Subject: Re: bug#77851: AM_RUN_LOG not found due to ustar by default

From: Karl Berry <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 3 May 2025 11:10:43 -0600

Hi Ross - I tried to again to reproduce your AC_RUN_LOG leftover after
autoreconf, following your original report at
  https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/automake/2025-02/msg00037.html
and followups over the last couple of months.

Downloaded intltool from https://launchpad.net/intltool/+download
and unpacked:
wget https://launchpad.net/intltool/trunk/0.51.0/+download/intltool-0.51.0.tar.gz
tar xf intltool-0.51.0.tar.gz

I'm using autoconf-2.72, since the url for your patches for 
autoconf-2.72e is now "path not found":
  https://git.yoctoproject.org/poky/tree/meta/recipes-devtools/autoconf/autoconf_2.72e.bb

$ autoconf --version | sed 1q
autoconf (GNU Autoconf) 2.72

Ran automake 1.17:
$ automake-1.17 --version | sed 1q
automake (GNU automake) 1.17

$ automake-1.17

I get expected warnings about using a different version of autoconf and
automake than the intltools tarball. I presume you get them too:
  aclocal.m4:17: warning: this file was generated for autoconf 2.69.
  You have another version of autoconf.  It may work, but is not guaranteed to.
  If you have problems, you may need to regenerate the build system entirely.
  To do so, use the procedure documented by the package, typically 'autoreconf'.
  configure.ac:7: error: version mismatch.  This is Automake 1.17,
  configure.ac:7: but the definition used by this AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE
  configure.ac:7: comes from Automake 1.14.1.  You should run

Fine. Using automake-1.17.92 (*), run autoreconf (no output):
$ PATH=/tmp/am92/bin:$PATH automake --version | sed 1q
automake (GNU automake) 1.17.92
$ PATH=/tmp/am92/bin:$PATH autoreconf

Observe that AM_RUN_LOG is not in the generated configure:
$ \grep AM_RUN config*

And it is in aclocal.m4:
$ \grep AM_RUN config*
$ \grep AM_RUN *
aclocal.m4:# AM_RUN_LOG(COMMAND)
aclocal.m4:AC_DEFUN([AM_RUN_LOG],
..

./configure && make also runs fine, not surprisingly.

It would appear the problem is specific to your environment.
Perhaps to your patched autoconf, perhaps to your config.site, perhaps
to something else. If you can find a way that someone other than you
can reproduce, we can look into it further.

Otherwise, I plan to make the automake release in a few days.

Thanks,
Karl

(*) Created the automake-1.17.92 installation in the usual way:
tar xf automake-1.17.92.tar.xz 
./configure --prefix=/tmp/am92
make && make install