proposed fix for Autoconf 2.53 IFS='/\\' problem with Solaris 8 dtksh

[Paul Eggert]

The "35: torture.at:541" test failure with Autoconf 2.53 on Solaris 8
with CONFIG_SHELL=/usr/dt/bin/dtksh is due to an IFS incompatibility.
dtksh executes the following tests/testsuite code:

        { case inner/innermost in
          [\\/]* | ?:[\\/]* ) as_incr_dir=;;
          *)                      as_incr_dir=.;;
        esac
        as_dummy=inner/innermost
        for as_mkdir_dir in `IFS='/\\'; set X $as_dummy; shift; echo "$@"`; do
          case $as_mkdir_dir in
            # Skip DOS drivespec
            ?:) as_incr_dir=$as_mkdir_dir ;;
            *)
              as_incr_dir=$as_incr_dir/$as_mkdir_dir
              test -d "$as_incr_dir" ||
                mkdir "$as_incr_dir" ||
                { { echo "$as_me:$LINENO: error: cannot create inner/innermost" 
>&6
        echo "$as_me: error: cannot create inner/innermost" >&2;}
           { (exit 1); exit 1; }; }
            ;;
          esac
        done; }

as follows:

        + as_incr_dir=.
        + as_dummy=inner/innermost
        + IFS='/\'
        + set X inner innermost
        + shift
        + echo inner innermost
        + as_incr_dir='./inner innermost'
        + test -d './inner innermost'
        + mkdir './inner innermost'

which is not what is wanted.

I guess the moral of the story is: don't futz with IFS if you can
avoid it.  Here is a proposed patch, which is inspired by mkinstalldirs.

2002-03-14  Paul Eggert  <address@hidden>

        * lib/m4sugar/m4sh.m4 (_AS_MKDIR_P_PREPARE): New macro.
        (AS_MKDIR_P): Require it.  Use mkdir -p if available, falling
        back on AS_DIRNAME to compute prefixes otherwise; this is
        roughly what mkinstalldirs does.  That way, we need not have
        our own filename disassembler.  The old disassembler did not
        work with Solaris 8 dtksh, which is ksh Version M-12/28/93d.

===================================================================
RCS file: lib/m4sugar/m4sh.m4,v
retrieving revision 2.53
retrieving revision 2.53.0.1
diff -pu -r2.53 -r2.53.0.1
--- lib/m4sugar/m4sh.m4 2002/02/07 15:37:55     2.53
+++ lib/m4sugar/m4sh.m4 2002/03/14 22:58:46     2.53.0.1
@@ -626,31 +626,32 @@ $as_ln_s $1 $2
 ])
 
 
+# _AS_MKDIR_P_PREPARE
+# -------------------
+m4_defun([_AS_MKDIR_P_PREPARE],
+[if mkdir -p . 2>/dev/null; then
+  as_mkdir_p=:
+else
+  as_mkdir_p=false
+fi
+])# _AS_MKDIR_P_PREPARE
+
 # AS_MKDIR_P(PATH)
 # ----------------
 # Emulate `mkdir -p' with plain `mkdir'.
-#
-# Don't set IFS to '\\/' (see the doc): you would end up with
-# directories called foo\bar and foo?az and others depending upon the
-# shell.
 m4_define([AS_MKDIR_P],
-[{ case $1 in
-  [[\\/]]* | ?:[[\\/]]* ) as_incr_dir=;;
-  *)                      as_incr_dir=.;;
-esac
-as_dummy=$1
-for as_mkdir_dir in `IFS='/\\'; set X $as_dummy; shift; echo 
"address@hidden"`; do
-  case $as_mkdir_dir in
-    # Skip DOS drivespec
-    ?:) as_incr_dir=$as_mkdir_dir ;;
-    *)
-      as_incr_dir=$as_incr_dir/$as_mkdir_dir
-      test -d "$as_incr_dir" ||
-        mkdir "$as_incr_dir" ||
-       AS_ERROR([cannot create $1])
-    ;;
-  esac
-done; }
+[AS_REQUIRE([_$0_PREPARE])dnl
+{ if $as_mkdir_p; then
+    mkdir -p $1
+  else
+    as_dir=$1
+    as_dirs=
+    while test ! -d "$as_dir"; do
+      as_dirs="$as_dir $as_dirs"
+      as_dir=`AS_DIRNAME("$as_dir")`
+    done
+    test ! -n "$as_dirs" || mkdir $as_dirs
+  fi || AS_ERROR([cannot create directory $1]); }
 ])# AS_MKDIR_P