GNU bug report logs - #75605
aclocal: error: too many loops

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Message #5 received at submit <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Santiago Vila <sanvila <at> debian.org>
To: bug-automake <at> gnu.org
Subject: aclocal: error: too many loops
Date: Thu, 16 Jan 2025 15:18:09 +0100

Hello.

I get the error in the Subject when I try to build the Debian alpine package
from source on a Debian unstable chroot.

Inside an unstable chroot with the build-depends already installed, these are the
steps to reproduce:

apt-get source alpine
cd alpine-2.26+dfsg
dpkg-buildpackage -uc -us -b

and this is what happens:

[...]
aclocal: overwriting 'm4/lib-ld.m4' with '/usr/share/aclocal/lib-ld.m4'
aclocal: overwriting 'm4/lib-link.m4' with '/usr/share/aclocal/lib-link.m4'
aclocal: overwriting 'm4/lib-prefix.m4' with '/usr/share/aclocal/lib-prefix.m4'
aclocal: overwriting 'm4/libtool.m4' with '/usr/share/aclocal/libtool.m4'
aclocal: overwriting 'm4/ltoptions.m4' with '/usr/share/aclocal/ltoptions.m4'
aclocal: overwriting 'm4/ltversion.m4' with '/usr/share/aclocal/ltversion.m4'
aclocal: overwriting 'm4/nls.m4' with '/usr/share/aclocal/nls.m4'
aclocal: overwriting 'm4/po.m4' with '/usr/share/aclocal/po.m4'
aclocal: overwriting 'm4/progtest.m4' with '/usr/share/aclocal/progtest.m4'
aclocal: installing 'm4/intlmacosx.m4' from '/usr/share/aclocal/intlmacosx.m4'
aclocal: error: too many loops
aclocal: Please contact <bug-automake <at> gnu.org>.
 at /usr/share/automake-1.16/Automake/Channels.pm line 655.
	Automake::Channels::msg("automake", "", "too many loops") called at /usr/share/automake-1.16/Automake/ChannelDefs.pm line 226
	Automake::ChannelDefs::prog_error("too many loops") called at /usr/bin/aclocal line 1187
autoreconf: error: aclocal failed with exit status: 255
dh_autoreconf: error: autoreconf -f -i returned exit code 1
make: *** [debian/rules:49: binary] Error 255
dpkg-buildpackage: error: debian/rules binary subprocess returned exit status 2

Note that there may be more than one issue here, as the package still needs
to be fixed for make 4.4.x:

https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=1089250

However, this error is new and it says "Please contact <bug-automake <at> gnu.org>"
so I think you might be interested nevertheless.

Thanks.

Message #8 received at 75605 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Karl Berry <karl <at> freefriends.org>
To: sanvila <at> debian.org
Cc: 75605 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#75605: aclocal: error: too many loops
Date: Thu, 16 Jan 2025 14:43:27 -0700

Hi Santiago,

  at /usr/share/automake-1.16/Automake/Channels.pm line 655.

The current version of Automake is 1.17. Hopefully you can try against
that.  I seem to remember some sort of bug relating to that "too many
loops" error, but who knows.

    apt-get source alpine
    cd alpine-2.26+dfsg
    dpkg-buildpackage -uc -us -b

I'm sorry, but I can't reproduce anything this way. I don't use Debian.
Please make a tarball of the necessary files, if 1.17 doesn't fix
it. (Or the whole thing if necessary, although obviously the smaller the
better from my point of view.) --thanks, karl.

Message #13 received at 75605 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Karl Berry <karl <at> freefriends.org>
To: sanvila <at> debian.org, 75605 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#75605: aclocal: error: too many loops
Date: Mon, 7 Apr 2025 16:44:24 -0600

Hi Santiago - back on:

    aclocal: error: too many loops
    aclocal: Please contact <bug-automake <at> gnu.org>.
      at /usr/share/automake-1.16/Automake/Channels.pm line 655.

I still don't know how to improve the error message, but in response to
the same bug report with another package (#77395), I found that in the
past, the error was related to older macros in the package tree
overwriting newer macros found elsewhere, or redefining Autoconf
macros. If you want to pursue it, you might read through
https://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=49901, which sounds likely
to be the same problem, with some fixes and references.

I'm going to try to merge your report into 77395 since they appear to be
the same issue. --thanks, karl.

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