autoconf 2.60 runs into an endless loop

[Mike FABIAN]

configure.ac contains a check which fails if any other version
of autoconf than 2.59 is used:

    dnl Due to a dependence on the implementation of certain internal autoconf
    dnl macros, die if any version other than 2.59 is used.
    AC_PREREQ(2.59)dnl
    m4_if(m4_version_compare(m4_defn([m4_PACKAGE_VERSION]), [2.59]), 1,
            [m4_fatal([This script can only be generated with autoconf 2.59])], [])dnl

To try whether using autoconf 2.60 works, I removed that check
and called

    autoconf --force

Unfortunately, m4 runs into an endless loop then.

I have no idea yet why.

On an SXEmacs mailing list I found a patch related to autoconf 2.60:

http://www.sxemacs.org/list-archives/html/sxemacs-patches/2006-03/msg00048.html

but this seems to fix an additional, it doesn't help for the endless
loop problem.

Do you have any ideas what the problem with autoconf 2.60 is?

-- 
Mike FABIAN   <mfabian at suse.de>   http://www.suse.de/~mfabian
睡眠不足はいい仕事の敵だ。