Re: Bug#368012: mingw crosscompilation broken with autoconf-2.59.cvs.2006.05.13-1

[Ralf Wildenhues]

[ Cc:ing bug-autoconf as this is a genuine bug IMHO. ]

Hi Tim,

Thanks for reporting this!

* Tim Kosse wrote on Fri, May 19, 2006 at 10:56:01AM CEST:
> Package: autoconf
> Version: 2.59.cvs.2006.05.13-1
> Severity: important
> 
> If crosscompiling an autotools based package with mingw for Windows
> using this autoconf version, the resulting executable misses the .exe
> extension.  Going back to autoconf-2.59a-9 solves the problem.
> 
> Steps to reproduce:
> - install the following additional packages: mingw32, automake1.9
> - Get a minimal autoconf/automake based project from 
> http://filezilla-project.org/codesquid/hello.tar.bz2
> - Execute the following commands:
>   tar -xjf hello.tar.bz2
>   cd hello
>   aclocal
>   autoconf
>   automake -a
>   ./configure --host=i586-mingw32msvc --target=i496-mingw32msvc
>   make
> 
> Expected results: hello.exe
> Actual results: hello

Confirmed.  The cleanup patch
http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/autoconf-patches/2006-04/msg00027.html
(there's been one fix to it in the same thread) broke this.

I'm still wondering whether we should just simply revert both patches,
and then turn
|       # FIXME: I believe we export ac_cv_exeext for Libtool,
|       # but it would be cool to find out if it's true.  Does anybody
|       # maintain Libtool? --akim.

into
|       # We export ac_cv_exeext here because the latter test is not
|       # safe: cross compilers may not add the suffix if given an `-o'
|       # argument, so we may need to know it at that point already.
|       # Even if this section looks crufty: it has the advantage of
|       # actually working.

and leave a cleanup of this section to the beginning of a development
cycle of Autoconf, not to an end of it.

Cheers,
Ralf