Projects suffer from syntax error

[stefan-husmann]

Hello list,

I more or less often recompile sources for certain GNU projects, and
at least three projects fail to bootstrap with the same message (only
line numbers vary). They all pull subrepos from gnulib. The problem
seems to be that the autotools generate invald configure scripts.

texinfo: line 5904ff of configure:
for ac_arg in '' ac_prog_cc_stdc=c89
                       ac_cv_prog_cc_stdc=$ac_cv_prog_cc_c89
do
  CC="$ac_save_CC $ac_arg"
  if ac_fn_c_try_compile "$LINENO"
then :
  ac_cv_prog_cc_c89=$ac_arg
fi
rm -f core conftest.err conftest.$ac_objext conftest.beam
  test "x$ac_cv_prog_cc_c89" != "xno" && break
done

octave:
../configure: line 7723: syntax error near unexpected token 
`ac_cv_prog_cc_stdc=$ac_cv_prog_cc_c89'
../configure: line 7723: `                     
ac_cv_prog_cc_stdc=$ac_cv_prog_cc_c89'

bison:
./configure: line 6277: syntax error near unexpected token 
`ac_cv_prog_cc_stdc=$ac_cv_prog_cc_c89'
./configure: line 6277: `                      
ac_cv_prog_cc_stdc=$ac_cv_prog_cc_c89'

In both cases the corresponding configure scripts include the above invalid 
code.

Best Regards

Stefan Husmann