[emacs-w3m:13250] Re: Build errors - bad fd number

On 2019-02-25 08:09, Katsumi Yamaoka wrote:
> In [emacs-w3m:13248]
> On Sat, 23 Feb 2019 08:28:34 +0000, Colin Baxter wrote:
> > After cloning emacs-w3m git repository, I get a bad fd number error.
>
> > Output of `autoconf <RET>':
>
> > /usr/bin/m4:configure.in:5: non-numeric argument to builtin `substr'
> > /usr/bin/m4:configure.in:7: non-numeric argument to builtin `substr'

I realize that I'm a third-party to this conversation, but can someone
help me understand how this is a 'bad fd number error'? @Colin: You mean
'file descriptor'?

> [...]
> > I'm using:
> > emacs-26.1; Autoconf version 2.13; m4 macro processor version 1.4.17.
>
> I tried autoconf-2.13 and confirmed that the same error happens.
> But it's quite old (1999).  Isn't there any chance to upgrade it?
> I'm using autoconf 2.69 (2012).

The GNU build tool-chain does have a storied history of changing and
obsolescing functions. This is probably a good nudge for the project to
explicitly mention and track which minimum versions of those tools are
required.

Currently, all the travis builds are using:

  2012 - autoconf (GNU Autoconf) 2.69
  2014 - automake (GNU automake) 1.15
  2015 - gcc (Ubuntu 5.4.0-6ubuntu1~16.04.11) 5.4.0 20160609
  2014 - GNU Make 4.1
  ???? - m4

If the project wants, its possible to run travis jobs for other
versions, but I think these versions are reasonable minimums to ask our
users to have - they're all at least four years old.

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