As Configure is a (huge) shell script, you can see what is going on exactly using -x:

$ sh -x ./Configure -des -Dcc="$CC" -Dprefix=/usr/db/perl/5.24.4.0
:
:
[download]

I think it might be executing hints/aix.sh.

Thank you very much for your reply. I've tried that already. I've even modified the Configure script with some defaults which work in my case to jump over the critical steps. But I thought, this looks like a systematic issue and there should be a general solution. I'm also wondering why this happens on my side and has apparently never been reported by someone else.

I'd prefer you to not modify Configure, as that won't help us to pinpoint possible problems.

What was the last command executed before the "hang"? Can you show what command "hang"s with the -x option?

You can make the full log available as (git)paste if you think that would help.

If there is a real problem, I want a real (generic) solution to it!


Enjoy, Have FUN! H.Merijn

There is a script created on the fly when you are running Perl's Configure, in current dir, whose purpose is to read your answer. The script is called myread and its source is inside Configure file. First make sure that this script terminates. You can either run it in another shell while Configure hangs or add debugging messages to Configure. Script "myread" attempts to start a shell using the contents of a variable in Configure named $startsh. Check that it is a valid shebang for your system (that would be the first line in file myread).

Thank you very much for your reply. I've noticed this script in a UU sub dir and was already assuming that it could be the problem. I've seen some other script there which seem to be created in a later phase, like gettext or so, which were kind of hanging, too.

I've tried to execute the myread script manually now but that seems to look good

# rp='Do you really want to continue?'        
# dflt='n'                                    
# . UU/myread 4>&1                    
Do you really want to continue? [n] 
(hit return)
#
(script has terminated)
[download]

Two things ring alarm in the log you posted:

first, the output of sh -x Configure ...

+ + echo AIX
+ /usr/bin/sed -e s/[   ][      ]*/_/g
+ ./tr [A-Z] [a-z]
[download]

I am not acquainted much with the output of sh -x But I assume that what follows a plus sign is a command executed in current shell and whatever commands are preceded by two-or-more plus signs were executed in sub-shells therein. For example:

sh -x -e "echo abc | sed s'/a/b/'"

+ echo abc
+ sed s/a/b/
bbc
[download]

whereas,

sh -x -c 'z=`echo abc | sed "s/a/b/"`'

++ echo abc
++ sed s/a/b/
+ z=bbc
[download]

So, the output you posted has echo AIX in a sub-shell and following sed and tr commands are executed on current shell. But *if* that output is at corresponds to this Configure part:

rp="Operating system name?"
. ./myread
case "$ans" in
none)  osname='' ;;
*) osname=`echo "$ans" | $sed -e 's/[   ][      ]*/_/g' | ./tr '[A-Z]'
+ '[a-z]'`;;
esac
[download]

Then echo, sed, tr should have all been preceded by 2 plus signs as they are all part of one single `...`.

The second alarm is that $sed is a variable which refers to some sed executable I guess. But it is worth investigating what it actually contains. Also, ./tr is not the same as tr. It probably is another script created on the fly and it is used instead of /usr/bin/tr. So, it is also worth finding out what that ./tr file contains...

So, I suggest to add some debugging lines in Configure (sorry if that contradicts the other advice you got about not modifying that file, which is correct but this is special and once you sort things out you will go back to original Configure and discard any perl executable may have been produced). Something like this perhaps (untested):

rp="Operating system name?"
. ./myread
case "$ans" in
none)  osname='' ;;
*) echo "AAAA: ans='${ans}', sed='${sed}', Here is tr:"
cat ./tr
echo "BBBB: done cat tr"
osname=`echo "$ans" | $sed -e 's/[   ][      ]*/_/g' | ./tr '[A-Z]' '[
+a-z]'`
echo "CCCC: osname='${osname}'"
;;
esac
echo " "
echo "XXXXXX out of case with this osname='${osname}'"
[download]

bw, bliako

p.s. Although the log was posted in another node of this post, I chose to create a new comment/answer to avoid clutter.

SOLVED !!!

The hint to build perl as non-root user was the key to the solution. Apparently my build machine was somehow screwed up which caused the Configure script to fail when started as root. As soon as I ran it as my personal user it worked like a charm, at least with the most basic parameters. As I'm going to use this perl to connect to an oracle database I maybe have to find out what the best options might be to be used together with gcc.

Again, thank you very much for your support.

Regards, Andreas