No longer try to ask make(1) what the default compiler is, just use "cc".

That line was a bad idea in the first place, it tried to be too clever,
and it failed in different ways on different platforms.  Even when it
succeeded, what make(1) considered the default wasn't always useful.
Having a simple and robust default and asking users to override it
when needed is better.

2 files changed, 9 insertions, 16 deletions

diff --git a/configure b/configure
index bc0ac0dc..f8888ed1 100755
--- a/configure
+++ b/configure
@@ -41,7 +41,7 @@ OSENUM=
 OSNAME=
 UTF8_LOCALE=
 
-CC=`printf "all:\\n\\t@echo \\\$(CC)\\n" | env -i make -sf -`
+CC=cc
 CFLAGS=
 LDADD=
 LDFLAGS=
diff --git a/configure.local.example b/configure.local.example
index 2043cef3..2affe47b 100644
--- a/configure.local.example
+++ b/configure.local.example
@@ -28,6 +28,14 @@
 
 # --- user settings relevant for all builds ----------------------------
 
+# By default, "cc" is used as the C compiler, but it can be overridden.
+# For example, the system compiler in SunOS 5.9 may not provide <stdint.h>,
+# which may require this line:
+CC=gcc
+
+# IBM AIX may need:
+CC=xlc
+
 # For -Tutf8 and -Tlocale operation, mandoc(1) requires <locale.h>
 # providing setlocale(3) and <wchar.h> providing wcwidth(3) and
 # putwchar(3) with a wchar_t storing UCS-4 values.  Theoretically,
@@ -268,21 +276,6 @@ BINM_CATMAN=mcatman		# default is "catman"
 
 # Do not set these variables unless you really need to.
 
-# You can manually override the compiler to be used.
-# But that's rarely useful because ./configure asks your make(1)
-# which compiler to use, and that answer will hardly be wrong.
-
-CC=cc
-
-# Because the system compiler may not provide <stdint.h>,
-# SunOS 5.9 may need:
-
-CC=gcc
-
-# IBM AIX may need:
-
-CC=xlc
-
 # Normally, leave CFLAGS unset.  In that case, -g will automatically
 # be used, and various -W options will be added if the compiler
 # supports them.  If you define CFLAGS manually, it will be used