Unbelievably slow 'configure' runs on Digital Unix 4.0d

[Hans-Bernhard Broeker]

The setup:

gnuplot CVS sources, autoconf-2.57, automake-1.7
build directory below the top source directory.
I edit configure.in and then run

        make -C builddir

This runs, among other things

        /bin/sh ./config.status --recheck

and that calls
        
        /bin/sh ../configure 

and then it hurts.  This configure run takes unbelievably long to
finish. On the order of 30 seconds per check, for things like
(cached!) AC_CHECK_HEADER(sys/types.h).

Kicking it in the rump to make sure it uses /bin/ksh instead of /bin/sh
seems to help, and it seems to remember that for a while.  But everytime
it returns to /bin/sh for some unknown reason, it falls back to crawling
speed again.  Any explanations?

[Please keep the CC: if possible, as I'm not on this list...]

-- 
Hans-Bernhard Broeker (address@hidden)
Even if all the snow were burnt, ashes would remain.