On Mon, Apr 25, 2022, at 9:10 AM, Bob Harris wrote: > Trying to install on MacOS 10.14.6, without invoking admin privs (i.e. > logged in as a regular non-admin user). Used ./configure’s —prefix > option to direct the install to a directory that’s in my PATH. > > Had successfully installed autoconf 2.69 in 2016 on a similar mac (but > probably an earlier MacOS) using the same install steps I tried for > 2.71.
I *think* this is the same problem as https://savannah.gnu.org/support/?110492 : current Autoconf doesn't work correctly with the (rather old) version of GNU M4 that ships with MacOS. Please try installing a current version of GNU M4 in your PATH and then retry the build and testsuite. If you have time to install a whole bunch of historical versions of GNU M4 and pin down exactly what is the oldest version that still works, we would appreciate it. The main reason the configure check hasn't been updated is that nobody has had the time to do that. (If you do those experiments, please don't assume that *unpatched* GNU M4 1.4.6 is known-broken; Apple might have introduced bugs.) zw
