gimp2 @2.10.22 +quartz: build failures; broken configure script, possibly due to obsolete m4 macros?

[mascguy (Christopher Nielsen)]

After the recent ghostscript update, my gimp2 +quartz port was broken.

Allowing MacPorts to rebuild from source, the configure phase failed due to syntax errors in the configure script:

checking for xcursor... yes
./configure: line 33372: syntax error near unexpected token `)'
./configure: line 33372: `fi)'
Command failed:  cd "/opt/local/var/macports/build/_opt_macports_sources_ports_enabled_graphics_gimp2/gimp2/work/gimp-2.10.22" && ./configure --prefix=/opt/local --build=x86_64-apple-darwin17.7.0 --enable-mp --with-bug-report-url=https://guide.macports.org/#project.tickets --with-pdbgen --disable-silent-rules --disable-check-update --without-alsa --without-gudev --without-webkit ac_cv_path_INTLTOOL_PERL=/opt/local/bin/perl5.28 ac_cv_path_PERL=/opt/local/bin/perl5.28 --without-x 
Exit code: 2

Perusing the port log, the following looked suspicious:

configure.ac:469: warning: The macro `AC_TRY_COMPILE' is obsolete.
configure.ac:597: warning: The macro `AC_HEADER_STDC' is obsolete.
configure.ac:649: warning: The macro `GLIB_GNU_GETTEXT' is obsolete.
configure.ac:649: warning: The macro `AC_TRY_LINK' is obsolete.
configure.ac:649: warning: The macro `AC_OUTPUT_COMMANDS' is obsolete.
configure.ac:708: warning: The macro `AC_TRY_RUN' is obsolete.
configure.ac:2128: warning: The macro `AC_LANG_C' is obsolete.

This port built successfully for me on or around January 2021, so it hasn't been broken for too long.

So... is this due to upgrades to m4, autoconf, a combination...? And is there a workaround?

As for upstream, hopefully they're working on fixing this. A few quick Google searches didn't provide an immediate answer, but didn't spend much time on it.

And finally, for anyone who's looking for a quick fix: My solution was to simply create a symbolic link for the previous ghostscript version's dylib:

$ sudo bash -c 'cd /opt/local/lib ; ln -s libgs.dylib libgs.9.53.dylib'

Not ideal, but it fixes this port.

Anyhow, full log attached.

[mascguy (Christopher Nielsen)]

UPDATE: This port just built successfully for Big Sur ARM on 5/27/2021, despite warnings related to obsolete m4 macros. So perhaps there's some other problem. (And I suppose it could be something related to my system. Hmmmm.)

​https://build.macports.org/builders/ports-11_arm64-builder/builds/20949