Re: gettext 0.17 installs generic m4 files in $prefix/share/aclocal

[Bruno Haible]

Vincent Lefevre wrote:
> The problem was in the trunk only, from r5385 to r5682 (i.e. during
> more than 5 months). Fortunately it was discovered before the next
> release.

You mean this change, I suppose?
http://gforge.inria.fr/plugins/scmsvn/viewcvs.php/trunk/acinclude.m4?root=mpfr&rev=5385&r1=5353&r2=5385

Well, this change for me does not count as "gettext introduces clashes
with other software", nor is it MPFR that "regarded this file as standard".
Simply, the author of that change was not aware that the contents of
/usr/share/aclocal varies among machines and should be used with care,
although this is implied by the Automake manual:

  6.3.2 Macro search path
  -----------------------

  `ACDIR'
       This directory is intended for third party `.m4' files ...

> > > Or you can give it a less generic name, such as gettext-size_max.m4.
> > 
> > This would not help, given the way 'aclocal' works.
> 
> I don't understand why it wouldn't help.

The commit above used gl_SIZE_MAX without specifying a file name. Yet on
the particular developer's machine, "aclocal" resolved it. So it would
also have resolved it if the name had been gettext-size_max.m4 or
grandma-your-teeth.m4.

Therefore just changing the name is not enough. One would need to remove
the file from /usr/share/aclocal/ in order to prevent people from using it.
But there are many packages that install files in /usr/share/aclocal/:

$ rpm -q -f /usr/share/aclocal/*.m4
alsa-devel-1.0.16-39.1
libao-devel-0.8.8-94.1
bison-2.3-101.1
bluez-libs-3.32-3.1
gettext-tools-0.17-40.1
xorg-x11-fonts-devel-7.3-41.1
freetype2-devel-2.3.5-62.1
gconf2-devel-2.22.0-28.1
gettext-tools-0.17-40.1
glib2-devel-2.16.3-20.1
gettext-tools-0.17-40.1
gettext-tools-0.17-40.1
glib2-devel-2.16.3-20.1
libgpg-error-devel-1.6-3.1
libgpgme-devel-1.1.6-45.1
gtk2-devel-2.12.9-37.1
gettext-tools-0.17-40.1
gettext-tools-0.17-40.1
gettext-tools-0.17-40.1
gettext-tools-0.17-40.1
gettext-tools-0.17-40.1
gettext-tools-0.17-40.1
gettext-tools-0.17-40.1
gettext-tools-0.17-40.1
gettext-tools-0.17-40.1
libcurl-devel-7.18.1-18.1
libgcrypt-devel-1.4.0-3.1
gettext-tools-0.17-40.1
gettext-tools-0.17-40.1
gettext-tools-0.17-40.1
libtool-1.5.26-23.1
libxml2-devel-2.6.32-11.1
libxslt-devel-1.1.23-13.1
gettext-tools-0.17-40.1
gettext-tools-0.17-40.1
libtool-1.5.26-23.1
gettext-tools-0.17-40.1
OpenEXR-devel-1.6.1-47.1
orbit2-devel-2.14.12-32.1
libpisock-devel-0.12.2-112.1
pkg-config-0.23-21.1
gettext-tools-0.17-40.1
gettext-tools-0.17-40.1
gettext-tools-0.17-40.1
pth-2.0.7-83.1
SDL-devel-1.2.13-51.1
gettext-tools-0.17-40.1
gettext-tools-0.17-40.1
gettext-tools-0.17-40.1
gettext-tools-0.17-40.1
gettext-tools-0.17-40.1
gettext-tools-0.17-40.1
xorg-x11-devel-7.3-64.1
xorg-x11-proto-devel-7.3-43.1
xorg-x11-proto-devel-7.3-43.1
gettext-tools-0.17-40.1
xorg-x11-xtrans-devel-7.3-40.1

I therefore think that it is a more general problem with 'aclocal', that
you should bring up with the automake developers.

Bruno