Re: Autoconf 2.57d instability

[Eric Sunshine]

Hello,

On Sat, 27 Sep 2003 19:06:55 +0200 (CEST), Akim Demaille wrote:
> I just grabbed the tarball, and it works fine here
> I tried with a more recent CVS m4, and with Debian's with success in both
> cases.  Both M4 did produce exactly the same output.

How very strange.  Your successes prompted me to expand my testing to  
additional platforms.  In addition to my earlier trials, I used the  
SourceForge CompileFarm machines, a MacOS/X machine to which I have shell  
access, and asked one of the other Crystal Space developers to test with his  
installation.  All told, seven additional trials were run on different  
platforms.  All seven additional trials failed.  Not only was I able to  
reproduce both original problems ("excess arguments to m4_pushdef" and "m4  
failed: 139"), but I experienced a third crasher ("cannot lock  
autom4te.cache/requests").

Here is a summary of the additional trials:

--------------------

MacOS/X Jaguar

autom4te: /usr/bin/gm4 failed with exit status: 139

Commentary: This is the exact same failure as the one experienced on  
NextStep, which means that it occurs on modern platforms as well, rather than  
only an obsolete one.  Machine is always running the very lastest software  
from Apple.

--------------------

CompileFarm: FreeBSD / 4.7-STABLE

Memory bounds violation detected (SIGSEGV).  Either a stack overflow
occurred, or there is a bug in /usr/local/bin/gm4.  Check for possible  
infinite recursion.
Segmentation fault (core dumped)
autom4te: /usr/local/bin/gm4 failed with exit status: 139

Commentary: Again the crasher first noted on NextStep, but this time we have  
more useful information.

--------------------

Redhat 9 / m4 1.4.1

configure.ac:762: /usr/bin/m4: Warning: Excess arguments to built-in  
`m4_pushdef' ignored

Commentary: Test performed by alternate Crystal Space developer.  Machine  
runs the very latest packages from Redhat.

 --------------------

CompileFarm: Linux 2.2 / Debian 3.0 / Alpha

configure.ac:762: /usr/bin/m4: Warning: Excess arguments to built-in  
`m4_pushdef' ignored

 --------------------

CompileFarm: Linux 2.4 / Redhat 7.3

configure.ac:762: /usr/bin/m4: Warning: Excess arguments to built-in  
`m4_pushdef' ignored

 --------------------

CompileFarm: Linux 2.4 / Debian 2.2

configure.ac:762: /usr/bin/m4: Warning: Excess arguments to built-in  
`m4_pushdef' ignored

 --------------------

CompileFarm: MacOS/X 10.2 SERVER Editiion

autom4te: cannot lock autom4te.cache/requests with mode 2: Operation not 
supported

Commentary: All CompileFarm tests were run from an NFS-mounted directory,  
yet this one failed, causing Autoconf to abort.  This problem probably should  
not be a fatal error.

-- ES