  <name of author>
+
+    This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
+    it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
+    the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
+    (at your option) any later version.
+
+    This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
+    but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+    MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
+    GNU General Public License for more details.
+
+    You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
+    along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
+    Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA  02111-1307  USA
+
+
+Also add information on how to contact you by electronic and paper mail.
+
+If the program is interactive, make it output a short notice like this
+when it starts in an interactive mode:
+
+    Gnomovision version 69, Copyright (C) 19yy name of author
+    Gnomovision comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; for details type `show w'.
+    This is free software, and you are welcome to redistribute it
+    under certain conditions; type `show c' for details.
+
+The hypothetical commands `show w' and `show c' should show the appropriate
+parts of the General Public License.  Of course, the commands you use may
+be called something other than `show w' and `show c'; they could even be
+mouse-clicks or menu items--whatever suits your program.
+
+You should also get your employer (if you work as a programmer) or your
+school, if any, to sign a "copyright disclaimer" for the program, if
+necessary.  Here is a sample; alter the names:
+
+  Yoyodyne, Inc., hereby disclaims all copyright interest in the program
+  `Gnomovision' (which makes passes at compilers) written by James Hacker.
+
+  <signature of Ty Coon>, 1 April 1989
+  Ty Coon, President of Vice
+
+This General Public License does not permit incorporating your program into
+proprietary programs.  If your program is a subroutine library, you may
+consider it more useful to permit linking proprietary applications with the
+library.  If this is what you want to do, use the GNU Library General
+Public License instead of this License.

