Re: failure building HEAD

[Alexandre Duret-Lutz]

reopen 221483
stop

>>> "Robert" == Robert Collins <address@hidden> writes:

 Robert> On Mon, 2003-12-01 at 18:09, Alexandre Duret-Lutz wrote:
 >> >>> "Robert" == Robert Collins <address@hidden> writes:
 >> 
 >> [...]
 >> 
 Robert> configure:1847: cd conftest && eval autoconf -o /dev/null conftest.ac
 Robert> autom4te: cannot open /dev/null.tmp: Permission denied
 >> 
 Robert> Is this a 'need to use 2.59' thing? (If so, the error is misleading).
 >> 
 >> It works fine with Autoconf 2.58.   I wonder if your version of Autoconf
 >> is patched, or if autoconf is a wrapper, or something.  I can't see where
 >> this `.tmp' suffix would come from.

 Robert> I'm on debian unstable, so there is a wrapper - but I
 Robert> bypassed it with the same results.

I just updated my Debian packages today and saw this in the
changelog.Debian for autoconf:

autoconf (2.58-7) unstable; urgency=low

  * Make autom4te create files via a temporary followed by a rename, so
    that partial writes don't happen.  Closes: #221483.

 -- Ben Pfaff <address@hidden>  Tue, 18 Nov 2003 21:43:40 -0800

I think this is the problem.  Ben, you cannot write
`$output.tmp' because when $output is /dev/null a user cannot
create /dev/null.tmp.  This change breaks the configuration of
all versions of Automake since 1.6 :(
-- 
Alexandre Duret-Lutz