./configure script needs a refresh

[orlitzky]

I have a RISC-V system now but the ./configure script in v2.1.4 is too old to recognize it:

 ./configure 
checking for a BSD-compatible install... /usr/bin/install -c
checking for perl... /usr/bin/perl
checking build system type... ./config.guess: unable to guess system type

This script, last modified 2006-01-02, has failed to recognize
the operating system you are using....
configure: error: cannot guess build type; you must specify one

I think in the future it would make more sense to generate the ./configure script as part of the release process? There are a bunch of updates to configure.ac that autoupdate wants to make for autoconf-2.72, too.

[aaronagios]

@orlitzky I'm a manager at Nagios, and I can read enough c to have approved a batch of your PRs (thank you for those) but I'm not the developer you are.

If you have more on this topic I can help move it forward administratively. Please feel free to either ELI5 your request or provide code.

Thanks,

Aaron

[orlitzky]

I saw, thank you. I remember getting frustrated with this issue pretty quickly which probably explains my terse description.

I think there were several issues intertwined, but the big one is that the ndoutils ./configure script has been committed to the repository, and is being hacked on at each release rather than regenerated automatically (see for example 7406c68). It should instead be possible to generate ./configure automatically from configure.ac by running autoreconf -fi. And since ./configure is automatically generated, there is usually no need to commit it to git. When a new release is made, the usual autoreconf -fi; ./configure; make dist process creates a ./configure script and sticks it in the tarball. A human can do this, but github is capable of doing it with each tag as well.

The reason this suggestion is not straightforward, though, is because I already tried that and it doesn't work:

