Re: [GNU Autoconf 2.71] testsuite: 10 11 12 14 37 92 236 238 239 240 293 299 397 430 431 432 433 434 435 436 437 438 439 440 509 514 failed

[Bob Harris]

On Apr 25, 2022, at 12:07 PM, Zack Weinberg <zack@owlfolio.org> wrote:
> On Mon, Apr 25, 2022, at 9:10 AM, Bob Harris wrote:
>> Trying to install on MacOS 10.14.6, without invoking admin privs (i.e. 
>> logged in as a regular non-admin user). Used ./configure’s —prefix 
>> option to direct the install to a directory that’s in my PATH.
>> 
>> Had successfully installed autoconf 2.69 in 2016 on a similar mac (but 
>> probably an earlier MacOS) using the same install steps I tried for 
>> 2.71.
> 
> I *think* this is the same problem as 
> https://savannah.gnu.org/support/?110492 : current Autoconf doesn't work 
> correctly with the (rather old) version of GNU M4 that ships with MacOS.  
> Please try installing a current version of GNU M4 in your PATH and then retry 
> the build and testsuite.
> 
> If you have time to install a whole bunch of historical versions of GNU M4 
> and pin down exactly what is the oldest version that still works, we would 
> appreciate it.  The main reason the configure check hasn't been updated is 
> that nobody has had the time to do that.
> 
> (If you do those experiments, please don't assume that *unpatched* GNU M4 
> 1.4.6 is known-broken; Apple might have introduced bugs.)
> 
> zw

Thanks, Zack,

I’ll give that a shot.

I do have a question though — Once I install a new version of m4, will it be 
enough to just rerun "make installcheck” for autoconf, or do I need to repeat 
the autoconf build process from the start?

FWIW, the m4 that I currently have is (as you suspected) the version that came 
with the machine in 2019, and it reports itself as "GNU M4 1.4.6”.

Bob H