automake-1.7.9: build feedback

[Nelson H. F. Beebe]

I have now made build attempts of automake-1.7.9 on about twenty
flavors of Unix.  Most were successful, but there were several systems
with problems; when the test failure count was small, I did a "make
install".  Builds on Solaris x86 are still underway, and thus not
reported here.

Several failed the Texinfo tests, suggesting that there is an
assumption about the texinfo version or environment that is not valid
at my site.

Presumably there is additional log information that might help
identify the causes of the test failures, but there is no hint of how
to do that in the README or INSTALL files.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Machinetype:            DEC Alphastation 200 4/100 (1 CPU, 100 MHz Alpha 21064 
EV4, 64MB RAM);    GNU/Linux 2.2.22-6.2.2
Configure environment:  CC=gcc CXX=g++ LDFLAGS="-Wl,-rpath,/usr/local/lib"

...
checking for tex... tex
configure: error: Autoconf 2.54 or better is required.
  Is it installed?  Is it in your PATH?  (try running `autoconf --version')
  Is it working?  See also config.log for error messages before this one.

Here is the failing portion of config.log:

        configure:1771: cd conftest && eval autoconf -o /dev/null conftest.ac
        Bareword "error" not allowed while "strict subs" in use at 
/usr/local/bin/autom4te line 280.
        Unquoted string "error" may clash with future reserved word at 
/usr/local/bin/autom4te line 280.
        String found where operator expected at /usr/local/bin/autom4te line 
280, near "error "need GNU m4 1.4 or later: $m4""
                (Do you need to predeclare error?)
        syntax error at /usr/local/bin/autom4te line 280, near "error "need GNU 
m4 1.4 or later: $m4""
        BEGIN not safe after errors--compilation aborted at 
/usr/local/bin/autom4te line 453.
        configure:1771: $? = 1
        configure:1771: error: Autoconf 2.54 or better is required.
          Is it installed?  Is it in your PATH?  (try running `autoconf 
--version')
          Is it working?  See also config.log for error messages before this 
one.

Here is the perl version:

        % perl --version
        This is perl, version 5.005_03 built for alpha-linux

This system has automate-1.7.5 installed.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Machinetype:            Sun SPARC 10/51;               GNU/Linux 2.2.19-6.2.1 
(Red Hat 6.2)
Configure environment:  CC=gcc CXX=g++ LDFLAGS="-Wl,-rpath,/usr/local/lib"
...
checking for tex... tex
configure: error: Autoconf 2.54 or better is required.
  Is it installed?  Is it in your PATH?  (try running `autoconf --version')
  Is it working?  See also config.log for error messages before this one.
Command exited with non-zero status 1

Here is the failing portion of config.log:

        configure:1751: result: tex
        configure:1771: cd conftest && eval autoconf -o /dev/null conftest.ac
        String found where operator expected at /usr/local/bin/autom4te line 
280, near "error "need GNU m4 1.4 or later: $m4""
                (Do you need to predeclare error?)
        syntax error at /usr/local/bin/autom4te line 280, near "error "need GNU 
m4 1.4 or later: $m4""
        BEGIN not safe after errors--compilation aborted at 
/usr/local/bin/autom4te line 453.
        configure:1771: $? = 1
        configure:1771: error: Autoconf 2.54 or better is required.
          Is it installed?  Is it in your PATH?  (try running `autoconf 
--version')
          Is it working?  See also config.log for error messages before this 
one.

This system has automate-1.7.5 installed.

[I saw similar failures on two other systems:

Machinetype:            Intel Pentium III (600 MHz);    GNU/Linux 
2.4.18-27.8.0smp (Red Hat 8.0 (Psyche))
Machinetype:            Sun UltraSPARC 170 (167 MHz);   Solaris 2.9

They are puzzling, because builds on similar systems mostly succeeded.]

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Machinetype:            Apple PowerMac G4 (2 1400 MHz PowerPC 7450 CPUs, 2GB 
RAM);   Darwin 6.5 (MacOS 10.2.5)
Configure environment:  CC=gcc CXX=g++ LDFLAGS="-R/usr/local/lib"

FAIL: confsub.test
FAIL: gcj4.test
FAIL: libtool3.test
FAIL: ltcond.test
FAIL: ltcond2.test
FAIL: ltconv.test
FAIL: nobase.test
FAIL: pr300-ltlib.test
FAIL: txinfo3.test
FAIL: txinfo13.test
FAIL: txinfo16.test
FAIL: txinfo18.test
FAIL: txinfo22.test

13 of 458 tests failed
(6 tests were not run)

