gettext 0.24 broke `make dist` for libvisual — previous gettext 0.23.1 worked fine

[hartwork]

brew gist-logs <formula> link OR brew config AND brew doctor output

# brew gist-logs gettext || true
Error: No logs.

# brew config
HOMEBREW_VERSION: 4.4.26
ORIGIN: https://github.com/Homebrew/brew
HEAD: f1041842141f20bc701b522d4371d7843d905580
Last commit: 7 days ago
Branch: stable
Core tap HEAD: da79326722dbed260857f93fc515ab0a6107e81c
Core tap last commit: 38 minutes ago
Core tap JSON: 31 Mar 00:35 UTC
Core cask tap HEAD: 1cd86ae3895a10902b2cf610e65b84a73af6cf88
Core cask tap last commit: 2 hours ago
Core cask tap JSON: 31 Mar 00:35 UTC
HOMEBREW_PREFIX: /usr/local
HOMEBREW_CASK_OPTS: ["--no-quarantine"]
HOMEBREW_COLOR: set
HOMEBREW_MAKE_JOBS: 4
HOMEBREW_NO_AUTO_UPDATE: set
HOMEBREW_NO_INSTALL_CLEANUP: set
Homebrew Ruby: 3.3.7 => /usr/local/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/vendor/portable-ruby/3.3.7/bin/ruby
CPU: quad-core 64-bit ivybridge
Clang: 15.0.0 build 1500
Git: 2.49.0 => /usr/local/bin/git
Curl: 8.7.1 => /usr/bin/curl
macOS: 13.7.4-x86_64
CLT: 14.3.1.0.1.1683849156
Xcode: 15.2 => /Applications/Xcode_15.2.app/Contents/Developer

# brew doctor
Please note that these warnings are just used to help the Homebrew maintainers
with debugging if you file an issue. If everything you use Homebrew for is
working fine: please don't worry or file an issue; just ignore this. Thanks!
Warning: Some installed formulae are deprecated or disabled.
You should find replacements for the following formulae:
  openssl@1.1

Warning: The following formulae have the same name as core formulae:
  aws/tap/eksctl
  hashicorp/tap/consul-template
  hashicorp/tap/levant
  hashicorp/tap/nomad
  hashicorp/tap/packer
  hashicorp/tap/terraform
  hashicorp/tap/terraform-ls
  hashicorp/tap/vault
  hashicorp/tap/waypoint
Some of these can be resolved with:
  brew untap aws/tap

Warning: You have an unnecessary local Cask tap.
This can cause problems installing up-to-date casks.
Please remove it by running:
  brew untap homebrew/cask

Warning: You have an unnecessary local Core tap!
This can cause problems installing up-to-date formulae.
Please remove it by running:
 brew untap homebrew/core

Warning: Broken symlinks were found. Remove them with `brew cleanup`:
  /usr/local/bin/prlcopy
  /usr/local/bin/python3.13t
  /usr/local/bin/python3.13t-config
  /usr/local/bin/python3.13t-intel64
  /usr/local/bin/python3t
  /usr/local/bin/python3t-config
  /usr/local/bin/python3t-intel64
  /usr/local/etc/bash_completion.d/prlctl
  /usr/local/etc/bash_completion.d/prlsrvctl
  /usr/local/share/man/man8/prl_convert.8
  /usr/local/share/man/man8/prl_disk_tool.8
  /usr/local/share/man/man8/prlcopy.8
  /usr/local/share/man/man8/prlctl.8
  /usr/local/share/man/man8/prlexec.8
  /usr/local/share/man/man8/prlsrvctl.8

Verification

• My brew doctor output says Your system is ready to brew. and am still able to reproduce my issue.
• I ran brew update and am still able to reproduce my issue.
• I have resolved all warnings from brew doctor and that did not fix my problem.
• I searched for recent similar issues at https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew-core/issues?q=is%3Aissue and found no duplicates.

What were you trying to do (and why)?

