KDE 3.5.5 autoconf errors (was: "Present But Cannot Be Compiled" - anyone want reports?)

[Matthew Woehlke]

Ralf Wildenhues wrote:
> Matthew Woehlke wrote on Tue, Jan 09, 2007 at 10:03:39PM CET:
> > Ralf Wildenhues wrote:
> > > Oh.  I think there was a bug in Autoconf 2.60 and earlier[...]
>
> > Hmm, ok so... I should report 'present but cannot be compiled' headers 
> > to the package maintainers (i.e. kde-devel),
>
> Yes, and please give them details from config.log.

Ok, thanks.

> > and should investigate if the lack of an address is KDE's fault (i.e.
> > forgot AC_INIT) or autoconf's fault?
>
> Well, the outputting of the string "AC_PACKAGE_NAME" is a bug in
> Autoconf.  You did not mention which version was used, and I think
> the bug should not show with current Autoconf.  So please show us
> a small example how to reproduce it with 2.61.  (The top of the
> configure script tells the Autoconf version used, as well as
>   ./configure --version
> when done with non-ancient Autoconf releases.)

"# Generated by GNU Autoconf 2.59."

I don't have autoconf > 2.59 on that box, but I am forwarding this to 
kde-devel to see if anyone else can help (and to let them know about the 
problem). Any autoconf folks that want to look could download any KDE 
3.5.5 package to see an example of this problem (at least I guess any 
package will do, I am building artwork ATM). I might try to check 
re-generating configure on another box that has 2.60.

This looks like a problem in 2.59; I have configure scripts for kdevelop 
SVN generated by 2.59 and 2.60, and 2.59 has the problem. 2.60 doesn't 
seem to have anything like the 'Report this...' message, however (that 
seems strange? ...or is 2.60 the later version that always goes by the 
compiler result?).

KDE folks, is 3.5.6 using autoconf > 2.59? If not, maybe it should?

> Whether KDE passes a bugreport address in configure.ac or not is at
> their discretion.  Doing so surely helps to direct traffic away from the
> Autoconf lists though.  ;-)

Yes, I imagine. :-)

--
Matthew
Patches Thoughtfully Considered -- FLOSS mantra