Re: autconf error configuring readline sparc/solaris 10

[Ralf Wildenhues]

Hello Frank,

Thanks for the bug report.

* Frank Middleton wrote on Fri, Dec 15, 2006 at 05:18:10PM CET:
> The output from configure asked me to report this, so here it is.
> The installed version is probably 2.60. Might a later version fix
> this, or can this warning be ignored? Please let me know if you
> would like me to try anything...

The Autoconf version that matters for an issue with a package that uses
Autoconf is the one that readline-5.0 was configured with.  You can find
it out by typing
  ../../src/readline-5.0/configure --version

in the directory you built in.  But anyway, what you have found
is not an Autoconf bug, but a small buglet in the configure.ac
(or configure.in) script of readline-5.0.

> # uname -a
> SunOS apogee6 5.10 Generic_118833-24 sun4u sparc SUNW,Ultra-80
[...]
> checking sys/ptem.h usability... no
> checking sys/ptem.h presence... yes
> configure: WARNING: sys/ptem.h: present but cannot be compiled
> configure: WARNING: sys/ptem.h: check for missing prerequisite headers?
> configure: WARNING: sys/ptem.h: proceeding with the preprocessor's result

On your system, the header sys/stream.h is a prerequisite of sys/ptem.h.
this is documented here for Solaris 8:
http://www.gnu.org/software/autoconf/manual/html_node/Header-Portability.html#index-g_t_0040file_007bsys_002fptem_002eh_007d-506
and the way to fix this is documented here:
http://www.gnu.org/software/autoconf/manual/html_node/Present-But-Cannot-Be-Compiled.html

The author of readline should use a test like this for sys/ptem.h:
AC_CHECK_HEADERS([sys/ptem.h], [], [],
  [AC_INCLUDES_DEFAULT
  #ifdef HAVE_SYS_STREAM_H
  # include <sys/stream.h>
  #endif
  ])

Please forward this to the readline developer, if a newer version
of readline doesn't have this issue fixed already.

Cheers,
Ralf