{host,target,build}_alias passed via environment variables

[Ralf Corsepius]

Hi,

autoconf-2.52 exhibits this arkward behavior when calling
subdirectory configure scripts w/ cross compilation (I think this is
closely related to the problem Andreas Schwab reported earlier.).

Given a hierachy of autoconfizcated packages:
# find -name configure.in
./configure.in
./sub/configure.in
./sub/sub2/configure.in

# .configure --build=i386-xxx-linux --target=i386-yyy-linux
..
configure: configuring in sub
configure: running /bin/sh './configure'  --build=i386-xxx-linux
--host=i386-yyy-linux build_alias=i386-xxx-linux
host_alias=i386-yyy-linux --cache-file=/dev/null --srcdir=.
..
configure: configuring in sub2
configure: running /bin/sh './configure'  --build=i386-xxx-linux
--host=i386-yyy-linux build_alias=i386-xxx-linux
host_alias=i386-yyy-linux build_alias=i386-xxx-linux
host_alias=i386-yyy-linux --cache-file=/dev/null --srcdir=.

I see two (more or less independent) severe problems:

1. *_aliases are passed via environment variables (this is redundant
to --[build|host|target] and _does_ desturb configure scripts which
evaluate the arguments passed to configure (eg. in configure scripts
which support 2- and 3-leaf Canadian crosses - Such configure
scripts often process --[host|build|target] and actively invoke
other configure scripts.)

2. The *_alias'es accumulate with invocation of config.status. I.e.
with each recursion of during initial configuration, (cf. above) and
with each subsequent run of a directory's config.status afterwards
(cf. below)

# ./config.status --recheck
running /bin/sh ./configure  --build=i386-xxx-linux
--host=i386-yyy-linux build_alias=i386-xxx-linux
host_alias=i386-yyy-linux  --no-create --no-recursion
# ./config.status --recheck
running /bin/sh ./configure  --build=i386-xxx-linux
--host=i386-yyy-linux build_alias=i386-xxx-linux
host_alias=i386-yyy-linux build_alias=i386-xxx-linux
host_alias=i386-yyy-linux  --no-create --no-recursion
# ./config.status --recheck
running /bin/sh ./configure  --build=i386-xxx-linux
--host=i386-yyy-linux build_alias=i386-xxx-linux
host_alias=i386-yyy-linux build_alias=i386-xxx-linux
host_alias=i386-yyy-linux build_alias=i386-xxx-linux
host_alias=i386-yyy-linux  --no-create --no-recursion

Ralf

PS. Example to reproduce this behavior enclosed in the attachment
below.

alias-bug-20010722.tar.bz2
Description: Binary data