Re: autoreconf removes config.guess but fails to restore it

[Magnus Fromreide]

On Thu, 2009-04-16 at 00:12 +0200, Ralf Wildenhues wrote:
> Hello Magnus,
> 
> thanks for the report.
> 
> * Magnus Fromreide wrote on Mon, Apr 13, 2009 at 08:24:50PM CEST:
> > Consider a package that uses only autoconf, no automake, libtool or any
> > such thing.
> > 
> > Further assume that is uses AC_CANONICAL_something so that config.sub
> > and config.guess are needed.
> > 
> > config.sub and config.guess are manually added to the package as per the
> > manual.
> > 
> > Now, running 
> > 
> > autoreconf -if
> > 
> > removes config.sub and config.guess but fails to recreate them.
> 
> I cannot reproduce this yet.  Can you modify the sample setup below so
> that it reproduces this issue for you?  Which Autoconf version are you
> using?
> 
> Thanks,
> Ralf
> 
> # in a fresh directory:
> cat >configure.ac <<'END'
> AC_INIT
> AC_CANONICAL_HOST
> AC_OUTPUT
> END
> : >install-sh
> : >config.guess
> : >config.sub
> autoreconf -vif
> ls -l

Ok, I looked a little further and the following reproduces the problem
(it was more complex than I thought at first)

# in a fresh directory:
cat >configure.ac <<'END'
AC_INIT
LT_INIT
AC_OUTPUT
END
touch install-sh config.guess config.sub
autoreconf -vif
ls -l

so I apperantly have to interact with libtool as well.

When I run autoreconf -vif it says
...
autoreconf: running: libtoolize --copy --force
...

When I try that by hand libtoolize removes config.sub and config.guess.
Looking further it seems as if libtoolize needs the --install parameter
in order to put back the files. Now it could be argued that this is a
libtoolize bug since the output of libtoolize --help states

-c, --copy            copy files rather than symlinking them
...
-f, --force           replace existing files
-i, --install         copy missing auxiliary files

but the effect of -f without -i is to remove config.sub and
config.guess. (If you are using automake then automake will restore the
files)

$ autoreconf --version
autoreconf (GNU Autoconf) 2.63

$ libtoolize --version
libtoolize (GNU libtool) 2.2.4

/MF