> CC: bug-autoconf@gnu.org > Betreff: Re: Autoconf requires m4 and m4 requires autoconf
Eric, first of all, thank you very much for the really swift response - and a happy New Year! > > It is NOT a bug. > http://www.gnu.org/software/autoconf/manual/autoconf.html#Bootstrapping > Well, it seems that it *is* a bug. Let's see: According to that link and what you said, I should try to install 1.4.13 first, then try to install autoconf. But actually, that's *exactly* what I started to do this day! My build system comes from an old SuSE 9.0, with whatever packages I upgraded by manual compilation since then. It has: aaa_base-9.0-10 acl-2.2.15-23 attr-2.4.43-0 autoconf-2.59-79 automake-1.9.1-5 bash-3.0-15 bind-utils-9.2.2-25 binutils-2.15.94.0.2.2-3 bison-2.4-1 bzip2-1.0.2-224 coreutils-5.0-75 cpio-2.5-209 cpp-3.3.5-5 cracklib-2.8.9-20 cvs-1.11.6-54 cyrus-sasl-2.1.15-107 db-4.3.27-3 devs-9.0-4 diffutils-2.8.1-203 e2fsprogs-1.34-30 file-4.03-40 filesystem-9.0-6 fillup-1.42-9 findutils-4.1.7-710 flex-2.5.4a-195 gawk-3.1.3-53 gcc-3.3.5-5 gdbm-1.8.3-119 gdbm-devel-1.8.3-119 gettext-0.14.1-34 glibc-2.3.2-87 glibc-devel-2.3.2-87 glibc-locale-2.3.2-87 gpm-1.20.1-200 grep-2.5.1-294 groff-1.17.2-685 gzip-1.3.5-47 info-4.5-88 insserv-1.00.1-15 kbd-1.08-35 less-381-28 libacl-2.2.47-1 libattr-2.4.8-23 libgcc-3.3.5-5 libstdc++-3.3.5-5 libtool-1.5-80 libxcrypt-2.0-32 m4-1.4o-504 make-3.80-96 man-2.4.1-60 mktemp-1.5-633 modutils-2.4.25-50 ncurses-5.3-110 ncurses-devel-5.3-110 net-tools-1.60-444 netcfg-9.0-5 openldap2-client-2.1.22-65 openssl-0.9.7b-68 pam-0.77-124 pam-devel-0.77-124 pam-modules-9.0-5 patch-2.5.9-52 perl-5.8.1-46 permissions-2003.9.18-4 popt-1.7-207 ps-2003.9.20-3 rcs-5.7-764 readline-5.0-7 rpm-4.1.1-71 sed-4.0.6-69 sendmail-8.12.10-7 shadow-4.0.3-182 strace-4.4.98-54 syslogd-1.4.1-418 sysvinit-2.82-362 tar-1.13.25-199 texinfo-4.8-7 timezone-2.3.2-87 unzip-5.50-244 util-linux-2.11z-91 vim-6.2-74 zlib-1.2.2-5 zlib-devel-1.2.2-5 These and only these. A build system, as I said - nothing extravagant. I have no chance of installing newer versions of m4 or autoconf on it - unless, of course, I build them myself. I took the .spec file (for RPM) of the installed version for m4, adapted it (= just had to change version numbers and such), then run build m4.spec This starts off an RPM compilation in that build system, which is separated from the "production". So far so good. I tried both m4-1.4.13.tar.bz2 *and* m4-1.4.9.tar.gz and *both* ended with the error + STATUS=0 + '[' 0 -ne 0 ']' + cd m4-1.4.9 ++ /usr/bin/id -u + '[' 0 = 0 ']' + /bin/chown -Rhf root . ++ /usr/bin/id -u + '[' 0 = 0 ']' + /bin/chgrp -Rhf root . + /bin/chmod -Rf a+rX,g-w,o-w . + exit 0 Executing(%build): /bin/sh -e /var/tmp/rpm-tmp.44219 + umask 022 + cd /usr/src/packages/BUILD + cd m4-1.4.9 + regex=--without-included-regex + test /usr/lib/libc.so -ef /lib/libc.so.5 + AUTOMAKE_DIR=/usr/share/automake + '[' -d /usr/share/automake ']' + AUTOMAKE_DIR='/usr/share/automake*' + '[' -d /usr/share/automake-1.9 ']' + for d in . + for f in config.sub config.guess + test -f ./config.sub -a '!' ./config.sub -ef /usr/share/automake-1.9/config.sub + cp -f /usr/share/automake-1.9/config.sub ./config.sub + test -d . -a '!' -f ./depcomp -a -f /usr/share/automake-1.9/depcomp + test -f ./missing -a '!' ./missing -ef /usr/share/automake-1.9/missing + cp -f /usr/share/automake-1.9/missing ./missing + for f in config.sub config.guess + test -f ./config.guess -a '!' ./config.guess -ef /usr/share/automake-1.9/config.guess + cp -f /usr/share/automake-1.9/config.guess ./config.guess + test -d . -a '!' -f ./depcomp -a -f /usr/share/automake-1.9/depcomp + test -f ./missing -a '!' ./missing -ef /usr/share/automake-1.9/missing + cp -f /usr/share/automake-1.9/missing ./missing + for f in ltconfig ltmain.sh + test -f ./ltconfig + for f in ltconfig ltmain.sh + test -f ./ltmain.sh + autoreconf --force --install configure.ac:20: error: Autoconf version 2.60 or higher is required configure.ac:20: the top level autom4te: /usr/bin/m4 failed with exit status: 63 aclocal: autom4te failed with exit status: 63 autoreconf: aclocal failed with exit status: 63 error: Bad exit status from /var/tmp/rpm-tmp.44219 (%build) I did *not* take any "bleeding edge" (i.e. CVS, or whatever) version. I used "plain old" stable versions - and they bring this error... It is clear that line 20 of configure.ac of m4 1.4.{9,13} will say: "Autoconf version 2.60 or higher is required". Indeed, that line has: AC_PREREQ([2.60]) That pretty much says it all. If you have autoconf-2.59-79, like me, you lose. 2.59 is clearly less that 2.60. But then, when I try to install autoconf 2.60, it tells me it needs an upgraded m4... This is m4-1.4.9, or m4-1.4.13 - they bring both the same error. And, according to what you said, they should not. That qualifies for "bug" to me. PS. I can send you a 75 MB tar.bzip2 archive of my build system, if you want to try the m4 1.4.{9,13} configure script in it yourself. ;-) -- Regards Chris Karakas http://www.karakas-online.de
