I have installed autoconf-archive and autoconf 2.69 and tried to regenerate the configure script and it fails:


$ ls /share/aclocal/ax_* | wc -l
572

$ autoconf --version
autoconf (GNU Autoconf) 2.69
Copyright (C) 2012 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
License GPLv3+/Autoconf: GNU GPL version 3 or later
<http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>, <http://gnu.org/licenses/exceptions.html>
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

Written by David J. MacKenzie and Akim Demaille.

$ autoreconf -v -f -i
autoreconf: Entering directory `.'
autoreconf: configure.ac: not using Gettext
autoreconf: running: aclocal --force
autoreconf: configure.ac: tracing
autoreconf: configure.ac: not using Libtool
autoreconf: running: /opt/bb/bin/autoconf --force
autoreconf: running: /opt/bb/bin/autoheader --force
autoreconf: configure.ac: not using Automake
autoreconf: Leaving directory `.'

$ ./configure
configure: error: Please install autoconf-archive package and re-run autoreconf

Reverting https://github.com/python/cpython/commit/5d6e8c1c1a5f667cdce99cb3c563ac922198678d works

Also:

grep -r AX_C_FLOAT_WORDS_BIGENDIAN /share/aclocal/
ax_c_float_words_bigendian.m4:#   AX_C_FLOAT_WORDS_BIGENDIAN([ACTION-IF-TRUE], [ACTION-IF-FALSE], [ACTION-IF-UNKNOWN])
ax_c_float_words_bigendian.m4:AC_DEFUN([AX_C_FLOAT_WORDS_BIGENDIAN],
ax_c_float_words_bigendian.m4:])# AX_C_FLOAT_WORDS_BIGENDIAN

Dpes /opt/bb/bin/autoconf pick up the files in /share/aclocal? Both are rather unusual file locations.

Yep, I am also setting ACLOCAL_PATH to make sure it picks it up. 

To be honest I think this has to be something about the weird setup in this machine but I think more people may run into this so it may be worth to include this in the News entry and close the issue once I figure it out

I got you covered:

$ podman run -v.:/src:Z tiran/cpython_autoconf
$ docker run -v.:/src tiran/cpython_autoconf

Container image definition is at https://github.com/tiran/cpython_autoconf

I propose to test this a bit, get feedback, and then move the code and image to python infrastructure. I chose Alpine because it's the least controversial one.

Pablo, could you please give the container a try?

Seems to work like a charm:

❯ docker run -v`pwd`:/src tiran/cpython_autoconf
Rebuilding configure script
autoreconf: Entering directory `.'
autoreconf: configure.ac: not using Gettext
autoreconf: running: aclocal --force
autoreconf: configure.ac: tracing
autoreconf: configure.ac: not using Libtool
autoreconf: running: /usr/bin/autoconf --force
autoreconf: running: /usr/bin/autoheader --force
autoreconf: configure.ac: not using Automake
autoreconf: Leaving directory `.'
Done

New changeset 98fac8bc183c113903403793ffe411358ee40d8a by Christian Heimes in branch 'main':
bpo-44035: Check autoconf files thoroughly (GH-29935)
https://github.com/python/cpython/commit/98fac8bc183c113903403793ffe411358ee40d8a

New changeset 1528d249a5f8492801d09755f402618688337006 by Miss Islington (bot) in branch '3.10':
[3.10] bpo-44035: Check autoconf files thoroughly (GH-29935) (GH-29937)
https://github.com/python/cpython/commit/1528d249a5f8492801d09755f402618688337006

New changeset f147248795bf22be05bbc891053d60ef6a2f035d by Christian Heimes in branch '3.9':
[3.9] bpo-44035: Check autoconf files thoroughly (GH-29935) (GH-29938)
https://github.com/python/cpython/commit/f147248795bf22be05bbc891053d60ef6a2f035d

New changeset da8cf8a74714f4cc34fb768345cb1caf9dcddd62 by Christian Heimes in branch 'main':
bpo-44035: Show git diff after autoreconf and regen (GH-30117)
https://github.com/python/cpython/commit/da8cf8a74714f4cc34fb768345cb1caf9dcddd62

For me it took `docker run -v (pwd):/src quay.io/tiran/cpython_autoconf` (on fish and didn't run `docker pull` ahead of time).

@tiran are you  okay if we document your image and how to run it at https://devguide.python.org/setup/?highlight=autoconf#regenerate-configure ?

PS: You have to use the "269" tag to get the correct container image. The "latest" image was outdated and I removed it.

    docker run -v (pwd):/src quay.io/tiran/cpython_autoconf:269