distcheck does 'chmod a-w' - leads to mkdir "permission denied"

[Paul Jakma]

Hi,

My make distcheck is broken and I can't figure out how to fix it or 
where the problem lies. It seems to be a similar issue to:

http://gnu-automake.7480.n7.nabble.com/cannot-create-directory-am15097-Permission-denied-td209.html

Mine does:

...
chmod -R a-w quagga-1.2.0
chmod u+w quagga-1.2.0
mkdir quagga-1.2.0/_build quagga-1.2.0/_build/sub quagga-1.2.0/_inst
chmod a-w quagga-1.2.0
test -d quagga-1.2.0/_build || exit 0; \
...

before going into quagga-1.2.0/_build/sub to do an out of source-tree 
build in _build/sub on the sources in ../.. or quagga-1.2.0. Except then 
at some stage later it fails trying to do a mkdir in ../../../doc/ (i.e. 
quagga-1.2.0/doc):

Making all in doc
make[3]: Entering directory 
'/home/paul/code/quagga/quagga-1.2.0/_build/sub/doc'
make  all-am
make[4]: Entering directory 
'/home/paul/code/quagga/quagga-1.2.0/_build/sub/doc'
  MAKEINFO ../../../doc/quagga.info
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘.am18743’: Permission denied
could not open ../../../doc/quagga.texi: No such file or directory

With V=99:

Making all in doc
make[3]: Entering directory 
'/home/paul/code/quagga/quagga-1.2.0/_build/sub/doc'
make  all-am
make[4]: Entering directory 
'/home/paul/code/quagga/quagga-1.2.0/_build/sub/doc'
restore=: && backupdir=".am$$" && \
am__cwd=`pwd` && CDPATH="${ZSH_VERSION+.}:" && cd ../../../doc && \
rm -rf $backupdir && mkdir $backupdir && \
if (makeinfo --version) >/dev/null 2>&1; then \
  for f in ../../../doc/quagga.info ../../../doc/quagga.info-[0-9] 
../../../doc/quagga.info-[0-9][0-9] ../../../doc/quagga.i[0-9] 
../../../doc/quagga.i[0-9][0-9]; do \
    if test -f $f; then mv $f $backupdir; restore=mv; else :; fi; \
  done; \
else :; fi && \
cd "$am__cwd"; \
if makeinfo   -I ../../../doc \
 -o ../../../doc/quagga.info ../../../doc/quagga.texi; \
then \
  rc=0; \
  CDPATH="${ZSH_VERSION+.}:" && cd ../../../doc; \
else \
  rc=$?; \
  CDPATH="${ZSH_VERSION+.}:" && cd ../../../doc && \
  $restore $backupdir/* `echo "./../../../doc/quagga.info" | sed 
's|[^/]*$||'`; \
fi; \
rm -rf $backupdir; exit $rc
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘.am1976’: Permission denied
could not open ../../../doc/quagga.texi: No such file or directory
/bin/sh: line 16: cd: ../../../doc: No such file or directory
Makefile:493: recipe for target '../../../doc/quagga.info' failed

I'm a bit mystified as to where to start looking. It don't see anything 
obvious in the doc/Makefile.am. The only thing is we have a 
'defines.texi' that is built by automake from defines.texi.in and 
declared as:

 BUILT_SOURCES = defines.texi

regards,
--
Paul Jakma | address@hidden | @pjakma | Key ID: 0xD86BF79464A2FF6A
Fortune:
Courage is your greatest present need.