autoconf/224: autoconf/224: Autoconf creates variables that exceed shell limits

[jkj]

The following reply was made to PR autoconf/224; it has been noted by GNATS.

From: address@hidden
To: address@hidden,address@hidden
Cc: 
Subject: autoconf/224: Autoconf creates variables that exceed shell limits
Date: Sat, 07 Dec 2002 00:10:55 -0500

 >Number:         224
 >Category:       autoconf
 >Synopsis:       Autoconf creates variables that exceed shell limits
 >Confidential:   no
 >Severity:       critical
 >Priority:       high
 >Responsible:    akim
 >State:          open
 >Quarter:        
 >Keywords:       
 >Class:          sw-bug
 >Submitter-Id:   net
 >Arrival-Date:   Sat Dec 07 00:10:55 -0500 2002
 >Cases:          
 >Originator:     address@hidden
 >Release:        2.54 and 2.55
 >Organization:
 The SCO Group / Caldera International
 >Environment:
 SCO OpenServer
 >Description:
 In 2.54 a change was introduced that breaks autoconf on OpenServer, and 
possibly other platforms.
 The culprit is ac_subst_vars. In a very large configure script, this ends up
 setting the variable to one that is over 12K in length, and that exceeds the 
shell limit
 on a variable's content length.
 A similar problem exists if there are a very large number of files that make
 their way into ac_config_files. It would be nice if this could be addressed to 
split out
 very long lines into multiple entries, so that I dont need to shorten file 
names just
 to get the list under the limit.
 >How-To-Repeat:
 Run autoconf on any script that produces a large list of
 AC_SUBST() variables. I can provide the exact script that
 is giving me the trouble if required.
 >Fix:
 
 >Unformatted: