Re: [GNU Autoconf 2.60] testsuite: 131 134 135 137 190 198 failed

[Ralf Wildenhues]

Hello Paul, Pierre,

I don't understand this part of the patch you applied:

* Paul Eggert wrote on Mon, Aug 07, 2006 at 09:16:08AM CEST:
> 2006-08-06  Paul Eggert  <address@hidden>
[...]
>       * lib/autoconf/specific.m4 (AC_SYS_INTERPRETER):
>       Discard stderr too, when invoking the test script.

> --- lib/autoconf/specific.m4  26 May 2006 22:29:50 -0000      1.368
> +++ lib/autoconf/specific.m4  7 Aug 2006 07:08:27 -0000
> @@ -85,7 +85,7 @@ AC_DEFUN([AC_SYS_INTERPRETER],
>  exit 69
>  ' >conftest
>  chmod u+x conftest
> -(SHELL=/bin/sh; export SHELL; ./conftest >/dev/null)
> +(SHELL=/bin/sh; export SHELL; ./conftest >/dev/null 2>&1)
>  if test $? -ne 69; then
>     ac_cv_sys_interpreter=yes
>  else

The error log shows this:

| 190. acspecific.at:13: testing ...
| ./acspecific.at:13: autoconf --force -W obsolete
| ./acspecific.at:13: /bin/sh -n configure
| ./acspecific.at:13: autoheader
| ./acspecific.at:13: top_srcdir=$abs_top_srcdir ./configure -C
| --- /dev/null   2003-10-06 05:31:21.000000000 +0200
| +++ /tmp/autoconf-2.60/tests/testsuite.dir/at-stderr    2006-08-06 
23:46:32.000000000 +0200
| @@ -0,0 +1 @@
| +./configure: ./conftest: /bin/cat: bad interpreter: No such file or directory
| stdout:
| configure: creating cache config.cache
| checking whether #! works in shell scripts... yes
| configure: updating cache config.cache
| configure: creating ./config.status

Well, this seems to me that the mechanism did not work with the file
  #! /bin/cat
  exit 69

(was that due to some "hardened system" such as SELinux by the way, with
the `No such file or directory' the result of a missing clearing of
errno, or is this indeed a system that does not have /bin/cat?)
Consequently, I guess the test should have failed, no?  I don't even
understand exactly the intended purpose of the test: autoconf.texi makes
it sound like only /bin/sh needs to be supported there, but not an
arbitrary executable like /bin/cat:

| -- Macro: AC_SYS_INTERPRETER
|     Check whether the system supports starting scripts with a line of
|     the form `#!/bin/sh' to select the interpreter to use for the
|     script.  After running this macro, shell code in `configure.ac'
|     can check the shell variable `interpval'; it is set to `yes' if
|     the system supports `#!', `no' if not.

Sorry, I don't know enough to suggest anything here; indeed, the patch
above may be fine, but I am unable to understand why.

Cheers,
Ralf