[sr #110448] AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIRS fails with Windows paths

[anonymous]

URL:
  

 Summary: AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIRS fails with Windows paths
 Project: Autoconf
Submitted by: None
Submitted on: Mon 22 Feb 2021 10:23:28 AM UTC
Category: None
Priority: 5 - Normal
Severity: 3 - Normal
  Status: None
 Privacy: Public
 Assigned to: None
Originator Email: sylv...@haskus.fr
 Open/Closed: Open
 Discussion Lock: Any
Operating System: Microsoft Windows

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Details:

Updating to autoconf 2.70 broke the build of GHC (Haskell compiler) on Windows
using msys2. I've tracked this to commit
35a1c64600894ecc3b06b6c4b273952db7c8fc83

This commit changed the way the auxiliary dirs are managed. They were put in a
space separated list and now they are put in a $PATH_SEPARATOR separated list.
I.e. it replaced [AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIRS("$srcdir" "$srcdir/.." "$srcdir/../..")]
with 
[${srcdir}${PATH_SEPARATOR}${srcdir}/..${PATH_SEPARATOR}${srcdir}/../..].

The issue is that on Windows we call configure with something like
"/usr/bin/sh c:\/msys64/home/Sylvain/ghc/libraries/ghc-bignum/configure ..."
and $srcdir becomes equal to
c:\/msys64/home/Sylvain/ghc/libraries/ghc-bignum/. But $PATH_SEPARATOR=":" so
we get:


configure:2437: looking for aux files: config.guess config.sub
configure:2450:  trying C/
configure:2450:  trying \/msys64/home/Sylvain/ghc/libraries/ghc-bignum/
configure:2450:  trying C/
configure:2450:  trying \/msys64/home/Sylvain/ghc/libraries/ghc-bignum/../
configure:2450:  trying C/
configure:2450:  trying \/msys64/home/Sylvain/ghc/libraries/ghc-bignum/../../
configure:2503: error: cannot find required auxiliary files: config.guess
config.sub



Shouldn't $ac_aux_dir_candidates be a space-separated list?




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[sr #110448] AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIRS fails with Windows paths

[Zack Weinberg]

Update of sr#110448 (group autoconf):

Priority:   5 - Unprioritized => 1 - Blocked
Severity:  3 - Normal => 2 - Minor  
  Status:None => Need Info  

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Follow-up Comment #1:

We made $ac_aux_dir_candidates a $PATH_SEPARATOR separated list because it
could potentially reference the build directory, whose name is allowed to
contain whitespace (see automake/m4/sanity.m4).  It'd be a little weird but
it's not out of the question.

I'm not opposed to changing it back to a whitespace-separated list but first I
need to understand why you have PATH_SEPARATOR=: on a Windows-based system. It
should always be ; on systems that use drive letters, precisely because drive
letters are set off from the rest of the path with a colon.  Maybe the real
bug here is that _AS_PATH_SEPARATOR_PREPARE isn't giving the right answer.


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[sr #110448] AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIRS fails with Windows paths

[anonymous]

Follow-up Comment #2, sr#110448 (group autoconf):

Cabal now sets `$PATH_SEPARATOR=";"` so we don't have the issue anymore with
newer releases:
- https://github.com/haskell/cabal/issues/7494
- https://github.com/haskell/cabal/pull/7510

This issue can be closed.


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Re: [sr #110448] AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIRS fails with Windows paths

[pluto--- via Bug reports for autoconf]

[Even after registering and logging in, I could not figure out how
 to post a comment to this SR on savannah.  If there's an entry in
 the FAQ or the cookbook, it's not easily found.]

> URL:
>   
>  Summary: AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIRS fails with Windows paths
...
> Originator Email: sylv...@haskus.fr
...
> Details:
>
> Updating to autoconf 2.70 broke the build of GHC (Haskell
> compiler) on Windows using msys2. I've tracked this to commit
> 35a1c64600894ecc3b06b6c4b273952db7c8fc83
...
> This commit changed the way the auxiliary dirs are managed. They
> were put in a space separated list and now they are put in a
> $PATH_SEPARATOR separated list.
...
> But $PATH_SEPARATOR=":"

Intuitively, I would expect PATH_SEPARATOR to be ";" on Windows
(unless you're using CygWin).

Re: [sr #110448] AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIRS fails with Windows paths

[Zack Weinberg]

On Mon, Feb 22, 2021 at 8:11 PM pluto--- via Bug reports for autoconf
 wrote:
>
> [Even after registering and logging in, I could not figure out how
>  to post a comment to this SR on savannah.  If there's an entry in
>  the FAQ or the cookbook, it's not easily found.]

For future reference, as a logged-in user, clicking on the large
*text* reading "Post a Comment" should reveal a comment form.  You may
need to have JavaScript enabled.  I'm not a fan of this interface
either and it's on my todo list to switch the project over to the
FSF's debbugs instance, but I don't know when I'm going to have time
to do that (probably not before the end of CMU's spring term).

> > This commit changed the way the auxiliary dirs are managed. They
> > were put in a space separated list and now they are put in a
> > $PATH_SEPARATOR separated list.
> ...
> > But $PATH_SEPARATOR=":"
>
> Intuitively, I would expect PATH_SEPARATOR to be ";" on Windows
> (unless you're using CygWin).

Indeed.  And if you are using Cygwin, shouldn't you be using
/cygdrive/c/... instead of c:\... ?  (or however it's spelled, it's
been a very long time since I used Cygwin)

zw