Thanks for the bug report. I installed this patch:
2006-06-30 Paul Eggert <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
* tests/torture.at (Configuring subdirectories): Set CONFIG_SITE
to a nonexistent file, so that we don't have to worry about
a local site configuration that doesn't use /usr/local.
Problem reported by Keith Marshall in
<http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-autoconf/2006-06/msg00133.html>.
Index: tests/torture.at
===================================================================
RCS file: /cvsroot/autoconf/autoconf/tests/torture.at,v
retrieving revision 1.65
diff -p -u -r1.65 torture.at
--- tests/torture.at 23 Jun 2006 14:56:30 -0000 1.65
+++ tests/torture.at 30 Jun 2006 07:17:23 -0000
@@ -840,7 +840,7 @@ AT_CHECK([test -f inner/configure])
# Running the outer configure recursively should provide the innermost
# help strings.
-AT_CHECK([./configure --help=recursive | grep INNER], 0, [ignore])
+AT_CHECK([CONFIG_SITE=no-such-file ./configure --help=recursive | grep INNER],
0, [ignore])
# Running the outer configure should trigger the inner.
AT_CHECK_CONFIGURE
@@ -853,7 +853,7 @@ prefix=/usr/local
# The same, but from a builddir.
AS_MKDIR_P([builddir])
-AT_CHECK([cd builddir && ../configure], 0, [ignore])
+AT_CHECK([cd builddir && CONFIG_SITE=no-such-file ../configure], 0, [ignore])
AT_CHECK([cat builddir/inner/innermost/config], 0,
[INNER=inner
srcdir=../../../inner/innermost
@@ -866,7 +866,7 @@ prefix=/usr/local
# that if the user has set config.site to have a config.cache, then
# the two runs don't have colliding caches.
AS_MKDIR_P([builddir2])
-AT_CHECK([cd builddir2 && ../configure --prefix /bad --prefix /good INNER=bad
INNER=good], 0, [ignore])
+AT_CHECK([cd builddir2 && CONFIG_SITE=no-such-file ../configure --prefix /bad
--prefix /good INNER=bad INNER=good], 0, [ignore])
AT_CHECK([cat builddir2/inner/innermost/config], 0,
[INNER=good
srcdir=../../../inner/innermost
