5.1.1 Standard Symbols

All the generic macros that AC_DEFINE a symbol as a result of their test transform their argument values to a standard alphabet. First, argument is converted to upper case and any asterisks (‘*’) are each converted to ‘P’. Any remaining characters that are not alphanumeric are converted to underscores.

For instance,

     AC_CHECK_TYPES([struct $Expensive*])

defines the symbol ‘HAVE_STRUCT__EXPENSIVEP’ if the check succeeds.