I'm running macOS CI based on HomeBrew for libvisual upstream at https://github.com/Libvisual/libvisual/blob/0.4.x/.github/workflows/linux_and_macos.yml and the recent upgrade of gettext 0.24 in #208886 broke make dist in CI now failing with error:

make[3]: *** No rule to make target `/config.status', needed by `Makefile'.  Stop.

With gettext 0.23.1 it worked. The is is known upstream now at https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/index.php?66968 .

PS: I should add that gettext 0.24 seems to also show significantly reduction in performance (for other users), see https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?66865 for details if curious.

CC @thesamesam

What happened (include all command output)?

I'm attaching both a good and a bad CI run log here:

• gettext-0-23-1-job-logs-GOOD.txt
• gettext-0-24-job-logs-BAD.txt

What did you expect to happen?

No issues running make dist, as with gettext 0.23.1 before.

Step-by-step reproduction instructions (by running brew commands)

Full details are at https://github.com/Libvisual/libvisual/blob/0.4.x/.github/workflows/linux_and_macos.yml . The brew part is this:

      - name: Install build dependencies (macOS)
        if: runner.os == 'macOS'
        run: |-
          set -x
          brew update
          brew install \
            autoconf-archive \
            automake \
            bison \
            doxygen \
            flex \
            gettext \
            graphviz \
            gstreamer \
            gtk+3 \
            jack \
            libpng \
            luajit \
            pkg-config \
            portaudio \
            sdl12-compat

And the part showing the error is this:

      - name: '[Plugins] Run "make dist"'
        run: |-
          make -C libvisual-plugins dist

[Bo98]

Looks like the 0.19 compatibility mode doesn't work properly because aclocal is overwriting what autopoint does (autoreconf runs aclocal after autopoint):

aclocal: overwriting 'm4/po.m4' with '/usr/local/share/aclocal/po.m4'

The combination of a newer po.m4 and an older Makefile.in.in doesn't seem to work well.

Looks like the problem can be worked around by either running autopoint after autoreconf or updating the compatibility version (though the latter may be more disruptive if you want to keep it working with older gettext).

[hartwork]

@Bo98 it's interesting that these tools are competing about a set of files. I have not yet found even a workaround. The workaround that upstream suggested at https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?66968 is not working: same symptom.

[Bo98]

Does it work if you run autopoint --force after autoreconf instead of before? That should hopefully undo what aclocal does.

[hartwork]

@Bo98 unfortunately no

[Bo98]

Having it run in this precise order works:

[Old hack]

diff --git a/libvisual-plugins/autogen.sh b/libvisual-plugins/autogen.sh
index a1764362..4bae9184 100755
--- a/libvisual-plugins/autogen.sh
+++ b/libvisual-plugins/autogen.sh
@@ -9,8 +9,13 @@ if [[ "$(uname -s)" == Darwin ]]; then
     echo 'AC_DEFUN([AM_PATH_ALSA], [HAVE_ALSA=no])' > acinclude.m4
 fi
 
-autoreconf --install --verbose --force || \
-autoreconf --install --verbose --force
+glibtoolize --copy --force
+aclocal --force -I m4 --install || aclocal --force -I m4 --install
+autopoint --force
+touch aclocal.m4
+autoconf --force
+autoheader --force
+automake --add-missing --copy --force-missing
 
 if [[ -z "${NOCONFIGURE:-}" ]]; then
     if [[ "$#" == 0 ]]; then

though feels hacky with the touch.

[hartwork]

@Bo98 by now I can confirm two workarounds working: yours above — thanks! 👍 👍 — and this:

diff --git a/libvisual-plugins/autogen.sh b/libvisual-plugins/autogen.sh
index a1764362..febf84fb 100755
--- a/libvisual-plugins/autogen.sh
+++ b/libvisual-plugins/autogen.sh
@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@ fi
 
 autoreconf --install --verbose --force || \
 autoreconf --install --verbose --force
+gettextize --force
 
 if [[ -z "${NOCONFIGURE:-}" ]]; then
     if [[ "$#" == 0 ]]; then

Can you help me understand the idea on the touch aclocal.m4?
Are you aware of any downsides of the gettextize --force alternative approach?

