MySQL Bugs: #41381: 5.1.30 build depends on automake 1.10 and autoconf 2.60

Bug #41381	5.1.30 build depends on automake 1.10 and autoconf 2.60
Submitted:	10 Dec 2008 23:34	Modified:	11 Dec 2008 20:20
Reporter:	Mark Callaghan	Email Updates:
Status:	Not a Bug	Impact on me:	None
Category:	MySQL Server: Compiling	Severity:	S3 (Non-critical)
Version:	5.1.30	OS:	Any
Assigned to:		CPU Architecture:	Any
Tags:	autoconf, automake, build

Description:
The 5.1 build is documented to depend on autoconf 2.58 and automake 1.8.1 at http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.1/en/installing-source-tree.html. Because of mysql-5.1.30/aclocal.m4, it depends on autoconf 2.60 automake 1.10

From aclocal.m4
AC_DEFUN([AM_AUTOMAKE_VERSION],
[am__api_version='1.10'

m4_ifndef([AC_AUTOCONF_VERSION],
[m4_copy([m4_PACKAGE_VERSION], [AC_AUTOCONF_VERSION])])dnl
m4_if(AC_AUTOCONF_VERSION, [2.63],,

Those versions are not available on my server and I get warnings when 'make' is run:
cd . && /bin/sh /export/hda3/sql51a/missing --run aclocal-1.10
/export/hda3/sql51a/missing: line 54: aclocal-1.10: command not found
WARNING: `aclocal-1.10' is missing on your system. You should only need it if
you modified `acinclude.m4' or `configure.in'. You might want
to install the `Automake' and `Perl' packages. Grab them from
any GNU archive site.
cd . && /bin/sh /export/hda3/sql51a/missing --run automake-1.10 --foreign
/export/hda3/sql51a/missing: line 54: automake-1.10: command not found
WARNING: `automake-1.10' is missing on your system. You should only need it if
you modified `Makefile.am', `acinclude.m4' or `configure.in'.
You might want to install the `Automake' and `Perl' packages.
Grab them from any GNU archive site.
cd . && /bin/sh /export/hda3/sql51a/missing --run autoconf
aclocal.m4:20: warning: this file was generated for autoconf 2.63.
You have another version of autoconf. It may work, but is not guaranteed to.
If you have problems, you may need to regenerate the build system entirely.
To do so, use the procedure documented by the package, typically `autoreconf'.
configure.in:13: error: Autoconf version 2.60 or higher is required
aclocal.m4:7074: AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE is expanded from...
configure.in:13: the top level
autom4te: /usr/bin/m4 failed with exit status: 63
WARNING: `autoconf' is probably too old. You should only need it if
you modified `configure.in'. You might want to install the
`Autoconf' and `GNU m4' packages. Grab them from any GNU
archive site.

How to repeat:
see above

Suggested fix:
I can prevent the warnings locally by running BUILD/autorun.sh

If you didn't modify any autoconf input files or Makefile.am, this is definitely
a bug. Normal users just compiling from source should not be hit by this
problem.

For developers that modify the source the requirement of very new versions
of GNU auto tools is an inconvenience and should definitely be correctly
documented and also be coded into the specification files as requirement.
While good portability to a wide range of GNU autotools versions is good,
it is not a strong requirement.

Independently of the "aclocal.m4" you would have hit problems if the
"missing" script would try call the specific version of automake/autoconf
used during the build of the source TAR.

My source control system doesn't preserve timestamps, so the auto* tools think they need to run. Normal users who build from the official tar files won't have this problem.

The fix might be limited to updating the docs with the new minimum versions for these tools. But was this change needed?

Thank you for the report.

Verified as described.

To repeat in usual environment:

./configure
touch aclocal.m4
make

To build, you should either use our generated files (configure) or you should generate all files (run aclocal yourself, which will generate an aclocal.m4).
Generating half the files, but relying on others, isn't something we should support.
Regardless, there is a workarownd of touch -t OLD_DATE_STAMP aclocal.m4