configure: error: unsafe absolute working directory name

[vincentcr]

trying to install on osx lion, with node 0.6.6, results in this error:

cd deps/libiconv && ./configure --disable-shared --enable-static --enable-relocatable --enable-extra-encodings
checking for a BSD-compatible install... /usr/local/bin/ginstall -c
checking whether build environment is sane... configure: error: unsafe absolute working directory name
make: *** [deps/libiconv/Makefile] Error 1
Waf: Leaving directory `/Users/vincent/devel/node_modules/iconv/build'
'install' finished successfully (1.459s)
iconv@1.1.3 ./node_modules/iconv 

note that, for some reason, the failure is not communicated up the chain and npm believes the install suceeded.

[bnoordhuis]

Thanks for the report. Can you clone the repo and run wscript configure build? That error you get is an autoconf macro that checks if the path doesn't contain funny characters like & or #.

note that, for some reason, the failure is not communicated up the chain and npm believes the install suceeded.

Fixed in b4988e1.

[vincentcr]

Will try later when I get back at my laptop, but that would make sense as
the path contains both a space and a single quote.

[vincentcr]

confirmed, it's the single quote in the directory name that triggers the "unsafe absolute working directory name" error.

[bnoordhuis]

confirmed, it's the single quote in the directory name that triggers the "unsafe absolute working directory name" error.

The best advice I can give you is "don't do that." :-)

autoconf checks for such characters because they wreak all kinds of havoc in Makefiles and shell scripts.