Re: Option autoconf option --debug no longer working

Okay, attached patch didn't work, I'll try an inline copy:

From a0f86d54b51710ca0843dff6d7a9f7378d5ab780 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Thomas Jahns <[email protected]>
Date: Mon, 4 Sep 2023 15:17:28 +0200
Subject: [PATCH] autom4te: Parse arguments before creating temporary
 directory.

* The order before always used the default value of $debug in the
  mktempdir call of General.pm.
---
 bin/autom4te.in | 29 ++++++++++++++++++-----------
 1 file changed, 18 insertions(+), 11 deletions(-)

diff --git a/bin/autom4te.in b/bin/autom4te.in
index 71d7e6a6..9f408cf2 100644
--- a/bin/autom4te.in
+++ b/bin/autom4te.in
@@ -383,16 +383,6 @@ Try '$me --help' for more information."
   $melt = 1
     if $freeze;
 
-  # Names of the cache directory, cache directory index, trace cache
-  # prefix, and output cache prefix.  If the cache is not to be
-  # preserved, default to a temporary directory (automatically removed
-  # on exit).
-  $cache = $tmp
-    unless $cache;
-  $icache = "$cache/requests";
-  $tcache = "$cache/traces.";
-  $ocache = "$cache/output.";
-
   # Normalize the includes: the first occurrence is enough, several is
   # a pain since it introduces a useless difference in the path which
   # invalidates the cache.  And strip '.' which is implicit and always
@@ -454,6 +444,22 @@ Try '$me --help' for more information."
   @ARGV = @argv;
 }
 
+# setup_cache
+# ------------------------
+# define cache-related variables which depend on both, command-line
+# arguments and the actual temporary directory
+sub setup_cache
+{
+  # Names of the cache directory, cache directory index, trace cache
+  # prefix, and output cache prefix.  If the cache is not to be
+  # preserved, default to a temporary directory (automatically removed
+  # on exit).
+  $cache = $tmp
+    unless $cache;
+  $icache = "$cache/requests";
+  $tcache = "$cache/traces.";
+  $ocache = "$cache/output.";
+}
 
 # handle_m4 ($REQ, @MACRO)
 # ------------------------
@@ -997,13 +1003,14 @@ sub freeze ($)
 ## Main program.  ##
 ## -------------- ##
 
-mktmpdir ('am4t');
 load_configuration ($ENV{'AUTOM4TE_CFG'} || "$pkgdatadir/autom4te.cfg");
 load_configuration ("$ENV{'HOME'}/.autom4te.cfg")
   if exists $ENV{'HOME'} && -f "$ENV{'HOME'}/.autom4te.cfg";
 load_configuration (".autom4te.cfg")
   if -f ".autom4te.cfg";
 parse_args;
+mktmpdir ('am4t');
+setup_cache;
 
 # Freezing does not involve the cache.
 if ($freeze)
-- 
2.30.2



> On Sep 4, 2023, at 15:23 , Thomas Jahns <[email protected]> wrote:
> 
> Of course there was a dependency. But I think I managed to find a suitable change that again preserves the temporaries. Please see the attached patch vs. cb6fbab55de1e9660e110857ae248a70a8b48c5b and tell me if that needs further improvements or is acceptable as is.
> 
> Kind regards, Thomas
> 
> 
> 
>> On Sep 4, 2023, at 14:57 , Thomas Jahns <[email protected]> wrote:
>> 
>> Following up on this, I think this is because autom4te calls mktmpdir before parsing command line arguments:
>> 
>> ## -------------- ##
>> ## Main program.  ##
>> ## -------------- ##
>> 
>> mktmpdir ('am4t');
>> load_configuration ($ENV{'AUTOM4TE_CFG'} || "$pkgdatadir/autom4te.cfg");
>> load_configuration ("$ENV{'HOME'}/.autom4te.cfg")
>>  if exists $ENV{'HOME'} && -f "$ENV{'HOME'}/.autom4te.cfg";
>> load_configuration (".autom4te.cfg")
>>  if -f ".autom4te.cfg";
>> parse_args;
>> 
>> In this order it creates the am4t... directory with the UNLINK option always being 1, i.e. !$debug while previously Autom4te::General had a custom END block that deleted the temporary files conditionally and hence used the value of $debug set by Autom4te::General::getopt.
>> 
>> I'm not sure if load_configuration somehow needs the temporary directory or if parse_args could be moved to precede all of the main program. I'll try that next but wanted to keep you informed of my ongoing investigation.
>> 
>> Kind regards, Thomas
>> 
>> 
>> 
>>> On Sep 4, 2023, at 13:15 , Thomas Jahns <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
>>> 
>>> Dear autoconf maintainers,
>>> 
>>> when trying to port another piece of software to use autoconf 2.71 I noticed a problem I wanted to debug with the autoreconf --debug option. But it seems autoconf now deletes the temporary files in all paths.
>>> 
>>> While the 2.69 version I'm currently using preserves files in /tmp, when swapping the PATH to use autoconf 2.71, autoconf always unlinks the files there (and removes the temporary directory) as verified with strace -f -e rmdir,unlink on Linux x86_64.
>>> 
>>> I tried
>>> 
>>> autoconf --debug --verbose
>>> 
>>> in a minimal autoconf directory like this:
>>> 
>>> $ autoconf --debug --verbose 2>&1 | grep /tmp
>>> autom4te: formatting traces for `/tmp/am4tYtdOcp/dependencies': include, m4_include
>>> autom4te: formatting traces for `/tmp/am4tYtdOcp/warnings': _m4_warn
>>> autom4te: reading /tmp/am4tYtdOcp/warnings
>>> $ ls /tmp/am4tYtdOcp
>>> dependencies  traces.m4  warnings
>>> $ module load autoconf-2.71-gcc-6.3.0-rj5ute2
>>> $ autoconf --debug --verbose 2>&1 | grep /tmp
>>> autom4te: formatting traces for '/tmp/am4toeE5oa/warnings': _m4_warn
>>> autom4te: reading /tmp/am4toeE5oa/warnings
>>> autom4te: formatting traces for '/tmp/am4toeE5oa/patterns': m4_pattern_allow, m4_pattern_forbid
>>> $ ls /tmp/am4toeE5oa/
>>> ls: cannot access '/tmp/am4toeE5oa/': No such file or directory
>>> $ cat configure.ac
>>> AC_INIT([hello], [1.0])
>>> AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR([build-aux])
>>> AC_OUTPUT
>>> $  strace -f -e rmdir,unlink autoconf --debug --verbose 2>&1 | grep -E 'unlink|rmdir|/tmp'
>>> autom4te: formatting traces for '/tmp/am4tciBmIE/dependencies': include, m4_include
>>> autom4te: formatting traces for '/tmp/am4tciBmIE/warnings': _m4_warn
>>> autom4te: reading /tmp/am4tciBmIE/warnings
>>> unlink("traces.m4")                     = 0
>>> unlink("dependencies")                  = 0
>>> unlink("warnings")                      = 0
>>> rmdir("/tmp/am4tciBmIE")                = 0
>>> $  ls /tmp/am4tciBmIE
>>> ls: cannot access '/tmp/am4tciBmIE': No such file or directory
>>> 
>>> Kind regards,
>>> Thomas

-- 
Thomas Jahns
HPC-Group
DKRZ GmbH, Department: Application software

Deutsches Klimarechenzentrum
Bundesstraße 45a
D-20146 Hamburg

Phone: +49-40-460094-151
Fax: +49-40-460094-270
Email: Thomas Jahns <[email protected]>