What is supposed to happen in "make distcheck"

[Bruce Korb]

=================================================
autogen-5.18.15.tar.gz
autogen-5.18.15.tar.xz
=================================================
CDPATH="${ZSH_VERSION+.}:" && cd . && /bin/sh /u/bkorb/tools/ag/autogen-bld/config/missing aclocal-1.16 -I config
Makefile:488: recipe for target 'aclocal.m4' failed
$ mkdir YYY ; mv configure* YYY/.

I was doing that because after distcheck, it was starting over. Over and over.
As I read the build rule for "distcheck:"

# This target untars the dist file and tries a VPATH configuration. Then
# it guarantees that the distribution is self-contained by making another
# tarfile.
distcheck: dist
[...]
@(echo "$(distdir) archives ready for distribution: "; \
list='$(DIST_ARCHIVES)'; for i in $$list; do echo $$i; done) | \
sed -e 1h -e 1s/./=/g -e 1p -e 1x -e '$$p' -e '$$x'

and that should be it. Clearly, something is awry causing something
else to be triggered, but I have no idea how to diagnose the issue. I
only know how to stop it with a manual intervention. (viz. moving the
configure* scripts out of the way.)

[Bruce Korb]

Post by Bruce Korb

=================================================
autogen-5.18.15.tar.gz
autogen-5.18.15.tar.xz
=================================================
CDPATH="${ZSH_VERSION+.}:" && cd . && /bin/sh /u/bkorb/tools/ag/autogen-bld/config/missing aclocal-1.16 -I config
Makefile:488: recipe for target 'aclocal.m4' failed
$ mkdir YYY ; mv configure* YYY/.

I was doing that because after distcheck, it was starting over. Over and over.
As I read the build rule for "distcheck:"

# This target untars the dist file and tries a VPATH configuration. Then
# it guarantees that the distribution is self-contained by making another
# tarfile.
distcheck: dist
[...]
@(echo "$(distdir) archives ready for distribution: "; \
list='$(DIST_ARCHIVES)'; for i in $$list; do echo $$i; done) | \
sed -e 1h -e 1s/./=/g -e 1p -e 1x -e '$$p' -e '$$x'

and that should be it. Clearly, something is awry causing something
else to be triggered, but I have no idea how to diagnose the issue. I
only know how to stop it with a manual intervention. (viz. moving the
configure* scripts out of the way.)

By moving aside "Makefile*"s, it fails. Likewise "configure*".
However, if I remove both, then it finishes fine with a zero exit code.
'Course, I'd rather not have to do that, but I need some debugging
advice to figure out how to diagnose the issue.