Subject: bug#32262: cannot build automake-1.16 on AIX (v6.1 and xlc); automake-1-15.1 builds fine.

From: Michael Felt <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 24 Jul 2018 19:10:34 +0200

Just checked - building automake 1.15.1 is simple. automake-1.16, not so 
simple (aka not working, see below).

Hope this helps! - below for details

Target "clean" is up to date.
root@x066:[/data/prj/gnu/automake-1.15.1]make
   GEN      bin/automake
   GEN      bin/aclocal
   GEN      t/ax/shell-no-trail-bslash
   GEN      t/ax/cc-no-c-o
   GEN      runtest
   GEN      doc/aclocal.1
   GEN      doc/automake.1
   GEN      lib/Automake/Config.pm
   GEN      doc/aclocal-1.15.1
   GEN      doc/automake-1.15.1
   GEN      t/ax/test-defs.sh

AUTOMAKE-1.16:

root@x066:[/data/prj/gnu/automake-1.16]make
   GEN      bin/automake
   GEN      bin/aclocal
   GEN      bin/aclocal-1.16
   GEN      bin/automake-1.16
   GEN      t/ax/shell-no-trail-bslash
   GEN      t/ax/cc-no-c-o
   GEN      runtest
   GEN      doc/aclocal.1
   GEN      doc/automake.1
   GEN      lib/Automake/Config.pm
   GEN      doc/aclocal-1.16.1
   GEN      doc/automake-1.16.1
help2man: can't get `--help' info from automake-1.16
Try `--no-discard-stderr' if option outputs to stderr
make: 1254-004 The error code from the last command is 255.

There is at least one issue, both in in-tree and out-of-tree builds:

root@x066:[/data/prj/gnu/automake-1.16]make V=1
         :  && lib/install-sh -c -d doc  && ./pre-inst-env /usr/bin/perl 
./doc/help2man --output=doc/automake-1.16.1 automake-1.16
help2man: can't get `--help' info from automake-1.16
Try `--no-discard-stderr' if option outputs to stderr
make: 1254-004 The error code from the last command is 255.

root@x066:[/data/prj/gnu/automake-1.16]./bin/automake --help
"none" is not exported by the List::Util module
Can't continue after import errors at ./bin/automake line 76
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at ./bin/automake line 76.

This is the error I get AFTER doing:

# ln -s lib/Automake Automake

Without the symbolic link I get:

root@x066:[/data/prj/gnu/automake-1.16]./bin/automake --help
Can't locate Automake/Config.pm in @INC (@INC contains: 
/opt/share/automake-1.16 /usr/opt/perl5/lib/5.8.8/aix-thread-multi 
/usr/opt/perl5/lib/5.8.8 
/usr/opt/perl5/lib/site_perl/5.8.8/aix-thread-multi 
/usr/opt/perl5/lib/site_perl/5.8.8 /usr/opt/perl5/lib/site_perl .) at 
./bin/automake line 47.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at ./bin/automake line 47.