On Friday 12 August 2011, Stefano Lattarini wrote:
> OK, the attached hacky patch seems to fix the bug.
>
LOL no, there was an embarassingly stupid error in my patch:

 diff --git a/lib/am/check.am b/lib/am/check.am
 index 0b54312..75f8bba 100644
 --- a/lib/am/check.am
 +++ b/lib/am/check.am
 @@ -224,7 +224,9 @@ $(TEST_SUITE_LOG): $(TEST_LOGS)
           col="$$red";                                                  \
         fi;                                                             \
         echo "$$msg" | $(am__text_box) "col=$$col" "std=$$std";         \
 -       $$exit
 +## The apparently redundant and repeated "exit 1" works around a bug in
 +## FreeBSD make (present only when running in concurrent mode).
 +       $$exit || (exit 1); exit 1
 
This obviously causes the `check' target to exit unconditionally with a
non-zero exit status.  Hardly a fix for anything, sigh.

The "proper fix" is even easier BTW: just use "$$exit || exit 1" instead.

The updated patch should now work (and I've tested it properly this time).
This new patch hasn't been derived by "cargo-cult guessing", but from the
explanation of the relevant FreeBSD make bug provided by Jilles Tjoelker:
 <http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/query-pr.cgi?pr=159730>

Now that's something to be documented in the Autoconf manual I'd say ...

> I have no idea why
> exactly it is so yet, so we might want to wait to apply the patch until
> we have fully understood the reasons of the original failure,
> 
Glad I've waited this time!  And I will allow another couple of days for
comments and suggestions before pushing.

Regards,
  Stefano