EXEEXT mechanism broken?

[Tim Van Holder]

when configuring Python 2.0 just now, I hit the following problem:

H:\Tmp\Source\Python-2.0>bash configure CFLAGS=-Os --with-fpectl 
--without-threads --with-pydebug --with-suffix=.exe --with-cxx=gpp 
--without-wctype-functions -C
loading site script /dev/env/DJDIR/share/config.site
checking MACHDEP... ms-dos7
checking for --without-gcc... no
checking for --with-cxx=<compiler>... gpp
checking for gcc... gcc
checking whether the C compiler works... yes
checking whether we are cross compiling... no
checking whether we are using the GNU C compiler... yes
checking for object suffix... o
checking for executable suffix... configure: error: cannot compute EXEEXT: 
cannot compile and link

Now I have ac_exeext set in config.site (otherwise the check
whether the compiler works fails); and I've never had the
exeext mechanism fail this way. It's easy enough to avoid by
setting ac_cv_exeext in config.site as well, but I do believe
a real fix is in order.
The problem seems to be that ac_exeext is initialized with
ac_cv_exeext, which starts out empty. This kills the setting
from config.site, resulting in breakage. What is also odd is
that _AC_COMPILER_EXEEXT_DEFAULT doesn't seem to get called (as
that would probably have found the right value).

config.log follows:
This file contains any messages produced by compilers while
running configure, to aid debugging if configure makes a mistake.

It was created by configure 2.49c, executed with
 > configure CFLAGS=-Os --with-fpectl --without-threads --with-pydebug 
 > --with-suffix=.exe --with-cxx=gpp --without-wctype-functio

## ---------- ##
## Platform.  ##
## ---------- ##

hostname = ZASTAI         
uname -m = pc
uname -r = 7
uname -s = MS-DOS
uname -v = 10

/usr/bin/uname -p = unknown
/bin/uname -X     = unknown

/bin/arch              = unknown
/usr/bin/arch -k       = unknown
/usr/convex/getsysinfo = unknown
hostinfo               = unknown
/bin/machine           = unknown
/usr/bin/oslevel       = unknown
/bin/universe          = unknown

PATH = G:/DevStudio/Common/MSDev98/Bin;G:/DevStudio/Visual 
C++/Bin;G:/DevStudio/Masm/Bin;G:/DevStudio/Common/Tools/Win95;G:/DevStudio/Common/Tools;H:/Windows;H:/Windows/Command;D:/4Dos;G:/Djgpp/Bin;D:/Compress;D:/Utils;C:/Utils;H:/Utility/Norton;H:/Utility/Thunder

## ------------ ##
## Core tests.  ##
## ------------ ##

configure:986: checking MACHDEP
configure:1023: result: ms-dos7
configure:1046: checking for --without-gcc
configure:1099: result: no
configure:1103: checking for --with-cxx=<compiler>
configure:1122: result: gpp
configure:1186: checking for gcc
configure:1208: result: gcc
configure:1430: checking whether the C compiler works
configure:1445: gcc -o conftest.exe -Os   conftest.c  >&5
configure:1448: $? = 0
configure:1450: test -s conftest.exe
configure:1453: $? = 0
configure:1458: ./conftest.exe
configure:1461: $? = 0
configure:1476: result: yes
configure:1488: checking whether we are cross compiling
configure:1490: result: no
configure:1493: checking whether we are using the GNU C compiler
configure:1514: gcc -c -Os  conftest.c >&5
configure:1517: $? = 0
configure:1529: result: yes
configure:1532: checking for object suffix
configure:1550: gcc -c -Os  conftest.c >&5
configure:1553: $? = 0
configure:1572: result: o
configure:1576: checking for executable suffix
configure:1595: gcc -Os   conftest.c  >&5
configure:1598: $? = 0
configure:1618: gcc -o conftest -Os   conftest.c  >&5
configure:1621: $? = 0
configure:1623: test -s conftest
configure:1626: $? = 1
configure: failed program was:
#line 1582 "configure"
#include "confdefs.h"

int
main ()
{

  ;
  return 0;
}
configure:1643: error: cannot compute EXEEXT: cannot compile and link
configure: exit 1