GNU bug report logs - #17471
On Solaris 10, grep snapshot apparently hit by bleeding-edge Autoconf bug

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From: help-debbugs <at> gnu.org (GNU bug Tracking System)
To: Paul Eggert <eggert <at> cs.ucla.edu>
Cc: tracker <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: bug#17471: closed (On Solaris 10, grep snapshot apparently hit by
 bleeding-edge Autoconf bug)
Date: Mon, 12 May 2014 18:46:02 +0000

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Your message dated Mon, 12 May 2014 11:44:46 -0700
with message-id <5371169E.4060103 <at> cs.ucla.edu>
and subject line Re: bug#17471: On Solaris 10, grep snapshot apparently hit by bleeding-edge Autoconf bug
has caused the debbugs.gnu.org bug report #17471,
regarding On Solaris 10, grep snapshot apparently hit by bleeding-edge Autoconf bug
to be marked as done.

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From: Paul Eggert <eggert <at> cs.ucla.edu>
To: grep mailing list <bug-grep <at> gnu.org>
Cc: Autoconf bugs <bug-autoconf <at> gnu.org>
Subject: On Solaris 10, grep snapshot apparently hit by bleeding-edge Autoconf
 bug
Date: Sun, 11 May 2014 13:48:32 -0700

Following up to the grep snapshot announcement in:

http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/platform-testers/2014-05/msg00000.html

That snapshot failed to build the shell scripts egrep and fgrep properly 
on Solaris 10, because it set "SHELL = /bin/sh" in src/Makefile, which 
caused the makefile to put "#!/bin/sh" at the top of the shell scripts, 
which breaks because the shell scripts use a construct '${0%/*}' that 
Solaris 10 /bin/sh doesn't grok.  The build should have used SHELL = 
/bin/bash, which is what grep does with my test builds.

We could work around the problem by avoiding that shell construct, but 
I'd rather fix the build machinery because this bug could affect any 
package that uses POSIX shell scripts.  The snapshot was built with an 
experimental version of Autoconf (2.69.117-1717), whereas I had tested 
with the latest stable version (2.69 as shipped with Fedora 20).  The 
two versions differ in how they compute the name of a working shell, so 
it appears that there's a bug in the experimental version of Autoconf.

A quick workaround for grep is to build the next snapshot with Autoconf 
2.69.  In the long run, though, we should fix the Autoconf bug.  I'll 
CC: this to bug-autoconf to give them a heads-up.

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From: Paul Eggert <eggert <at> cs.ucla.edu>
To: Jim Meyering <jim <at> meyering.net>
Cc: Autoconf bugs <bug-autoconf <at> gnu.org>, 17471-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#17471: On Solaris 10,
 grep snapshot apparently hit by bleeding-edge Autoconf bug
Date: Mon, 12 May 2014 11:44:46 -0700

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On 05/12/2014 10:33 AM, Jim Meyering wrote:
> Does anyone see a way to make it more efficient with a POSIX shell?

Yes. Eric's earlier message convinced me that grep shouldn't rely on 
Autoconf guaranteeing a shell that supports substrings in parameter 
expansion, so I came up with the attached patch (which keeps the shell 
efficient with a POSIX shell) and pushed it before I got around to 
reading your message.  I tested on Solaris 10 with the shell 
artificially set to /bin/sh, so I'm marking this as done.

From an Autoconf point of view it might be nice to have a good way to 
say "I need a POSIX shell" or at least "I need a shell that does 
substrings", but that's merely a wishlist item.

[0001-egrep-fgrep-port-to-Solaris-10-bin-sh.patch (text/x-patch, attachment)]

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