bug#42419: is this a sick joke ?

[Dennis Clarke]

On 7/18/20 8:06 PM, Paul Eggert wrote:
> Builds work for me on Solaris 10 sparc, but then I don't have a
> locally-installed /usr/local/bin/grep to get in the way and cause
> trouble. I suggest removing /usr/local/bin from your PATH, or setting
> the GREP environment variable to be the 'grep' you prefer.
> 
> I used
> PATH='/usr/bin:/usr/ccs/bin:/r/share1/src/developerstudio12.6/bin' in my
> build, and got this:
> 
> checking for grep that handles long lines and -e... /usr/xpg4/bin/grep
> checking for egrep... /usr/xpg4/bin/grep -E
> 
> It is true that you need a working 'grep' to build GNU grep, just as you
> need a working 'cp' to build GNU cp. The GNU coding standards allow
> builds to depend on a small set of POSIX tools, and 'grep' and 'cp' are
> both on the list.

My tone certainly could have been better.  Sorry.  I simply do not see
why this is a problem given that I have the installed XPG4 grep as well
as GNU grep in my path and they are both working fine. I have no idea
why configure seems baffled by this.  Very frustrating.

Dennis