Re: automake/490: make check XFAIL shell code may fail on Solaris due to extraneous tabs

[Diab Jerius]

On Tue, 2006-04-18 at 12:27 +0200, Ralf Wildenhues wrote:
> Hi Diab,
> 
> Thanks for the bug report!
> 
> * Diab Jerius <address@hidden> wrote on Tue, Apr 18, 2006 at 12:35:52AM CEST:
> > >Synopsis:       make check XFAIL shell code may fail on Solaris due to 
> > >extraneous tabs
> 
> > Solaris 5.8, /usr/ccs/bin/make
> > >Description:
> > If the list of tests expected to fail (XFAIL) contains elements with
> > tabs immediately preceding or trailing them, Solaris make sometimes
> > does not remove the tabs when it passes the list to the shell, causing
> > the logic for the check-TESTS target to fail.  I've attached a tarball
> > containing the input Makefile.am and generated Makefile.in and
> > Makefile files, as well as the output of "make -n check" exhibiting
> > the retained tabs.  The check-TESTS code assumes that the test name
> > will be preceded and followed by spaces (*" $$tst "*); the presence of
> > the tab causes the test to fail.
> 
> This happens with GNU make as well, by design: `make' should not
> interpret or change any white space in a macro, except that any leading
> white space immedidately after the `=' is removed.
> 

Interesting.  I didn't see a failure with GNU make, which implies that
it did remove the tabs.  I'll have to check this out further, alas.

> Suggested patch below.  OK to apply?  The variable assignment is to work
> around this bug (info Autoconf "Limitations of Builtins"):
> 

I'll give it a try and get back to you.

Thanks,
Diab



-- 
Diab Jerius <address@hidden>
Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory