bug#80774: GNU grep can not discover GNU grep on the PATH ?

[Dennis Clarke via Bug reports for GNU grep]

On 4/11/26 03:18, Paul Eggert wrote:

On 2026-04-08 13:41, Dennis Clarke wrote:

Guess I should have included that eh?

{ printf "%s\n" "$as_me:${as_lineno-$LINENO}: checking for egrep -e" >&5

Unfortunately config.log wasn't helpful. You'll need to debug 'configure'. Try putting the command "set -x" just before this configure line:

Sadly I can not find a line that looks exactly like that. There are
multiple that are very similar looking.


## ------------------------ ##
## Autoconf initialization. ##
## ------------------------ ##

# ac_fn_c_try_compile LINENO
# --------------------------
# Try to compile conftest.$ac_ext, and return whether this succeeded.
ac_fn_c_try_compile ()
{

  rm -f conftest.$ac_objext conftest.beam
  if { { ac_try="$ac_compile"
case "(($ac_try" in
  *\"* | *\`* | *\\*) ac_try_echo=\$ac_try;;
  *) ac_try_echo=$ac_try;;
esac
eval ac_try_echo="\"\$as_me:${as_lineno-$LINENO}: $ac_try_echo\""
printf '%s\n' "$ac_try_echo"; } >&5
  (eval "$ac_compile") 2>conftest.err
  ac_status=$?
  if test -s conftest.err; then
    grep -v '^ *+' conftest.err >conftest.er1
    cat conftest.er1 >&5
    mv -f conftest.er1 conftest.err
  fi
set -x
  printf '%s\n' "$as_me:${as_lineno-$LINENO}: \$? = $ac_status" >&5
  test $ac_status = 0; } && {
         test -z "$ac_c_werror_flag" ||
         test ! -s conftest.err
       } && test -s conftest.$ac_objext
then :
.
.
.

That looks close.

as_lineno=${as_lineno-"$1"} as_lineno_stack=as_lineno_stack=$as_lineno_stack

and putting "set +x" just after this line:

EGREP_TRADITIONAL=$ac_cv_path_EGREP_TRADITIONAL

I did find that one.

and then re-run 'configure'.

alpha$ diff -u ../grep-3.12_OpenBSD_alpha_21164.004/configure ./configure

+++ ./configure Sun Apr 12 15:39:34 2026
@@ -3849,6 +3849,7 @@
     cat conftest.er1 >&5
     mv -f conftest.er1 conftest.err
   fi
+set -x
   printf '%s\n' "$as_me:${as_lineno-$LINENO}: \$? = $ac_status" >&5
   test $ac_status = 0; } && {
         test -z "$ac_c_werror_flag" ||
@@ -8409,6 +8410,7 @@

 printf '%s\n' "$ac_cv_path_EGREP_TRADITIONAL" >&6; }
  EGREP_TRADITIONAL=$ac_cv_path_EGREP_TRADITIONAL
+set +x


So then ... once more with feeling :

alpha$ grep --version
grep (GNU grep) 3.12
Packaged by GENUNIX Tue Apr  7 21:25:26 UTC 2026
Copyright (C) 2025 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

--- ../grep-3.12_OpenBSD_alpha_21164.004/configure Tue Apr 7 23:45:18 2026 { printf '%s\n' "$as_me:${as_lineno-$LINENO}: result: $ac_cv_path_EGREP_TRADITIONAL" >&5 License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <https://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.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 Mike Haertel and others; see
<https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/grep.git/tree/AUTHORS>.

grep -P uses PCRE2 10.47 2025-10-21
alpha$

alpha$ ./configure --prefix=/opt/bw --disable-silent-rules \
> --enable-dependency-tracking --enable-threads=posix \
> --enable-gcc-warnings=no \
> --with-libsigsegv --with-libsigsegv-prefix=/opt/bw \
> --with-libiconv-prefix=/opt/bw --with-gnu-ld \
> --with-packager='GENUNIX Sun Apr 12 17:09:47 UTC 2026'
configure: error: no working 'grep' found
  A working 'grep' command is needed to build GNU Grep.
  This 'grep' should support -e and long lines.
  On Solaris 10, install the package SUNWggrp or SUNWxcu4.
  On Solaris 11, install the package text/gnu-grep or system/xopen/xcu4.
alpha$

Not very helpful.






--
--
Dennis Clarke
RISC-V/SPARC/PPC/ARM/CISC
UNIX and Linux spoken

There is nothing of interest in the config.log. I can compress it and attach it but I am still baffled why this happens. Baffled.

grep-3.12_OpenBSD_alpha_21164_config.log.xz
Description: application/xz