libtool-master, autoconf-2.63 and CONFIG_SHELL as environment variable only

[Michael Haubenwallner]

Hi,

(writing here because I've seen libtool being involved regarding
CONFIG_SHELL on the autoconf lists, and I'm not (yet?) subscribed there)

When trying to build libtool.master (2.2.7a) on AIX, bootstrapped with
autoconf-2.63 on Gentoo Linux, I've seen this:

        ...
        checking how to print strings... print -r
        ...
        configure: creating ./config.status
        ./config.status: line 849: print: command not found
        ./config.status: line 849: print: command not found
        ...

This does not happen when I checked out v2.2.6 in the same working
directory, also bootstrapping in the same Gentoo Linux environment with
autoconf-2.63.

Need to say that according to gcc's platform specific site[1], I have
exported CONFIG_SHELL=$BASH on AIX always (in ~/.profile).
[1] http://gcc.gnu.org/install/specific.html#x-ibm-aix

And I always used to run "./configure" only,
not "${CONFIG_SHELL} ./configure".

When CONFIG_SHELL is _unset_:
        "./configure" switches to /bin/bash (since autoconf-2.63?),
        although /bin/sh would provide enough functionality (even the
        slowest one).

When CONFIG_SHELL=/bin/bash:
        "./configure" does _not_ switch to /bin/bash any more, and thus
        detects 'print -r'. But 'config.status' is created to
        use /bin/bash, which breaks because bash doesn't have 'print'.

I'd like to keep setting CONFIG_SHELL=$BASH in ~/.profile on AIX
platforms, because I also build packages with older autoconf's, which
need CONFIG_SHELL set for performance reasons.

IMHO not switching the shell at all when CONFIG_SHELL is in environment
is the worst case I can think of here.
And I'm unsure if it would be easy to change all the (automated) build
systems around to execute "${CONFIG_SHELL} ./configure".

Thoughts?

/haubi/