difficulties building from svn, missing help2man, segfault

[Benno Schulenberg]

Hi,

Trying to build texinfo from SVN (wanting to see how things
stand with the h-H issue), I run into some difficulties.

First:
configure.ac:21: require Automake 1.14, but have 1.11.1

Okay, I screw the required version down to 1.11.1 and try again:
configure.ac:21: option `info-in-builddir' not recognized

Okay, I kick that one out, and then configure passes without
any problem.  But the build fails early:

In file included from info-utils.h:26,
                 from display.h:25,
                 from info.h:39,
                 from makedoc.c:27:
window.h:84: error: redefinition of typedef ‘WINDOW’
nodes.h:171: note: previous declaration of ‘WINDOW’ was here

But judging from the comments, that should work.

$ gcc --version | head -1
gcc (Ubuntu 4.4.3-4ubuntu5.1) 4.4.3

Okay, try on a newer system, half a year old.  Still have to screw
the required automake down to the installed 1.13.3, and kick out
the info-in-builddir option, but then it appears to build fine. But,
just before the end, it fails, on a missing help2man:

home/ben/TEXI/build-aux/missing: regel 81: help2man: opdracht niet gevonden
WARNING: 'help2man' is missing on your system.
         You should only need it if you modified a dependency of a man page.
         You may want to install the GNU Help2man package:
         <http://www.gnu.org/software/help2man/>
make[2]: *** [install-info.1] Fout 127
make[2]: Map '/home/ben/TEXI/man' wordt verlaten

Shouldn't ./configure check for its presence if it's going to be used?

Anyway, installed that, it builds.  Then run:

$ info/ginfo doc/info.info
Welcome to Info version 5.2. Type h for help, m for menu item.Segmentation fault

Wow.

The doc/info.info seems to be fine, though, I can read it okay with the
system's own info command.  And starting info/ginfo with other arguments
(grep, sed, find) or without any argument works fine too.  So, what's up
with this segfault?

Okay, I find the system's info.info file, compare it with the one in doc/
-- the new just has the whole license text included and a few minor
changes.  Okay, copy the old one to doc/what.info and run:

$ info/ginfo doc/what.info

It does not segfault but the screen is blank and the status line says:
Info: (*no file*)*no node*, 0 lines --All

:|

Okay, copy the new doc/info.info to the current dir and the parent dir.

$ info/ginfo ../info.info
Segfault.

$ info/ginfo ./info.info

Hooray, it opens.  :)

But... the text still says: "type the command 'h' now", which does
not bring one to the tutorial but opens a subwindow with help text.
Either that line should say "'H' now", or the bottom line should
mention "Type H for help" instead of "Type h for help".


$ gcc --version | head -1
gcc (Ubuntu/Linaro 4.8.1-10ubuntu9) 4.8.1

$ info --version | head -1
info (GNU texinfo) 5.1

By the way, in the fragment  «with the Front-Cover texts
being "A GNU Manual," and with the Back-Cover Texts as in (a)
below.»  maybe s/texts/text/ and s/Texts/text/,
and s/as.*ow/being "You have the freedom to copy and
modify this GNU manual."./ and then drop (a).

Benno

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