Detecting an adequate id program

[Michael Grünewald]

Dear Autoconf list,

I have written an Autoconf test to detect an `id' program accepting -g 
-n and -u -n.  This tests works fine on FreeBSD (7.2 and 8.1) and some 
version of Solaris, but not on some Linux.  I am very unexperimented in 
writing Autoconf macros, so I would need some help to figure out what is 
going wrong and how to fix it.  In advance, thanks!


I need a macro that checks for a `id' program able to print the user id 
and the the group id in symbolic form: the candidate program must pass 
the test

$ac_cv_path_ID_v -g         \
  && $ac_cv_path_ID_v -g -n \
  && $ac_cv_path_ID_v -u    \
  && $ac_cv_path_ID_v -u -n

when ac_cv_path_ID_v points to the candidate.  Hence I wrote the 
following test:

-8<---
# AC_PROG_ID
# ----------
AC_DEFUN([AC_PROG_ID],
[AC_CACHE_CHECK([for id that handles -g, -u and -n], ac_cv_path_ID,
  [ac_cv_path_ID=no
for ac_cv_path_ID_v in id /usr/xpg4/bin/id 'command -p id'; do
    if test "$ac_cv_path_ID" = "no"; then
      ( $ac_cv_path_ID_v -g && $ac_cv_path_ID_v -g -n && 
$ac_cv_path_ID_v -u && $ac_cv_path_ID_v -u -n ) 2>&- 1>&- && 
ac_cv_path_ID="$ac_cv_path_ID_v"
    fi
done;])
ID="$ac_cv_path_ID"
AC_SUBST([ID])
])
-8<---

Of course, I did not write it all by myself, but copied an existing 
macro and modified what seemed to require it.  When I tried my script at 
my workplace---where I have to use some version of Ubuntu, the variable 
`ID' was filled up with the value `no' while the `id' command passes the 
test---when I check it at the command line.  My `configure' script was 
produced by GNU Autoconf 2.62.

Your help would be much appreciated!
--
Best regards,
Michael