$ autoreconf -fi
ac-wrapper: autoreconf: warning: auto-detected versions not found ( 2.69 ); falling back to latest available
am-wrapper: aclocal: warning: auto-detected versions not found (1.9 ); falling back to latest available
configure.ac:25: warning: The macro 'AC_CONFIG_HEADER' is obsolete.
configure.ac:25: You should run autoupdate.
./lib/autoconf/status.m4:719: AC_CONFIG_HEADER is expanded from...
configure.ac:25: the top level
configure.ac:52: warning: The macro 'AC_NAGIOS_GET_OS' is obsolete.
configure.ac:52: You should run autoupdate.
macros/ax_nagios_get_os:41: AC_NAGIOS_GET_OS is expanded from...
configure.ac:52: the top level
configure.ac:52: warning: The macro 'AC_HELP_STRING' is obsolete.
configure.ac:52: You should run autoupdate.
./lib/autoconf/general.m4:204: AC_HELP_STRING is expanded from...
macros/ax_nagios_get_os:42: AX_NAGIOS_GET_OS is expanded from...
macros/ax_nagios_get_os:41: AC_NAGIOS_GET_OS is expanded from...
configure.ac:52: the top level
configure.ac:53: warning: The macro 'AC_NAGIOS_GET_DISTRIB_TYPE' is obsolete.
configure.ac:53: You should run autoupdate.
macros/ax_nagios_get_distrib:47: AC_NAGIOS_GET_DISTRIB_TYPE is expanded from...
configure.ac:53: the top level
configure.ac:53: warning: The macro 'AC_HELP_STRING' is obsolete.
configure.ac:53: You should run autoupdate.
./lib/autoconf/general.m4:204: AC_HELP_STRING is expanded from...
macros/ax_nagios_get_distrib:48: AX_NAGIOS_GET_DISTRIB_TYPE is expanded from...
macros/ax_nagios_get_distrib:47: AC_NAGIOS_GET_DISTRIB_TYPE is expanded from...
configure.ac:53: the top level
configure.ac:54: warning: The macro 'AC_NAGIOS_GET_INIT' is obsolete.
configure.ac:54: You should run autoupdate.
macros/ax_nagios_get_init:53: AC_NAGIOS_GET_INIT is expanded from...
configure.ac:54: the top level
configure.ac:54: warning: The macro 'AC_HELP_STRING' is obsolete.
configure.ac:54: You should run autoupdate.
./lib/autoconf/general.m4:204: AC_HELP_STRING is expanded from...
macros/ax_nagios_get_init:54: AX_NAGIOS_GET_INIT is expanded from...
macros/ax_nagios_get_init:53: AC_NAGIOS_GET_INIT is expanded from...
configure.ac:54: the top level
configure.ac:55: warning: The macro 'AC_NAGIOS_GET_INETD' is obsolete.
configure.ac:55: You should run autoupdate.
macros/ax_nagios_get_inetd:51: AC_NAGIOS_GET_INETD is expanded from...
configure.ac:55: the top level
configure.ac:55: warning: The macro 'AC_HELP_STRING' is obsolete.
configure.ac:55: You should run autoupdate.
./lib/autoconf/general.m4:204: AC_HELP_STRING is expanded from...
macros/ax_nagios_get_inetd:52: AX_NAGIOS_GET_INETD is expanded from...
macros/ax_nagios_get_inetd:51: AC_NAGIOS_GET_INETD is expanded from...
configure.ac:55: the top level
configure.ac:56: warning: The macro 'AC_NAGIOS_GET_PATHS' is obsolete.
configure.ac:56: You should run autoupdate.
macros/ax_nagios_get_paths:46: AC_NAGIOS_GET_PATHS is expanded from...
configure.ac:56: the top level
configure.ac:56: warning: The macro 'AC_HELP_STRING' is obsolete.
configure.ac:56: You should run autoupdate.
./lib/autoconf/general.m4:204: AC_HELP_STRING is expanded from...
macros/ax_nagios_get_paths:47: AX_NAGIOS_GET_PATHS is expanded from...
macros/ax_nagios_get_paths:46: AC_NAGIOS_GET_PATHS is expanded from...
configure.ac:56: the top level
configure.ac:57: warning: The macro 'AC_NAGIOS_GET_FILES' is obsolete.
configure.ac:57: You should run autoupdate.
macros/ax_nagios_get_files:44: AC_NAGIOS_GET_FILES is expanded from...
configure.ac:57: the top level
configure.ac:69: warning: The macro 'AC_HEADER_STDC' is obsolete.
configure.ac:69: You should run autoupdate.
./lib/autoconf/headers.m4:663: AC_HEADER_STDC is expanded from...
configure.ac:69: the top level
configure.ac:70: warning: The macro 'AC_HEADER_TIME' is obsolete.
configure.ac:70: You should run autoupdate.
./lib/autoconf/headers.m4:702: AC_HEADER_TIME is expanded from...
configure.ac:70: the top level
configure.ac:80: warning: The macro 'AC_TYPE_SIGNAL' is obsolete.
configure.ac:80: You should run autoupdate.
./lib/autoconf/types.m4:805: AC_TYPE_SIGNAL is expanded from...
configure.ac:80: the top level
configure.ac:142: warning: The macro 'AC_TRY_LINK' is obsolete.
configure.ac:142: You should run autoupdate.
./lib/autoconf/general.m4:2918: AC_TRY_LINK is expanded from...
