bug#42529: configure: error: Your 'rm' program is bad, sorry.

[Bob Friesenhahn]

On an OpenIndiana system without the GNU utilities in the executable 
search path, configure of autoconf-2.69b fails spectacularly.  This 
failure was actually not unexpected since it is due to a ksh93 
built-in bug which was never fixed.  The problem does not occur if I 
do this (forcing use of bash, which is in the executable search path):

CONFIG_SHELL=/usr/bin/bash /home/bfriesen/src/gnu/autoconf-2.69b/configure

This is what actually happened:

weerd:~/build/autoconf-2.69b% /home/bfriesen/src/gnu/autoconf-2.69b/configure
checking for a BSD-compatible install... /usr/bin/ginstall -c
checking whether build environment is sane... yes
checking for a race-free mkdir -p... /usr/bin/gmkdir -p
checking for gawk... gawk
checking whether make sets $(MAKE)... yes
checking whether make supports nested variables... yes
Usage: rm [-cFdfirRuv] file ...
Oops!

Your 'rm' program seems unable to run without file operands specified
on the command line, even when the '-f' option is present.  This is contrary
to the behaviour of most rm programs out there, and not conforming with
the upcoming POSIX standard: <http://austingroupbugs.net/view.php?id=542>

Please tell bug-automake@gnu.org about your system, including the value
of your $PATH and any error possibly output before this message.  This
can help us improve future automake versions.

Aborting the configuration process, to ensure you take notice of the issue.

You can download and install GNU coreutils to get an 'rm' implementation
that behaves properly: <http://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/>.

If you want to complete the configuration process using your problematic
'rm' anyway, export the environment variable ACCEPT_INFERIOR_RM_PROGRAM
to "yes", and re-run configure.

configure: error: Your 'rm' program is bad, sorry.

--
Bob Friesenhahn
bfriesen@simple.dallas.tx.us, http://www.simplesystems.org/users/bfriesen/
GraphicsMagick Maintainer,    http://www.GraphicsMagick.org/
Public Key,     http://www.simplesystems.org/users/bfriesen/public-key.txt