GNU bug report logs - #19964
automake fails if files named “install.sh” and “install-sh” are found in the parent directory

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Date: Fri, 27 Feb 2015 16:02:04 -0500
From: Nick Bowler <nbowler@HIDDEN>
To: Florent Le Coz <louiz@HIDDEN>
Subject: Re: bug#19964: automake fails =?utf-8?Q?if?=
 =?utf-8?B?IGZpbGVzIG5hbWVkIOKAnGluc3RhbGwuc2jigJ0gYW5kIOKAnGluc3RhbGwt?=
 =?utf-8?B?c2jigJ0=?= are found in the parent directory
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> Assuming project.tar.gz contains the source code of a project using
> the autotools as its build system:
> 
> $ tar xf project.tar.gz
> $ cd project/
> $ touch ../install-sh ../install.sh
> $ autoreconf -vif
> autoreconf: Entering directory `.'
> […]
> BUG.am: error: 'install.sh' is an anachronism; use 'install-sh' instead
> […]
> autoreconf: automake failed with exit status: 1

Full test case:

  % mkdir foo
  % cat >foo/configure.ac <<'EOF'
AC_INIT([test], [0])
AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE([foreign])
AC_CONFIG_FILES([Makefile])
AC_OUTPUT
EOF
  % touch foo/Makefile.am
  % touch install-sh install.sh
  % (cd foo && autoreconf -i)
configure.ac:2: installing '../missing'
BUG.am: error: 'install.sh' is an anachronism; use 'install-sh' instead
autoreconf-2.69: automake failed with exit status: 1

Note how it actually copies the missing script to ".." as well, and NOT
into the package directory.  If we remove just ../install.sh automake
will still copy files into "..", and 'make dist' will fail to include
them in the tarball.

> You probably have reasons to look in .. or ../.. (and I would be
> quite interested to hear them, actually)

I imagine it is for subprojects, so that the scripts are not copied into
every one.  Which unfortunately means changing the automake behaviour
could break this usage...

However, there is a workaround.  If you add AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR([.]) to
configure.ac, then this will cause Automake to not look in .. or ../..,
and things should work properly.

Cheers,
-- 
Nick Bowler, Elliptic Technologies (http://www.elliptictech.com/)

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Software versions:
automake (GNU automake) 1.14.1
aclocal (GNU automake) 1.14.1
autoconf (GNU Autoconf) 2.69
autoreconf (GNU Autoconf) 2.69


Assuming project.tar.gz contains the source code of a project using
the autotools as its build system:

$ tar xf project.tar.gz
$ cd project/
$ touch ../install-sh ../install.sh
$ autoreconf -vif
autoreconf: Entering directory `.'
[…]
BUG.am: error: 'install.sh' is an anachronism; use 'install-sh' instead
[…]
autoreconf: automake failed with exit status: 1

$ rm ../install-sh ../install.sh
$ autoreconf -vif
autoreconf: Entering directory `.'
[…]
autoreconf: Leaving directory `.'
$ echo $?
0

It seems to be related to this code (taken from the last git revision)

       # The default auxiliary directory is the first
       # of ., .., or ../.. that contains install-sh.
       # Assume . if install-sh doesn't exist yet.
       for my $dir (qw (. .. ../..))
         {
           if (-f "$dir/install-sh")
             {
               $config_aux_dir = $dir;
               last;
             }
         }

Which sets $config_aux_dir to "..", but then later we look for
install.sh in that directory

   err_am "'install.sh' is an anachronism; use 'install-sh' instead"
     if -f $config_aux_dir . '/install.sh';

You probably have reasons to look in .. or ../.. (and I would be
quite interested to hear them, actually), but I don’t think it
should fail in the specific case I described above.  I don’t
think it’s safe to assume that the parent directory of a project
is not filled with garbage (mine was full or random files,
including a install.sh and install-sh files, for some reasons).

Plus, it was really, really hard for me to understand which
“install.sh” file this error was talking about, since I could not
find any such file in my working directory or any sub-directory.

Regards

-- 
Florent