Dear autoconf, I am observing a bug with `autoreconf -i`. To my/our knowledge, this is not due to an error in our configuration but a genuine bug from 'subdir-objects'. The symptom: after running ./configure, I find a directory src/tests/\$(top_srcdir) (The string that looks like a variable that is to be expanded is written to the file system in verbatim, as the directory name.) The weird dir contains only a .deps dir with dependency files for the src/* files (not for src/tests/* files as one might expect). If I remove 'subdir-objects' from configure.ac, the weird dir is not created. Reproduction recipe on debian stable: ▶ autoreconf --version autoreconf (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. ▶ git clone git://git.osmocom.org/osmo-iuh Cloning into 'osmo-iuh'... remote: Counting objects: 5945, done. remote: Compressing objects: 100% (2661/2661), done. remote: Total 5945 (delta 4991), reused 3757 (delta 3228) Receiving objects: 100% (5945/5945), 12.11 MiB | 8.97 MiB/s, done. Resolving deltas: 100% (4991/4991), done. Checking connectivity... done. ▶ cd osmo-iuh/ ▶ sed -i 's/^PKG_/dnl &/' configure.ac ▶ autoreconf -i aclocal: warning: couldn't open directory 'm4': No such file or directory libtoolize: putting auxiliary files in `.'. libtoolize: copying file `./ltmain.sh' libtoolize: putting macros in AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIR, `m4'. libtoolize: copying file `m4/libtool.m4' libtoolize: copying file `m4/ltoptions.m4' libtoolize: copying file `m4/ltsugar.m4' libtoolize: copying file `m4/ltversion.m4' libtoolize: copying file `m4/lt~obsolete.m4' libtoolize: Consider adding `-I m4' to ACLOCAL_AMFLAGS in Makefile.am. configure.ac:5: installing './compile' configure.ac:5: installing './config.guess' configure.ac:5: installing './config.sub' configure.ac:7: installing './install-sh' configure.ac:7: installing './missing' src/Makefile.am: installing './depcomp' ▶ ./configure checking build system type... x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu checking host system type... x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu checking how to print strings... printf checking for gcc... gcc checking whether the C compiler works... yes checking for C compiler default output file name... a.out checking for suffix of executables... checking whether we are cross compiling... no checking for suffix of object files... o checking whether we are using the GNU C compiler... yes checking whether gcc accepts -g... yes checking for gcc option to accept ISO C89... none needed checking whether gcc understands -c and -o together... yes checking for a sed that does not truncate output... /bin/sed checking for grep that handles long lines and -e... /bin/grep checking for egrep... /bin/grep -E checking for fgrep... /bin/grep -F checking for ld used by gcc... /usr/bin/ld checking if the linker (/usr/bin/ld) is GNU ld... yes checking for BSD- or MS-compatible name lister (nm)... /usr/bin/nm -B checking the name lister (/usr/bin/nm -B) interface... BSD nm checking whether ln -s works... yes checking the maximum length of command line arguments... 1572864 checking whether the shell understands some XSI constructs... yes checking whether the shell understands "+="... yes checking how to convert x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu file names to x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu format... func_convert_file_noop checking how to convert x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu file names to toolchain format... func_convert_file_noop checking for /usr/bin/ld option to reload object files... -r checking for objdump... objdump checking how to recognize dependent libraries... pass_all checking for dlltool... no checking how to associate runtime and link libraries... printf %s\n checking for ar... ar checking for archiver @FILE support... @ checking for strip... strip checking for ranlib... ranlib checking for gawk... no checking for mawk... mawk checking command to parse /usr/bin/nm -B output from gcc object... ok checking for sysroot... no checking for mt... mt checking if mt is a manifest tool... no checking how to run the C preprocessor... gcc -E checking for ANSI C header files... yes checking for sys/types.h... yes checking for sys/stat.h... yes checking for stdlib.h... yes checking for string.h... yes checking for memory.h... yes checking for strings.h... yes checking for inttypes.h... yes checking for stdint.h... yes checking for unistd.h... yes checking for dlfcn.h... yes checking for objdir... .libs checking if gcc supports -fno-rtti -fno-exceptions... no checking for gcc option to produce PIC... -fPIC -DPIC checking if gcc PIC flag -fPIC -DPIC works... yes checking if gcc static flag -static works... yes checking if gcc supports -c -o file.o... yes checking if gcc supports -c -o file.o... (cached) yes checking whether the gcc linker (/usr/bin/ld -m elf_x86_64) supports shared libraries... yes checking whether -lc should be explicitly linked in... no checking dynamic linker characteristics... GNU/Linux ld.so checking how to hardcode library paths into programs... immediate checking whether stripping libraries is possible... yes checking if libtool supports shared libraries... yes checking whether to build shared libraries... yes checking whether to build static libraries... yes checking for a BSD-compatible install... /usr/bin/install -c checking whether build environment is sane... yes checking for a thread-safe mkdir -p... /bin/mkdir -p checking whether make sets $(MAKE)... yes checking for style of include used by make... GNU checking whether make supports nested variables... yes checking dependency style of gcc... gcc3 checking whether make supports nested variables... (cached) yes checking whether make sets $(MAKE)... (cached) yes checking for gcc... (cached) gcc checking whether we are using the GNU C compiler... (cached) yes checking whether gcc accepts -g... (cached) yes checking for gcc option to accept ISO C89... (cached) none needed checking whether gcc understands -c and -o together... (cached) yes checking for ANSI C header files... (cached) yes checking that generated files are newer than configure... done configure: creating ./config.status config.status: creating libosmo-ranap.pc config.status: creating src/Makefile config.status: creating src/hnbap/Makefile config.status: creating src/ranap/Makefile config.status: creating src/rua/Makefile config.status: creating src/tests/Makefile config.status: creating Makefile config.status: creating include/Makefile config.status: creating include/osmocom/Makefile config.status: creating include/osmocom/hnbap/Makefile config.status: creating include/osmocom/ranap/Makefile config.status: creating include/osmocom/rua/Makefile config.status: executing libtool commands config.status: executing depfiles commands config.status: executing src/tests/atconfig commands ▶ ls -F src/tests/ atconfig Makefile test_common.h test-hnbap.ok $(top_srcdir)/ dummy_cn_sua.c Makefile.am test-helpers.c test-ranap.c hnb-test.c Makefile.in test-helpers.ok test-ranap.ok hnb-test.h test_common.c test-hnbap.c testsuite.at Observe '$(top_srcdir)/' in file listing. ▶ ls -aR src/tests/\$\(top_srcdir\)/ src/tests/$(top_srcdir)/: ./ ../ src/ src/tests/$(top_srcdir)/src: ./ ../ .deps/ src/tests/$(top_srcdir)/src/.deps: ./ hnbap_common.Po hnbap_encoder.Po rua_decoder.Po rua_msg_factory.Po ../ hnbap_decoder.Po rua_common.Po rua_encoder.Po Please excuse my not trying to verify the bug with the latest sources. To my knowledge, this bug applies to the latest released version (2.69) and I hope it will not be an effort to you if the bug is already known to be fixed. Thank you for your time! ~Neels (I am not subscribed to any autoconf ML, hence a Cc to my sender address is appreciated)