In configure.ac I have the following test:

dnl $1 = MSG_CHECKING
dnl Assemble and link assembly source $2 with extra $AS options $3
dnl and extra $LD options $4.  When pattern $5 is found in `objdump -h`,
dnl then run $6, else run $7.
AC_DEFUN([CHECK_OBJDUMP_MINUS_H],[dnl
AC_MSG_CHECKING($1)
rm -f conftest.s conftest.o conftest.elf conftest.lst
cat > conftest.s <<EOF
$2
EOF
AC_TRY_COMMAND([$AS conftest.s $3 -o conftest.o])
AC_TRY_COMMAND([$LD conftest.o $4 -o conftest.elf])
AC_TRY_COMMAND([$OBJDUMP -h conftest.elf > conftest.lst])
AS_IF([grep $5 conftest.lst > /dev/null],has_pat=yes,has_pat=no)
AC_MSG_RESULT($has_pat)
AS_IF([test "x$has_pat" = "xyes"], [$6], [$7])
rm -f conftest.s conftest.o conftest.elf conftest.lst
])

CHECK_OBJDUMP_MINUS_H([whether have feature],dnl
    [.data],dnl
    [], [--defsym some_symbol=0x800066],
    ['.data.*00800066'],
    AC_DEFINE([HAVE_FEATURE], 1,
        [Define if have feature]),
)

At the place of invocation, $AS is the target assembler, $LD is the target linker, and $OBJDUMP is the target objdump.

Questions:

• Is there a better more robust way to specify the assembly source? I could not find anything like AC_LANG_PROGRAM for assembly (and such a thing might not make much sense because assembly is not standardized in any way).
• Is there a documantation of AC_TRY_COMMAND? I couldn’t find a mention in the autoconf v2.63 documentaton, also not in autoconf 2.71. I found that macro in the GCC configure scripts, so should work to some degree. What’s the proper way of running such commands?
• My impression is that the portability of the test can be improved, but I am not familiar enough with autotools to know how to achieve that. Any notes on improving the test are welcome.

The exact configure version is not known because autoconf (and autoheader, automake etc.) are usually run in user land, i.e. configure etc. are not part of the source distribution.