AC_CONFIG_LINKS([sub/file:file]) with abs srcdir creates a bad link

[Peter Breitenlohner]

Hi,

here another Autoconf 2.65 bug, reported by TeX Live builders:

AC_CONFIG_LINKS([sub/file:file])

creates a wrong symlink when used with an absolute srcdir (different from
builddir). As far as I can reconstruct 2.64 did it differently but also
wrong.

Attached is a small tarball demonstrating the problem. Everything is as
expected with a relative (explicit or implicit) srcdir, but
   /path/to/src/configure --srcdir=/path/to/src
creates a dangling symlink.

=============

Also attached is a tiny patch adressing this problem.

It might be good to have a test case, but the Autoconf testsuite is beyond
me.

Finally, the manual states that AC_CONFIG_LINKS creates (sym)links from the
source tree to the build tree.  Looking at the code this is obviouly not (no
longer?) the case for files in the build tree created explicitly by
configure or via AC_CONFIG_FILES (execpt for the current problem).  That
sentence might need to be revised.

Regards
Peter Breitenlohner <address@hidden>

ac-test-1.0.tar.gz
Description: Binary data

0001-Prevent-AC_CONFIG_LINKS-from-creating-bad-symlinks.patch
Description: Text document