binutils @2.38: fails to build on <10.11 due to syntax error near unexpected token

[aeiouaeiouaeiouaeiouaeiouaeiou]

libtool: link: warning: `/opt/local/lib/libintl.la' seems to be moved
libtool: link: /opt/local/bin/nm -B  .libs/libctf_la-ctf-archive.o .libs/libctf_la-ctf-dump.o .libs/libctf_la-ctf-create.o .libs/libctf_la-ctf-decl.o .libs/libctf_la-ctf-error.o .libs/libctf_la-ctf-hash.o .libs/libctf_la-ctf-labels.o .libs/libctf_la-ctf-dedup.o .libs/libctf_la-ctf-link.o .libs/libctf_la-ctf-lookup.o .libs/libctf_la-ctf-open.o .libs/libctf_la-ctf-serialize.o .libs/libctf_la-ctf-sha1.o .libs/libctf_la-ctf-string.o .libs/libctf_la-ctf-subr.o .libs/libctf_la-ctf-types.o .libs/libctf_la-ctf-util.o .libs/libctf_la-ctf-open-bfd.o   |  | /usr/bin/sed 's/.* //' | sort | uniq > .libs/libctf.exp
./libtool: eval: line 1115: syntax error near unexpected token `|'
./libtool: eval: line 1115: `/opt/local/bin/nm -B  .libs/libctf_la-ctf-archive.o .libs/libctf_la-ctf-dump.o .libs/libctf_la-ctf-create.o .libs/libctf_la-ctf-decl.o .libs/libctf_la-ctf-error.o .libs/libctf_la-ctf-hash.o .libs/libctf_la-ctf-labels.o .libs/libctf_la-ctf-dedup.o .libs/libctf_la-ctf-link.o .libs/libctf_la-ctf-lookup.o .libs/libctf_la-ctf-open.o .libs/libctf_la-ctf-serialize.o .libs/libctf_la-ctf-sha1.o .libs/libctf_la-ctf-string.o .libs/libctf_la-ctf-subr.o .libs/libctf_la-ctf-types.o .libs/libctf_la-ctf-util.o .libs/libctf_la-ctf-open-bfd.o   |  | /usr/bin/sed 's/.* //' | sort | uniq > .libs/libctf.exp'
make[3]: *** [libctf.la] Error 1
make[3]: *** Waiting for unfinished jobs....

This also happens in upstream version (2.39).

[jmroot (Joshua Root)]

What's between those pipes in a successful build?

[aeiouaeiouaeiouaeiouaeiouaeiou]

Replying to jmroot:

What's between those pipes in a successful build?

GitHub Actions (macos-12) build logs:

:info:build libtool: link: /usr/bin/nm  .libs/libctf_la-ctf-archive.o .libs/libctf_la-ctf-dump.o .libs/libctf_la-ctf-create.o .libs/libctf_la-ctf-decl.o .libs/libctf_la-ctf-error.o .libs/libctf_la-ctf-hash.o .libs/libctf_la-ctf-labels.o .libs/libctf_la-ctf-dedup.o .libs/libctf_la-ctf-link.o .libs/libctf_la-ctf-lookup.o .libs/libctf_la-ctf-open.o .libs/libctf_la-ctf-serialize.o .libs/libctf_la-ctf-sha1.o .libs/libctf_la-ctf-string.o .libs/libctf_la-ctf-subr.o .libs/libctf_la-ctf-types.o .libs/libctf_la-ctf-util.o .libs/libctf_la-ctf-open-bfd.o   | sed -n -e 's/^.*[	 ]\([ABCDGIRSTW][ABCDGIRSTW]*\)[	 ][	 ]*_\([_A-Za-z][_A-Za-z0-9]*\)$/\1 _\2 \2/p' | /usr/bin/sed 's/.* //' | sort | uniq > .libs/libctf.exp

[catap (Kirill A. Korinsky)]

An upstream issue: ​https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-libtool/2015-07/msg00000.html

[kencu (Ken)]

the exact nm being used (which we don’t know for sure from this ticket) was unable to process the objects produced by the compiler being used (which we also don’t know as no log was ever provided from the failed build).

we see this frequently on 10.5 Intel, for example.

users can change their cctools llvm version, which can cause this. If it were a general mismatch in base selections of compilers and cctools llvm versions, then hundreds of builds would be failing on the platform/os.

[kencu (Ken)]

in this particular case, I see the buildbot also failed on the noted systems, which is odd, and may indicate something more general.

[catap (Kirill A. Korinsky)]

Replying to catap:

An upstream issue: ​https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-libtool/2015-07/msg00000.html

I was wrong. It isn't the real issue.

The issue was introduced by update of libtool which includes ​https://github.com/autotools-mirror/libtool/commit/ccc878dd7225ac8c372cf42ba23cd6bbf22d70a5

After that commit "sub configure" decided to use /usr/bin/nm -B instead of /usr/bin/nm and everything fails.

[kencu (Ken)]

you feel that commit changing sed to $SED caused the builds to fail?

[kencu (Ken)]

data point - building binutils on 10.10 fails even if cctools is not installed...

[kencu (Ken)]

this is not apparently the usual "nm can't handle the newer objects" issue ... something different is going on.

I'm not sure exactly what. This lt_cv_sys_global_symbol_pipe seems to me to be defined to nothing. Not sure why yet.

[kencu (Ken)]

updating to 2.40 and/or forcing NM and lt_cv_path_NM to /usr/bin/nm don't fix the build on 10.10 (as would be expected, given the build fails even if cctools is not installed).

it's yet something else.

[kencu (Ken)]

upstream ticket:

​https://sourceware.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=29547

[catap (Kirill A. Korinsky)]

In 8785f7154dd84a497c7f29301ff4050b9e3d1f50/macports-ports (master):

binutils: update to 2.41; fix build before 10.10

Closes: #65621
Closes: #14770