Subject: bug#11671: Bootstrap randomly fails on Hydra

From: Paul Eggert <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 11 Jun 2012 10:12:25 -0700

On 06/11/2012 05:21 AM, Ludovic Courtès wrote:
> /nix/store/0h02f2l6qbah1wil9bpan9c2flv99xv9-git-export/gnulib-tool: line 4700: ./build-aux/announce-gen.tmp: Permission denied

That's the first diagnostic so that's what I'd worry about.
The pattern in gnulib-tool here is:

  cp "$lookedup_file" ./build-aux/announce-gen.tmp
  sed -e "..." < "$lookedup_file" > ./build-aux/announce-gen.tmp

and the latter command prompts the shell to say
"Permission denied".  One reason this might occur
is that the gnulib source code is read-only, i.e.,
the permissions on ...gnulib/build-aux/announce-gen
(the "$lookedup_file") are r-xr-xr-x.  Is this possible
in your environment?  That would explain the problem, and
if the diagnosis is correct gnulib-tool should be easy
to fix.