2.59 not going in to cross-compile mode

[Harlan Stenn]

I am trying to build zlib on an "old" linux box, to be run on a "new" linux
box.

Therefore, I run:

 % configure --host=i686-pc-linux-gnu --build=i686-pc-linux-gnu
 checking for a BSD-compatible install... 
/auto/andatcd/coreutils/5.0/bin/install  -c
 checking whether build environment is sane... yes
 checking for gawk... gawk
 checking whether make sets $(MAKE)... yes
 checking how to suppress newlines using echo... option
 checking for i686-pc-linux-gnu-gcc... i686-pc-linux-gnu-gcc
 checking for C compiler default output file name... a.out
 checking whether the C compiler works... yes
 checking whether we are cross compiling... no

which is wrong - in this case the build machine has a 2.2 glibc while the
host machine has a 2.3 glibc, so none of the "compile and run" tests will
work unless we are in cross-compile more.

Thoughts?

H