Evidently its a problem with the practice of using ksh for /bin/sh.  That
is - I moved back to bourne shell and I got it to compile, though it
segfaulted 3 times before I finally succeeded.  Also, using ksh for /bin/sh
does bad things to various rc scripts.  So while its an interesting kludge
for the problem of an unstable bourne shell, its not really what I would
call an all-encompassing workaround considering that it breaks so many
other things in the process.  (I tried bash too and didn't have any better
luck fwiw.)  Anyhow, when you run into this stuff, now you know one way to
kind of get through it.

Has there been any progress towards getting bourne shell to more stable in
-current?

-- 
Jamie Heilman                   http://audible.transient.net/~jamie/
"I was in love once -- a Sinclair ZX-81.  People said, "No, Holly, she's 
 not for you." She was cheap, she was stupid and she wouldn't load 
 -- well, not for me, anyway."				-Holly