Problems with autoconf-2.55

[Kent Boortz]

I'm porting several "configure.in" files from using autoconf 2.13 to
2.55 and some of the problems I have looks like bugs to me. I'm
working on Solaris 8.

  1. If one of the directories given to AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS
     is a soft link to a directory it will fail because of the
     new use of "mkdir -p MYSUBDIR" instead of testing with
     "test -d" that dereference symbolic links.

  2. If the file path in AC_OUTPUT is absolute it will fail.
     For example (rewritten extract)

     srcdir=
     AC_OUTPUT(
      /absolute/path/emulator/Makefile:emulator/Makefile.in
     )

     gives an empty "ac_abs_srcdir", from the log created using
     "set -x" in running "config.status"

     ++ cd /absolute/path/emulator/sparc-sun-solaris2.8
     ++ cd /absolute/path//absolute/path/emulator/sparc-sun-solaris2.8
     ./config.status: cd: 
/absolute/path//absolute/path/emulator/sparc-sun-solaris2.8: No such file or 
directory
     + ac_abs_srcdir=

  3. The generated code in the resulting "configure" seem to use a
     private variable 'subdirs' that isn't prefixed. In my
     "configure.in" I have code (I know it is not the recommended
     coding)

       subdirs=""
       for d in * ; do
           if test -f $d/configure ; then
               subdirs="$subdirs $d"
           fi
       done

       AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS($subdirs)

     that resulted in some strange code (maybe harmless) in the
     generated "configure" script. For example the line

       subdirs="$subdirs $subdirs"

I'm very thankful for the work you put into this valuable tool, thanks,

kent