[Bug other/122638] makeinfo 4.7 chokes on several texinfo files

[egallager at gcc dot gnu.org]

https://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=122638

--- Comment #7 from Eric Gallager <egallager at gcc dot gnu.org> ---
(In reply to ro@CeBiTec.Uni-Bielefeld.DE from comment #6)
> > --- Comment #5 from Eric Gallager <egallager at gcc dot gnu.org> ---
> > (In reply to ro@CeBiTec.Uni-Bielefeld.DE from comment #2)
> >> macOS is a different beast, though: 10.13 and 12 both have ancient 4.8
> >> bundled, while 26 apparently doesn't bundle makeinfo any longer.  Given
> >> that, I'd suggest 5.0 is fine since one has to build your own anyway.
> >> It's Iain's call in the end.
> >> 
> >> IIRC the makeinfo step is skipped if there's no makeinfo present.  Maybe
> >> we should check for a matching version somewhere instead of relying on
> >> install.texi alone?
> >> 
> >> So for me, 5.0 would be perfectly fine and quite reasonable.
> >
> > Not everyone is on 26 yet, though, so some people might still be on machines
> > that have the shipped 4.8 on them. I think bumping the requirement from 4.7 to
> > 4.8 would be as far as I'd be comfortable going for the next release.
> 
> However, such a requirement and merely documenting it in install.texi is
> meaningless unless it's enforced with a version check and makeinfo
> treated as missing if too old

True; I think I've seen an autoconf macro to perform just such a check
somewhere before; I will see if I can track it down...