--- /dev/null
+bug#30616: automake-1.16: aclocal is unable to process AM_PATH_PYTHON with variable as value
+
+http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-automake/2018-02/msg00012.html
+
+--- a/m4/python.m4
++++ b/m4/python.m4
+@@ -36,24 +36,12 @@ AC_DEFUN([AM_PATH_PYTHON],
+ [
+ dnl Find a Python interpreter. Python versions prior to 2.0 are not
+ dnl supported. (2.0 was released on October 16, 2000).
+- m4_define_default([am_py_min_ver], m4_ifval([$1], [$1], [2.0]))
+- dnl The arbitrary default maximum version.
+- m4_define_default([am_py_max_ver], [4.0])
+-
++ dnl FIXME: Remove the need to hard-code Python versions here.
+ m4_define_default([_AM_PYTHON_INTERPRETER_LIST],
+- [[python] \
+- dnl If we want some Python 2 versions (min version <= 2.7),
+- dnl also search for "python2".
+- m4_if(m4_version_compare(am_py_min_ver, [2.8]), [-1], [python2], []) \
+- [python3] \
+- dnl Construct a comma-separated list of interpreter names (python2.6,
+- dnl python2.7, etc). We only care about the first 3 characters of the
+- dnl version strings (major-dot-minor; not
+- dnl major-dot-minor-dot-bugfix[-dot-whatever])
+- m4_foreach([py_ver],
+- m4_esyscmd_s(seq -s[[", "]] -f["[[%.1f]]"] m4_substr(am_py_max_ver, [0], [3]) -0.1 m4_substr(am_py_min_ver, [0], [3])),
+- dnl Remove python2.8 and python2.9 since they will never exist
+- [m4_bmatch(py_ver, [2.[89]], [], [python]py_ver)])])
++[python python2 python3 python3.9 python3.8 python3.7 python3.6 dnl
++ python3.5 python3.4 python3.3 python3.2 python3.1 python3.0 dnl
++ python2.7 python2.6 python2.5 python2.4 python2.3 python2.2 dnl
++ python2.1 python2.0])
+
+ AC_ARG_VAR([PYTHON], [the Python interpreter])
+