Regenerating the configure script fails even if dependencies are satisfied

[pablogsal]

BPO	44035
Nosy	@brettcannon, @tiran, @pablogsal, @miss-islington
PRs	bpo-44035: Check autoconf files thoroughly (GH-29935) #29935 [3.10] bpo-44035: Check autoconf files thoroughly (GH-29935) (GH-29937) #29937 [3.9] bpo-44035: Check autoconf files thoroughly (GH-29935) (GH-29938) #29938 bpo-44035: Show git diff after autoreconf and regen (GH-30117) #30117

^{Note: these values reflect the state of the issue at the time it was migrated and might not reflect the current state.}

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GitHub fields:

assignee = 'https://github.com/tiran'
closed_at = <Date 2021-12-06.12:50:28.759>
created_at = <Date 2021-05-04.16:58:34.295>
labels = ['build', '3.9', '3.10', '3.11']
title = 'Regenerating the configure script fails even if dependencies are satisfied'
updated_at = <Date 2022-03-10.09:04:38.303>
user = 'https://github.com/pablogsal'

bugs.python.org fields:

activity = <Date 2022-03-10.09:04:38.303>
actor = 'christian.heimes'
assignee = 'christian.heimes'
closed = True
closed_date = <Date 2021-12-06.12:50:28.759>
closer = 'christian.heimes'
components = []
creation = <Date 2021-05-04.16:58:34.295>
creator = 'pablogsal'
dependencies = []
files = []
hgrepos = []
issue_num = 44035
keywords = ['patch']
message_count = 15.0
messages = ['392920', '392921', '392922', '392924', '392930', '392931', '392932', '393276', '393281', '407794', '407797', '407798', '408789', '414114', '414833']
nosy_count = 4.0
nosy_names = ['brett.cannon', 'christian.heimes', 'pablogsal', 'miss-islington']
pr_nums = ['29935', '29937', '29938', '30117']
priority = 'normal'
resolution = 'fixed'
stage = 'resolved'
status = 'closed'
superseder = None
type = 'compile error'
url = 'https://bugs.python.org/issue44035'
versions = ['Python 3.9', 'Python 3.10', 'Python 3.11']

[pablogsal]

I have installed autoconf-archive and autoconf 2.69 and tried to regenerate the configure script and it fails:

$ ls /share/aclocal/ax_* | wc -l
572

$ autoconf --version
autoconf (GNU Autoconf) 2.69
Copyright (C) 2012 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
License GPLv3+/Autoconf: GNU GPL version 3 or later
<http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>, <http://gnu.org/licenses/exceptions.html>
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

Written by David J. MacKenzie and Akim Demaille.

$ autoreconf -v -f -i
autoreconf: Entering directory `.'
autoreconf: configure.ac: not using Gettext
autoreconf: running: aclocal --force
autoreconf: configure.ac: tracing
autoreconf: configure.ac: not using Libtool
autoreconf: running: /opt/bb/bin/autoconf --force
autoreconf: running: /opt/bb/bin/autoheader --force
autoreconf: configure.ac: not using Automake
autoreconf: Leaving directory `.'

$ ./configure
configure: error: Please install autoconf-archive package and re-run autoreconf

[pablogsal]

Reverting 5d6e8c1 works

[pablogsal]

Also:

grep -r AX_C_FLOAT_WORDS_BIGENDIAN /share/aclocal/
ax_c_float_words_bigendian.m4:# AX_C_FLOAT_WORDS_BIGENDIAN([ACTION-IF-TRUE], [ACTION-IF-FALSE], [ACTION-IF-UNKNOWN])
ax_c_float_words_bigendian.m4:AC_DEFUN([AX_C_FLOAT_WORDS_BIGENDIAN],
ax_c_float_words_bigendian.m4:])# AX_C_FLOAT_WORDS_BIGENDIAN

[tiran]

Dpes /opt/bb/bin/autoconf pick up the files in /share/aclocal? Both are rather unusual file locations.

[pablogsal]

Yep, I am also setting ACLOCAL_PATH to make sure it picks it up.

To be honest I think this has to be something about the weird setup in this machine but I think more people may run into this so it may be worth to include this in the News entry and close the issue once I figure it out

[tiran]

I got you covered:

$ podman run -v.:/src:Z tiran/cpython_autoconf
$ docker run -v.:/src tiran/cpython_autoconf

[tiran]

Container image definition is at https://github.com/tiran/cpython_autoconf

I propose to test this a bit, get feedback, and then move the code and image to python infrastructure. I chose Alpine because it's the least controversial one.