GSL version string and gsl.m4

[Bill Brower <wbrower at ll dot mit dot edu>]

I've a question concerning the GSL version number and its relation
to the gsl.m4 script. I'm requiring GSL version 0.6 for another
project. As per instruction, I added a line to my configure.in.
I get different results depending on the version number syntax:
MAJOR.MINOR vs. MAJOR.MINOR.MICRO (see output below).

MAJOR.MINOR:
     configure.in:
     ...
     AM_PATH_GSL(0.6,AC_MSG_ERROR(Error message!))
     ...

     output of configure:
     ...
     checking for gsl-config... /usr/local/bin/gsl-config
     checking for GSL - version >= 0.6... 0.6, bad version string
     no
     ...[script continues to completion, I think correctly]

     The "bad version string" and "no" are printed because of the
     requirement that begins on line 92 of gsl.m4:

     tmp_version = my_strdup("$min_gsl_version");
     if (sscanf(tmp_version, "%d.%d.%d", &major, &minor, &micro) != 3) {
        printf("%s, bad version string\n", "$min_gsl_version");
        exit(1);
      }

     This appears to require the MICRO piece of the version number
string.
     Is that desirable? If so, maybe the document can be updated to 
     reflect that (and should 'gsl-config --version' return MICRO as
well?)


MAJOR.MINOR.MICRO:
     configure.in:
     ...
     AM_PATH_GSL(0.6.0,AC_MSG_ERROR(Error message!))
     ...

     output of configure:
     ...
     checking for gsl-config... /usr/local/bin/gsl-config
     checking for GSL - version >= 0.6.0... yes
     configure: error: Error message!
     [end of output]

     Now I'm just plain confused. I get a "yes" as expected but
     why does configure print the error message and then die?


Thanks,
Bill

--
William Brower  MIT Lincoln Laboratory
805.355.1310    KMR Field Site, Kwajalein