Liliana Marie Prikler schreef op do 31-03-2022 om 06:22 [+0200]:
> > It should be possible to look for ‘# Generated by GNU Autoconf’ and
> > ‘# Makefile.in generated by automake’ lines in some 'find-
> > generated-autotools-fies’or something.
> I don't think that will work correctly.  Case in point: pre-inst-env
> in the Guix source tree.

I don't see the problem.  "guix build guix" would basically do:

1. unpack the tarball / copy the git checkout (which, if I'm not
   mistaken, does not contain pre-inst-env).
2. (if not already done in a snippet): Find the 'Makefile.in' and
   'configure', by looking at the file name + "Generated by ..." lines.
   The build-aux/pre-inst-env.in is left intact, as it is not named
   'configure' or 'Makefile.in' (and additionally, it does not contain
   the "Generated by" string.
3. Run ./bootstrap
4. Run ./configure --localstatedir=/var --prefix=...
   (which creates 'pre-inst-env')
5. Run "make" and "make install"
6. Success!

What would not work correctly here?

Greetings,
Maxime.