This system has the texinfo-4.6 release installed.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Machinetype:            Apple PowerMac G3 (267 MHz);    GNU/Linux 2.4.19-4a 
(Yellow Dog Linux release 2.3 (Dayton))
Configure environment:  CC=gcc CXX=g++ LDFLAGS="-Wl,-rpath,/usr/local/lib"

FAIL: gcj4.test
FAIL: txinfo3.test
FAIL: txinfo13.test
FAIL: txinfo16.test
FAIL: txinfo18.test
FAIL: txinfo22.test

6 of 458 tests failed
(6 tests were not run)

This system has the texinfo-4.6 release installed.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Machinetype:            DEC Alpha 4100-5/466 (4 CPUs, 466 MHz, 2GB RAM);        
  OSF/1 4.0F
Configure environment:  CC=cc CXX=cxx LDFLAGS=-Wl,-rpath,/usr/local/lib

FAIL: txinfo3.test
FAIL: txinfo13.test
FAIL: txinfo16.test
FAIL: txinfo18.test
FAIL: txinfo22.test
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Machinetype:            Sun UltraSPARC 170 (167 MHz);   Solaris 2.9
Configure environment:  CC=CC CFLAGS="-xO5 -dalign -xlibmil -xcg92 -xsafe=mem" 
CXX=CC CXXFLAGS="-xO5 -dalign -xlibmil -xcg92 -xsafe=mem" 
LDFLAGS=-R/usr/local/lib

FAIL: txinfo3.test
FAIL: txinfo13.test
FAIL: txinfo16.test
FAIL: txinfo18.test
FAIL: txinfo22.test

5 of 458 tests failed
(6 tests were not run)

This system has the texinfo-4.6 release installed.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Machinetype:            Intel Pentium III (600 MHz);    OpenBSD 3.2 GENERIC#25 
i386
Configure environment:  CC=gcc CXX=g++ LDFLAGS=-Wl,-rpath,/usr/local/lib

FAIL: gcj4.test

1 of 449 tests failed
(15 tests were not run)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Machinetype:            Sun Sun Blade 2000 (1015 MHz);  Solaris 2.9
Configure environment:  CC=c89 CFLAGS="-xO5 -dalign -xlibmil -xcg92 -xsafe=mem" 
CXX=CC CXXFLAGS=-xO5 LDFLAGS=-R/usr/local/lib
FAIL: txinfo3.test
FAIL: txinfo13.test
FAIL: txinfo16.test
FAIL: txinfo18.test
FAIL: txinfo22.test

5 of 458 tests failed
(6 tests were not run)

This system has the texinfo-4.6 release installed.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Machinetype:            Compaq AlphaServer DS20 Sierra/667 (2 EV67 21264 CPUs, 
667 MHz, 1MB RAM); OSF/1 5.1
Configure environment:  CC=c89 CXX=cxx 
LDFLAGS=-Wl,-rpath,/uufs/inscc.utah.edu/common/home/mthnhb/alpha/local/lib

FAIL: instsh.test
FAIL: ltconv.test

2 of 449 tests failed
(15 tests were not run)

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Machinetype:            Sun Ultra Enterprise 5500 (4 CPUs, 400 MHz); Solaris 2.8
Configure environment:  CC=c89 CXX=CC LDFLAGS=-R/usr/local/lib

FAIL: txinfo3.test
FAIL: txinfo13.test
FAIL: txinfo16.test
FAIL: txinfo18.test
FAIL: txinfo22.test

5 of 458 tests failed
(6 tests were not run)

This system has the texinfo-4.6 release installed.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Machinetype:            Intel Pentium III (600 MHz);    GNU/Linux 
2.4.18-27.8.0smp (Red Hat 8.0 (Psyche))
Configure environment:  CC=gcc CXX=g++ LDFLAGS="-Wl,-rpath,/usr/local/lib"

FAIL: txinfo3.test
FAIL: txinfo13.test
FAIL: txinfo16.test
FAIL: txinfo18.test
FAIL: txinfo22.test

5 of 459 tests failed
(5 tests were not run)

This system has the texinfo-4.6 release installed.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- Nelson H. F. Beebe                    Tel: +1 801 581 5254                  -
- Center for Scientific Computing       FAX: +1 801 581 4148                  -
- University of Utah                    Internet e-mail: address@hidden  -
- Department of Mathematics, 110 LCB        address@hidden  address@hidden -
- 155 S 1400 E RM 233                                                         -
- Salt Lake City, UT 84112-0090, USA    URL: http://www.math.utah.edu/~beebe  -
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------