With a binutils in-tree aka. combined tree, you'll see this non-breaking bug in the build logs at e.g. revision 139804
Configuring in ./gcc ... checking if the linker (ld) is GNU ld... yes checking for BSD- or MS-compatible name lister (nm)... $(objdir)/../binutils/nm-new checking the name lister ($(objdir)/../binutils/nm-new) interface... /home/hp/combq/combined/gcc/configure: line 14727: objdir: command not found BSD nm checking whether ln -s works... yes checking the maximum length of command line arguments... 98304 checking whether the shell understands some XSI constructs... yes checking whether the shell understands "+="... yes checking for ld option to reload object files... -r checking how to recognize dependent libraries... pass_all checking for x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu-ar... $(objdir)/../binutils/ar checking for x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu-strip... no checking for strip... strip checking for x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu-ranlib... (cached) ranlib checking command to parse $(objdir)/../binutils/nm-new output from gcc object... /home/hp/combq/combined/gcc/configure: line 15636: objdir: command not found /home/hp/combq/combined/gcc/configure: line 15636: objdir: command not found failed ... I see this as far back as revision 135097, but not in e.g. gcc-4_3-branch revision 135124. -- Summary: [4.4 Regression]: in-tree-binutils gcc configure tests fail because of unexpanded $(objdir) Product: gcc Version: 4.4.0 Status: UNCONFIRMED Severity: normal Priority: P3 Component: driver AssignedTo: unassigned at gcc dot gnu dot org ReportedBy: hp at gcc dot gnu dot org GCC host triplet: x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu GCC target triplet: cris-axis-elf http://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=37304