Re: Question on check-process / autoconf-2.6.3

[Ralf Wildenhues]

Hi Eric,

* Eric Blake wrote on Thu, Dec 31, 2009 at 02:45:23AM CET:
> According to Ralf Wildenhues on 12/30/2009 2:50 PM:
> > If you are using a modified Autoconf: the problem is in a modification.
> > Presumably an AT_XFAIL_IF was added when somebody tried this test with
> > a newer Automake release that required more preselections.
> > 
> > Hmm, I guess I don't know how to rewrite the "autom4te preselections"
> > test well so that it is robust for distros to use, with varying Automake
> > version.  Eric, should we bite the bullet and hard-code the expected
> > Automake version (and SKIP if not in a safe range)?  Or should we rather
> > SKIP this test instead of FAILing it?
> 
> Maybe even try the test, and if it passes (even with mismatch in automake
> version, as will usually be the case), then all is well.  But if the
> mismatch causes that particular step of the test to fail, we then do a
> followup test of comparing 'automake --version' with the version grepped
> out of autoconf's Makefile.in; and declare FAIL if they are the same, or
> SKIP if they are different.

That sounds like a good compromise.  Proposed patch below; OK to commit?
Dieter, OK to add you to THANKS?  FWIW, I think it is customary to do so
without name affixes like Dr.

> I haven't checked yet - is that test still identical between 2.63 and
> current git, or might this be something that we have already addressed
> based on previous reports?

IIRC the test is identical, and even if there were smaller edits, this
issue has not been addressed.

Thanks,
Ralf

    Don't fail autom4te preselection test due to different Automake.
    
    * tests/tools.at (autom4te preselections): If the cache test
    fails, extract the Automake version from the toplevel
    Makefile.in file of the source tree; skip, rather than fail
    the test group if the automake program has a different version.
    * THANKS: Update.
    Report by Dieter Jurzitza, fix suggested by Eric Blake.

diff --git a/tests/tools.at b/tests/tools.at
index aa3f258..1769e1c 100644
--- a/tests/tools.at
+++ b/tests/tools.at
@@ -1197,8 +1197,13 @@ AT_CHECK([aclocal], [], [], [ignore])
 AT_CHECK([automake --no-force --add-missing], [], [], [ignore])
 AT_CHECK([autoconf])
 AT_CHECK([test "`find configure -newer newer`" = "" ||
-         { diff old-requests autom4te.cache/requests; exit 1; }])
-
+         { diff old-requests autom4te.cache/requests; exit 1; }],
+        [], [], [],
+        [extract_version=['s/^[^0-9]*\([0-9][^ ]*\).*/\1/;q']
+         automake_version=`automake --version | sed "$extract_version"`
+         used_automake_version=`sed "$extract_version" 
"$abs_top_srcdir/Makefile.in"`
+         AT_CHECK([if test "$automake_version" = "$used_automake_version"; ]dnl
+                   [then exit 1; else exit 77; fi])])
 AT_CLEANUP