INSTALL

+Basic Installation
+==================
+
+   These are generic installation instructions.
+
+   The `configure' shell script attempts to guess correct values for
+various system-dependent variables used during compilation.  It uses
+those values to create a `Makefile' in each directory of the package.
+It may also create one or more `.h' files containing system-dependent
+definitions.  Finally, it creates a shell script `config.status' that
+you can run in the future to recreate the current configuration, a file
+`config.cache' that saves the results of its tests to speed up
+reconfiguring, and a file `config.log' containing compiler output
+(useful mainly for debugging `configure').
+
+   If you need to do unusual things to compile the package, please try
+to figure out how `configure' could check whether to do them, and mail
+diffs or instructions to the address given in the `README' so they can
+be considered for the next release.  If at some point `config.cache'
+contains results you don't want to keep, you may remove or edit it.
+
+   The file `configure.in' is used to create `configure' by a program
+called `autoconf'.  You only need `configure.in' if you want to change
+it or regenerate `configure' using a newer version of `autoconf'.
+
+The simplest way to compile this package is:
+
+  1. `cd' to the directory containing the package's source code and type
+     `./configure' to configure the package for your system.  If you're
+     using `csh' on an old version of System V, you might need to type
+     `sh ./configure' instead to prevent `csh' from trying to execute
+     `configure' itself.
+
+     Running `configure' takes awhile.  While running, it prints some
+     messages telling which features it is checking for.
+
+  2. Type `make' to compile the package.
+
+  3. Optionally, type `make check' to run any self-tests that come with
+     the package.
+
+  4. Type `make install' to install the programs and any data files and
+     documentation.
+
+  5. You can remove the program binaries and object files from the
+     source code directory by typing `make clean'.  To also remove the
+     files that `configure' created (so you can compile the package for
+     a different kind of computer), type `make distclean'.  There is
+     also a `make maintainer-clean' target, but that is intended mainly
+     for the package's developers.  If you use it, you may have to get
+     all sorts of other programs in order to regenerate files that came
+     with the distribution.
+
+Compilers and Options
+=====================
+
+   Some systems require unusual options for compilation or linking that
+the `configure' script does not know about.  You can give `configure'
+initial values for variables by setting them in the environment.  Using
+a Bourne-compatible shell, you can do that on the command line like
+this:
+     CC=c89 CFLAGS=-O2 LIBS=-lposix ./configure
+
+Or on systems that have the `env' program, you can do it like this:
+     env CPPFLAGS=-I/usr/local/include LDFLAGS=-s ./configure
+
+Compiling For Multiple Architectures
+====================================
+
+   You can compile the package for more than one kind of computer at the
+same time, by placing the object files for each architecture in their
+own directory.  To do this, you must use a version of `make' that
+supports the `VPATH' variable, such as GNU `make'.  `cd' to the
+directory where you want the object files and executables to go and run
+the `configure' script.  `configure' automatically checks for the
+source code in the directory that `configure' is in and in `..'.
+
+   If you have to use a `make' that does not supports the `VPATH'
+variable, you have to compile the package for one architecture at a time
+in the source code directory.  After you have installed the package for
+one architecture, use `make distclean' before reconfiguring for another
+architecture.
+
+Installation Names
+==================
+
+   By default, `make install' will install the package's files in
+`/usr/local/bin', `/usr/local/man', etc.  You can specify an
+installation prefix other than `/usr/local' by giving `configure' the
+option `--prefix=PATH'.
+
+   You can specify separate installation prefixes for
+architecture-specific files and architecture-independent files.  If you
+give `configure' the option `--exec-prefix=PATH', the package will use
+PATH as the prefix for installing programs and libraries.
+Documentation and other data files will still use the regular prefix.
+
+   In addition, if you use an unusual directory layout you can give
+options like `--bindir=PATH' to specify different values for particular
+kinds of files.  Run `configure --help' for a list of the directories
+you can set and what kinds of files go in them.
+
+   If the package supports it, you can cause programs to be installed
+with an extra prefix or suffix on their names by giving `configure' the
+option `--program-prefix=PREFIX' or `--program-suffix=SUFFIX'.
+
+Optional Features
+=================
+
+   Some packages pay attention to `--enable-FEATURE' options to
+`configure', where FEATURE indicates an optional part of the package.
+They may also pay attention to `--with-PACKAGE' options, where PACKAGE
+is something like `gnu-as' or `x' (for the X Window System).  The
+`README' should mention any `--enable-' and `--with-' options that the
+package recognizes.
+
+   For packages that use the X Window System, `configure' can usually
+find the X include and library files automatically, but if it doesn't,
+you can use the `configure' options `--x-includes=DIR' and
+`--x-libraries=DIR' to specify their locations.
+
+Specifying the System Type
+==========================
+
+   There may be some features `configure' can not figure out
+automatically, but needs to determine by the type of host the package
+will run on.  Usually `configure' can figure that out, but if it prints
+a message saying it can not guess the host type, give it the
+`--host=TYPE' option.  TYPE can either be a short name for the system
+type, such as `sun4', or a canonical name with three fields:
+     CPU-COMPANY-SYSTEM
+
+See the file `config.sub' for the possible values of each field.  If
+`config.sub' isn't included in this package, then this package doesn't
+need to know the host type.
+
+   If you are building compiler tools for cross-compiling, you can also
+use the `--target=TYPE' option to select the type of system they will
+produce code for and the `--build=TYPE' option to select the type of
+system on which you are compiling the package.
+
+Sharing Defaults
+================
+
+   If you want to set default values for `configure' scripts to share,
+you can create a site shell script called `config.site' that gives
+default values for variables like `CC', `cache_file', and `prefix'.
+`configure' looks for `PREFIX/share/config.site' if it exists, then
+`PREFIX/etc/config.site' if it exists.  Or, you can set the
+`CONFIG_SITE' environment variable to the location of the site script.
+A warning: not all `configure' scripts look for a site script.
+
+Operation Controls
+==================
+
+   `configure' recognizes the following options to control how it
+operates.
+
+`--cache-file=FILE'
+     Use and save the results of the tests in FILE instead of
+     `./config.cache'.  Set FILE to `/dev/null' to disable caching, for
+     debugging `configure'.
+
+`--help'
+     Print a summary of the options to `configure', and exit.
+
+`--quiet'
+`--silent'
+`-q'
+     Do not print messages saying which checks are being made.  To
+     suppress all normal output, redirect it to `/dev/null' (any error
+     messages will still be shown).
+
+`--srcdir=DIR'
+     Look for the package's source code in directory DIR.  Usually
+     `configure' can determine that directory automatically.
+
+`--version'
+     Print the version of Autoconf used to generate the `configure'
+     script, and exit.
+
+`configure' also accepts some other, not widely useful, options.