[hartwork]

PS: The other key idea besides touch aclocal.m4 seems to be flipping order of aclocal and autopoint. Those two pieces — is that the full picture?

[Bo98]

gettextize just updates 0.19 to 0.24.

Forget what I said before, I looked at the project properly now and the fix should be as trivial as:

diff --git a/libvisual-plugins/Makefile.am b/libvisual-plugins/Makefile.am
index 73a568e3..eeab59fb 100644
--- a/libvisual-plugins/Makefile.am
+++ b/libvisual-plugins/Makefile.am
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 ## Process this file with automake to generate a Makefile.in
 
-ACLOCAL_AMFLAGS = -I m4 --install
+ACLOCAL_AMFLAGS = -I m4
 
 SUBDIRS = plugins po
 

autopoint is generally incompatible with aclocal --install

[hartwork]

gettextize just updates 0.19 to 0.24.

@Bo98 yes, it resolves the version mismatch of m4/gettext.m4 and po/Makefile.in.in as created by autoreconf in favor of version 0.24.

Forget what I said before, I looked at the project properly now and the fix should be as trivial as:

diff --git a/libvisual-plugins/Makefile.am b/libvisual-plugins/Makefile.am
index 73a568e3..eeab59fb 100644
--- a/libvisual-plugins/Makefile.am
+++ b/libvisual-plugins/Makefile.am
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 ## Process this file with automake to generate a Makefile.in
 
-ACLOCAL_AMFLAGS = -I m4 --install
+ACLOCAL_AMFLAGS = -I m4
 
 SUBDIRS = plugins po

This is getting interesting 😃 I confirm that also makes the symptoms go away (and it explains why libvisual-plugins is affected but not core libvisual). git blame led me to Libvisual/libvisual@9b420cc . I wanted to ship file m4/alsa.m4 so that even package maintainers that are running ./autogen.sh do not need to install ALSA development headers when they potentially disable ALSA support later anyway (e.g. via USE="-alsa" in Gentoo). I also think it's more transparent.

Here's what I consider going forward with:

diff --git a/libvisual-plugins/Makefile.am b/libvisual-plugins/Makefile.am
index 73a568e3..eeab59fb 100644
--- a/libvisual-plugins/Makefile.am
+++ b/libvisual-plugins/Makefile.am
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 ## Process this file with automake to generate a Makefile.in
 
-ACLOCAL_AMFLAGS = -I m4 --install
+ACLOCAL_AMFLAGS = -I m4
 
 SUBDIRS = plugins po
 
diff --git a/libvisual-plugins/autogen.sh b/libvisual-plugins/autogen.sh
index a1764362..27fc05c8 100755
--- a/libvisual-plugins/autogen.sh
+++ b/libvisual-plugins/autogen.sh
@@ -4,9 +4,24 @@
 
 set -e -u
 
+# For alsa.m4 (with "L" in ALSA meaning "Linux") we want three things:
+# - That a build on macOS is fully okay without it.
+# - That we ship a healthy file with "make dist" on Linux.
+# - That running ./autogen.sh (or autoreconf) on a host
+#   without ALSA development files installed still succeeds.
+alsa_m4="$(aclocal --print-ac-dir)"/alsa.m4
+if [[ -f "${alsa_m4}" ]]; then
+    mkdir -p m4/
+    cp -v "${alsa_m4}" m4/alsa.m4
+fi
 if [[ "$(uname -s)" == Darwin ]]; then
     # This provides a dummy substitute to alsa.m4 on macOS
+    # and that is a reason why "make dist" should be run on Linux, not macOS.
     echo 'AC_DEFUN([AM_PATH_ALSA], [HAVE_ALSA=no])' > acinclude.m4
+elif [[ ! -f m4/alsa.m4 ]]; then
+    echo "**ERROR**: Please install ALSA development files before running " >&2
+    echo "           '$0' on Linux." >&2
+    exit 1
 fi
 
 autoreconf --install --verbose --force || \

autopoint is generally incompatible with aclocal --install

I was not aware. How did you learn about that — is it documented somewhere?

[hartwork]

Fixed via Libvisual/libvisual#398, closing.

@Bo98 thanks a lot for your help!