yes, sure. I just modified Configure to get a feeling for the issue. Once I noticed that my mods just helped me over the first steps and that there was a real problem somewhere, I immediately stopped and turned to the perl monks :)

Now I know a little bit more about the case. I started the Configure script again and watched the system in a parallel session. Here's where it hangs

...
+ cd UU
+ . ./optdef.sh
+ usedevel=define
+ cc=/usr/bin/gcc -maix64
+ prefix=/usr/db/perl/5.24.4.0
+ : Restore computed paths
+ eval awk=$_awk
+ awk=/usr/bin/awk
... (some more variables assigned, some tools used from /opt/freeware/
+bin)
+ eval uname=$_uname
+ uname=/usr/bin/uname
+ eval zip=$_zip
+ zip=zip
+ cat
+ 0< /tmp/sh19793082.25
+ dflt=AIX
+ rp=Operating system name?
+ . ./myread
+ xxxm=AIX
+ echo Operating system name? [AIX]  
+ wc -c
+ test 31 -ge 80
+ echo Operating system name? [AIX] \c
+ 1>& 4
Operating system name? [AIX] + ans=!
+ ans=
+ echo  
+ 1>& 4
 
+ expr X : X!
+ 1> /dev/null
+ ans=AIX
+ + echo AIX
+ /usr/bin/sed -e s/[   ][      ]*/_/g
+ ./tr [A-Z] [a-z]
[download]

in a parallel session I saw this:

# w
^Cksh: 0403-031 The fork function failed. There is not enough memory a
+vailable.

# # after killing the Configure script with Ctrl-C:

# w
  05:25PM   up 29 days,   7:56,  2 users,  load average: 750.00, 165.8
+6, 56.31
User     tty          login@       idle      JCPU      PCPU what
root     pts/0       02:09PM          0         0         0 w
root     pts/1       09:58PM          0      5:09         0 sh
[download]

command restarted and in a parallel windows ps -ef executed

# ps -ef
# ...gazillions of processes like these
    root  4194424 11207344   0 17:29:04  pts/1  0:00 /bin/sh tr -d [a-
+zA-Z/]
    root  4456634 20711350   0 17:29:43  pts/1  0:00 /bin/sh tr -d [a-
+zA-Z/]
    root  7667866 57804596   0 17:29:28  pts/1  0:00 /bin/sh tr -d [a-
+zA-Z/]
    root  8323322 40304812   0 17:29:04  pts/1  0:00 /bin/sh tr -d [a-
+zA-Z/]
    root  8585322 31655592   0 17:29:37  pts/1  0:00 /bin/sh tr -d [a-
+zA-Z/]
    root  9699528 21430902   0 17:29:07  pts/1  0:00 /bin/sh tr -d [a-
+zA-Z/]
    root 10289334 58195982   1 17:29:43  pts/1  0:00 /bin/sh tr -d [a-
+zA-Z/]
    root 10420444 63245100   0 17:29:31  pts/1  0:00 /bin/sh tr -d [a-
+zA-Z/]
    root 10616884 15731484   0 17:29:36  pts/1  0:00 /bin/sh tr -d [a-
+zA-Z/]
    root 11141252 37945842   0 17:29:08  pts/1  0:00 /bin/sh tr -d [a-
+zA-Z/]
    root 11796592 28639298   0 17:29:07  pts/1  0:00 /bin/sh tr -d [a-
+zA-Z/]
    ...
[download]

would this information help? Or can I provide more information or do some more debugging?

There are several thing to note:

• You are building as root. That is usually not recommended
• I've been digging the git repo history and I cannot find any tr command that takes a-zA-Z as (part of) its arguments
• As Configure spawns quite a number of subshells, can it be that you have some .bashrc for whatever shell you use that does stuff that are not appropriate for the build flow?
• Is your $PATH sane? Do you have some weird tr command somehwere in your $PATH
• You stripped (some more variables assigned, some tools used from /opt/freeware/bin). Is tr one of them? (what commands do you actually need from /opt/freeware/bin?)

Enjoy, Have FUN! H.Merijn