Makefile.am

+SUBDIRS=sys
+
+DIST_SUBDIRS=sys

acconfig.h

+#undef PACKAGE
+#undef VERSION
+#undef GST_VERSION_RELEASE
+
+/* Gettext stuff */
+#undef ENABLE_NLS
+#undef HAVE_CATGETS
+#undef HAVE_GETTEXT
+#undef HAVE_LC_MESSAGES
+#undef HAVE_STPCPY
+
+#undef USE_GLIB2
+#undef HAVE_LIBXML2
+
+#undef PLUGINS_DIR
+#undef PLUGINS_BUILDDIR
+#undef PLUGINS_USE_BUILDDIR
+
+#undef GST_CONFIG_DIR
+#undef GST_WIN32_LIBDIR
+
+#undef HAVE_CPU_I386
+#undef HAVE_CPU_PPC
+#undef HAVE_CPU_ALPHA
+#undef HAVE_CPU_ARM
+#undef HAVE_CPU_SPARC
+
+#undef HAVE_RDTSC
+
+#undef HAVE_LIBGHTTP
+#undef HAVE_LIBMMX
+#undef HAVE_LIBXV
+#undef HAVE_OSS
+#undef HAVE_XAUDIO
+#undef HAVE_LIBDVDREAD
+#undef HAVE_VORBIS
+#undef HAVE_AALIB
+#undef HAVE_LIBMAD
+#undef HAVE_LIBMIKMOD
+#undef HAVE_LIBJPEG
+#undef HAVE_LIBGSM
+#undef HAVE_LIBSDL
+#undef HAVE_LIBHERMES
+#undef HAVE_NASM
+#undef HAVE_A52DEC
+#undef HAVE_MPEG2DEC
+#undef HAVE_FLACLIB
+#undef HAVE_LIBRTP
+#undef HAVE_LINUX_CDROM
+#undef HAVE_LINUX_VIDEODEV
+#undef HAVE_LIBSDL
+#undef HAVE_LIBOPENQUICKTIME
+
+#undef HAVE_ATOMIC_H
+
+#undef GST_DEBUG_ENABLED
+#undef GST_INFO_ENABLED
+#undef GST_DEBUG_COLOR
+
+#undef GST_DISABLE_LOADSAVE

autogen.sh

+#!/bin/bash
+# Run this to generate all the initial makefiles, etc.
+
+DIE=0
+package=gstreamer-plugins
+srcfile=own/sinesrc/gstsinesrc.c
+#DEBUG=defined
+if test "x$1" = "x-d"; then echo "+ debug output enabled"; DEBUG=defined; fi
+
+debug ()
+# print out a debug message if DEBUG is a defined variable
+{
+  if test ! -z "$DEBUG"
+  then
+    echo "DEBUG: $1"
+  fi
+}
+
+version_check ()
+# check the version of a package
+# first argument : package name (executable)
+# second argument : source download url
+# rest of arguments : major, minor, micro version
+{
+  PACKAGE=$1
+  URL=$2
+  MAJOR=$3
+  MINOR=$4
+  MICRO=$5
+
+  WRONG=
+
+  debug "major $MAJOR minor $MINOR micro $MICRO"
+  VERSION=$MAJOR
+  if test ! -z "$MINOR"; then VERSION=$VERSION.$MINOR; else MINOR=0; fi
+  if test ! -z "$MICRO"; then VERSION=$VERSION.$MICRO; else MICRO=0; fi
+
+  debug "major $MAJOR minor $MINOR micro $MICRO"
+  echo -n "+ checking for $1 >= $VERSION ... "
+  ($PACKAGE --version) < /dev/null > /dev/null 2>&1 || 
+  {
+	echo
+	echo "You must have $PACKAGE installed to compile $package."
+	echo "Download the appropriate package for your distribution,"
+	echo "or get the source tarball at $URL"
+	return 1
+  }
+  # the following line is carefully crafted sed magic
+  pkg_version=`$PACKAGE --version|head -n 1|sed 's/^[a-zA-z\.\ ()]*//;s/ .*$//'`
+  debug "pkg_version $pkg_version"
+  pkg_major=`echo $pkg_version | cut -d. -f1`
+  pkg_minor=`echo $pkg_version | cut -d. -f2`
+  pkg_micro=`echo $pkg_version | cut -d. -f3`
+  test -z "$pkg_minor" && pkg_minor=0
+  test -z "$pkg_micro" && pkg_micro=0
+
+  debug "found major $pkg_major minor $pkg_minor micro $pkg_micro"
+
+  #start checking the version
+  debug "version check"
+
+  if [ ! "$pkg_major" \> "$MAJOR" ]; then
+    debug "$pkg_major <= $MAJOR"
+    if [ "$pkg_major" \< "$MAJOR" ]; then
+      WRONG=1
+    elif [ ! "$pkg_minor" \> "$MINOR" ]; then
+      if [ "$pkg_minor" \< "$MINOR" ]; then
+        WRONG=1
+      elif [ "$pkg_micro" \< "$MICRO" ]; then
+	WRONG=1
+      fi
+    fi
+  fi
+
+  if test ! -z "$WRONG"; then
+    echo "found $pkg_version, not ok !"
+    echo
+    echo "You must have $PACKAGE $VERSION or greater to compile $package."
+    echo "Get the latest version from $URL"
+    return 1
+  else
+    echo "found $pkg_version, ok."