mainAutoconf - Support: sr #108605, autoconf mis-detects arch (and...

 
 

sr #108605: autoconf mis-detects arch (and other things)

Submitter:  None
Submitted:  Mon 30 Jun 2014 02:02:41 AM UTC
   
 
Priority:  * 5 - Unprioritized Severity:  3 - Normal
Status:  Invalid Privacy:  Public
Assigned to:  None Originator Email:  -email is unavailable-
Open/Closed:  Closed Operating System:  GNU/Linux
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Mon 30 Jun 2014 01:26:35 PM UTC, comment #1: 

This part of the configure script is informational; it is trying to print as many useful things for as many platforms as possible.  It is okay that not all things work on all platforms; the goal is not that everything works everywhere, only that at least one thing works on your platform.  As you pointed out, the log sufficiently diagnoses your architecture via uname output, even without arch doing what is needed on other platforms where arch -k works.  Therefore, I don't see this as a bug.

Eric Blake <ericb>
Group administrator
Mon 30 Jun 2014 02:02:41 AM UTC, original submission:  

On, at least, GNU/Linux Mint 17 (and the Ubuntu and Debian versions it descends from) the 'arch' program is located in /usr/bin and is the GNU version, which does not accept the '-k' parameter, leaving programs configured using autoconf claiming 'unknown' for the architecture.

1638:/bin/arch              = `(/bin/arch) 2>/dev/null              || echo unknown`
1639:/usr/bin/arch -k       = `(/usr/bin/arch -k) 2>/dev/null       || echo unknown`

Those line are from the git repository of autoconf and are from lib/m4sh.m4  -  I have not checked, but it seems, to me, that this is broken.

In the same file it calls the program 'uname' fine with no path, but when it looks for the '-p' option, it is written to reference /usr/bin/uname (which doesn't exist on Mint 17). Then, on the next line, it calls /bin/uname with the '-X' option, which isn't a valid option for the GNU version of the program (although it does get the path to the program correct).

(note that '-p' and '-X' do not appear in the SuS, so they are either GNU extensions or vendor extensions, however...)


This does seem, however, to point to a use of absolute paths where not necessary (all tools needed to configure/build something should be available via $PATH) and it might be better if, in some cases, the absolute paths were not used. (or something like 'locate' or 'which' were used to determine the location/availability of the command needed)

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    Date Changed by Updated Field Previous Value => Replaced by
    2014-06-30 ericb StatusNone Invalid
        Open/ClosedOpen Closed
    2014-06-30 wilx Carbon-Copy- Added wilx

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