autoconf 2.53 doesn't find autom4te

[Bruno Haible]

Hi,

After installing autoconf 2.53 in an otherwise unused directory
(--prefix=/packages/gnu-inst-autoconf/2.53), I made a symlink
/packages/gnu/bin/autoconf-2.53 -> 
/packages/gnu-inst-autoconf/2.53/bin/autoconf.
Now, when I call it, it gives an error message:

$ autoconf-2.53 --include autoconf
/packages/gnu/bin/autoconf-2.53: exec: autom4te: not found

But

$ PATH=$PATH:/packages/gnu-inst-autoconf/2.53/bin autoconf-2.53 --include 
autoconf

works.

Apparently autoconf assumes to be installed in the PATH. Why can't it
call autom4te as "@bindir@/autom4te"?

The reason for my strange symlink setup is that recent versions of
autoconf and automake introduce either new bugs or incompatibilities,
therefore I prefer to have some older version with known bugs in PATH.

Bruno