Re: bad autom4te call by autoconf ?

[Andreas.P.Priesnitz]

Hello!

On 29 Aug 2001, Akim Demaille wrote:
>I'm seriously thinking your Perl is too old for us.
>Is it possible for you to upgrade it and try again?
I installed perl 5.6.1, but regarding autoconf everything remains the same.
autom4te contains the new perl path after #!, so it seems not to be the perl
version's fault.
I get similar errors of the kind

...
autom4te_perllibdir='../lib' ../bin/autom4te \
  -I . -I .. -I ../lib \
  atspecific.m4 suite.at -o testsuite.tmp
autom4te: no such file or directory: -o
...

when installing other perl-programs like stow or help2man.
After reordering the arguments in tests/Makefile.in, `make check' produces:

...
=================================
Test suite for GNU Autoconf 2.52b
=================================
...
Executables (autoheader, autoupdate...).

  1: tools.at:29       ok (skipped near `tools.at:53')
  2: tools.at:76       ok
  3: tools.at:94       ok
  4: tools.at:116      FAILED near `tools.at:142'
  5: tools.at:176      FAILED near `tools.at:185'
  6: tools.at:208      FAILED near `tools.at:232'
  7: tools.at:239      FAILED near `tools.at:274'
  8: tools.at:286      ok
  9: tools.at:334      FAILED near `tools.at:353'
...
# all the other 146 tests fail
...
4. ./tools.at:116: testing autoconf --trace: user macros...
./tools.at:142: autoconf --autoconf-dir ../lib -l $at_srcdir -t TRACE1 -t TRACE2
0a1
> Unknown option: warning
1,12d0
< configure.ac:4:TRACE1:foo:bar:baz
< configure.ac:4:TRACE2:bar:baz
< configure.ac:5:TRACE1:bar:baz
< configure.ac:5:TRACE2:baz
< configure.ac:5:TRACE1:foo::baz
< configure.ac:5:TRACE2::baz
< configure.ac:6:TRACE1:foo:ACTIVE:baz
< configure.ac:6:TRACE2:ACTIVE:baz
< configure.ac:7:TRACE1:ACTIVE:active
< configure.ac:7:TRACE2:active
< configure.ac:7:TRACE1:foo:active::ACTIVE
< configure.ac:7:TRACE2:active::ACTIVE
./tools.at:142: exit code was 1, expected 0
4. ./tools.at:116: FAILED near `tools.at:142'

5. ./tools.at:176: testing autoconf --trace: builtins...
./tools.at:185: autoconf --autoconf-dir ../lib -l $at_srcdir -t define | sed -n
'$p'
0a1
> Unknown option: warning
1d0
< configure.ac:1:define:active:ACTIVE
5. ./tools.at:176: FAILED near `tools.at:185'

...
#and so on
...


>Otherwise try to paste the following file into lib/Autom4te
>and
>perl -pi.bak -e 's/Getopt::Long/Autom4te::Long/g' bin/*.in
>Well, you'll need
>perl -pi.bak -e 's/Getopt::Long/Autom4te::Long/g' lib/Autom4te/Long.pm
>too I guess.
After doing this, `configure' runs fine, `make' gives warnings of the kind:

...
test -f ../bin/autom4te && prog=../bin/autom4te; \
test -f ../config/autom4te && prog=../config/autom4te; \
if test -n "$prog"; then \
  echo "Updating man page autom4te.1"; \
  autom4te_perllibdir="../lib" \
  /bin/sh /tmp_mnt/home/cfd1/home/priesnit/autoconf-2.52b/config/missing --run
help2man \
    --include=./autom4te.x \
    --include=./common.x \
    --output=autom4te.1 $prog; \
else \
  echo "WARNING: The man page autom4te.1 cannot be updated yet."; \
  echo "         Retry once the corresponding executable is built."; \
fi
Updating man page autom4te.1
help2man: can't get `--help' info from ../bin/autom4te
WARNING: `help2man' is missing on your system.  You should only need it if
         you modified a dependency of a manual page.  You may need the
         `Help2man' package in order for those modifications to take
         effect.  You can get `Help2man' from any GNU archive site.
...

(help2man is installed) `make check' causes:

...
make[2]: Entering directory `/tmp_mnt/home/cfd1/home/priesnit/autoconf-2.52b/tes
ts'
autom4te_perllibdir='../lib' ../bin/autom4te \
  -I . -I .. -I ../lib \
  atspecific.m4 suite.at -o testsuite.tmp
Can't locate auto/Autom4te/Long/autosplit.ix in @INC (@INC contains: ../lib /hom
e/cfd1/usr/alphaev67-dec-osf4.0f/lib/perl /home/cfd1/usr/lib/perl /home/cfd1/usr
/alphaev67-dec-osf4.0f/lib/perl/site /home/cfd1/usr/lib/perl/site /home/cfd1/usr
/lib/perl/site .) at /home/cfd1/usr/lib/perl/AutoLoader.pm line 146.
 at ../lib/Autom4te/Long.pm line 42
Can't locate auto/Autom4te/Long/Configure.al in @INC (@INC contains: ../lib /hom
e/cfd1/usr/alphaev67-dec-osf4.0f/lib/perl /home/cfd1/usr/lib/perl /home/cfd1/usr
/alphaev67-dec-osf4.0f/lib/perl/site /home/cfd1/usr/lib/perl/site /home/cfd1/usr
/lib/perl/site .) at ../lib/Autom4te/Long.pm line 142
Compilation failed in require at ../bin/autom4te line 49.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at ../bin/autom4te line 49.
make[2]: *** [testsuite] Error 2
make[2]: Leaving directory `/tmp_mnt/home/cfd1/home/priesnit/autoconf-2.52b/test
s'
make[1]: *** [check-am] Error 2
make[1]: Leaving directory `/tmp_mnt/home/cfd1/home/priesnit/autoconf-2.52b/test
s'
make: *** [check-recursive] Error 1
...


But I don't want to bother too much about this problem, I guess there are
more important things to be done.
I'll keep using autoconf 2.13, maybe the solution for the problem will show up
somehow else.

Thanks a lot anyway for your help and your patience!
Regards
Andreas