lib/m4sugar/m4sh.m4:690: _AS_IF_ELSE is expanded from...
lib/m4sugar/m4sh.m4:697: AS_IF is expanded from...
./lib/autoconf/general.m4:2249: AC_CACHE_VAL is expanded from...
./lib/autoconf/general.m4:2270: AC_CACHE_CHECK is expanded from...
configure.ac:142: the top level
configure.ac:150: warning: The macro 'AC_TRY_LINK' is obsolete.
configure.ac:150: You should run autoupdate.
./lib/autoconf/general.m4:2918: AC_TRY_LINK is expanded from...
lib/m4sugar/m4sh.m4:690: _AS_IF_ELSE is expanded from...
lib/m4sugar/m4sh.m4:697: AS_IF is expanded from...
./lib/autoconf/general.m4:2249: AC_CACHE_VAL is expanded from...
./lib/autoconf/general.m4:2270: AC_CACHE_CHECK is expanded from...
configure.ac:150: the top level
configure.ac:165: warning: The macro 'AC_TRY_COMPILE' is obsolete.
configure.ac:165: You should run autoupdate.
./lib/autoconf/general.m4:2845: AC_TRY_COMPILE is expanded from...
configure.ac:165: the top level
configure.ac:186: warning: The macro 'AC_TRY_LINK' is obsolete.
configure.ac:186: You should run autoupdate.
./lib/autoconf/general.m4:2918: AC_TRY_LINK is expanded from...
configure.ac:186: the top level
configure.ac:258: warning: The macro 'AC_HELP_STRING' is obsolete.
configure.ac:258: You should run autoupdate.
./lib/autoconf/general.m4:204: AC_HELP_STRING is expanded from...
configure.ac:258: the top level
configure.ac:316: warning: The macro 'AC_HELP_STRING' is obsolete.
configure.ac:316: You should run autoupdate.
./lib/autoconf/general.m4:204: AC_HELP_STRING is expanded from...
configure.ac:316: the top level
configure.ac:317: warning: The macro 'AC_HELP_STRING' is obsolete.
configure.ac:317: You should run autoupdate.
./lib/autoconf/general.m4:204: AC_HELP_STRING is expanded from...
configure.ac:317: the top level
configure.ac:324: warning: The macro 'AC_HELP_STRING' is obsolete.
configure.ac:324: You should run autoupdate.
./lib/autoconf/general.m4:204: AC_HELP_STRING is expanded from...
configure.ac:324: the top level
configure.ac:332: warning: The macro 'AC_TRY_LINK' is obsolete.
configure.ac:332: You should run autoupdate.
./lib/autoconf/general.m4:2918: AC_TRY_LINK is expanded from...
configure.ac:332: the top level
configure.ac:343: warning: The macro 'AC_HELP_STRING' is obsolete.
configure.ac:343: You should run autoupdate.
./lib/autoconf/general.m4:204: AC_HELP_STRING is expanded from...
configure.ac:343: the top level
configure.ac:355: warning: The macro 'AC_NAGIOS_GET_SSL' is obsolete.
configure.ac:355: You should run autoupdate.
macros/ax_nagios_get_ssl:43: AC_NAGIOS_GET_SSL is expanded from...
configure.ac:355: the top level
configure.ac:363: warning: The macro 'AC_HELP_STRING' is obsolete.
configure.ac:363: You should run autoupdate.
./lib/autoconf/general.m4:204: AC_HELP_STRING is expanded from...
configure.ac:363: the top level
autoheader-2.72: warning: missing template: HAVE_LIBWRAP
autoheader-2.72: warning: Use AC_DEFINE([HAVE_LIBWRAP], [], [Description])
autoheader-2.72: warning: missing template: HAVE_SUN_LEN
autoheader-2.72: warning: missing template: HAVE_SYSTEMD
autoheader-2.72: warning: missing template: INT32_T_IS_UINT
autoheader-2.72: warning: missing template: INT32_T_IS_ULONG
autoheader-2.72: warning: missing template: INT32_T_IS_USHORT
autoheader-2.72: warning: missing template: SOCKET_SIZE_TYPE
autoheader-2.72: warning: missing template: USE_MYSQL
autoheader-2.72: warning: missing template: USE_NANOSLEEP
autoheader-2.72: warning: missing template: USE_SSL_DH
autoheader-2.72: warning: missing template: U_INT32_T_IS_UINT
autoheader-2.72: warning: missing template: U_INT32_T_IS_UINT32_T
autoheader-2.72: warning: missing template: U_INT32_T_IS_ULONG
autoheader-2.72: warning: missing template: U_INT32_T_IS_USHORT
autoreconf-2.72: error: /usr/bin/autoheader-2.72 failed with exit status: 1

Most of the warnings can be ignored (or are easy to fix), but I don't know where the error is coming from. I'm sure I could figure it out eventually but it has the potential to become an ordeal.

[aaronagios]

Fair enough. If you find yourself inspired enough to endure the ordeal to sort it we can likely get it pushed through.

In the mean time I will get the current release process engaged, I'd hope to have a release of 2.1.5 next week.