With the last update to pkgsrc/editors/emacs, I still get the following on i386:

cc -c  -Demacs -DHAVE_CONFIG_H -DUSE_LUCID  -I. -I/sw/NetBSD/wrkobj/editors/emac
s/work.i386/emacs-20.5/src       -I/usr/X11R6/include      -O2 widget.c
cc -Demacs -DHAVE_CONFIG_H -DUSE_LUCID  -I. -I/sw/NetBSD/wrkobj/editors/emacs/wo
rk.i386/emacs-20.5/src       -I/usr/X11R6/include      -O2 -Wl,-R/usr/pkg/lib -L
/usr/pkg/lib -Wl,-R/usr/pkg/lib -L/usr/pkg/lib -L/usr/X11R6/lib /sw/NetBSD/wrkob
j/editors/emacs/work.i386/emacs-20.5/src/prefix-args.c -o prefix-args
cc   `echo -R/usr/X11R6/lib  | sed -e 's/-R/-Wl,-rpath,/'`                      
   -o temacs  dispnew.o frame.o scroll.o xdisp.o xmenu.o window.o       charset.
o coding.o category.o ccl.o     cm.o term.o xfaces.o xterm.o xfns.o xselect.o xr
db.o fontset.o  emacs.o keyboard.o macros.o keymap.o sysdep.o   buffer.o fileloc
k.o insdel.o marker.o intervals.o textprop.o    minibuf.o fileio.o dired.o filem
ode.o   cmds.o casetab.o casefiddle.o indent.o search.o regex.o undo.o  alloc.o 
data.o doc.o editfns.o callint.o        eval.o floatfns.o fns.o print.o lread.o 
abbrev.o syntax.o unexelf.c  mocklisp.o bytecode.o      process.o callproc.o   r
egion-cache.o   doprnt.o strftime.o       tparam.o lastfile.o gmalloc.o ralloc.o
 vm-limit.o  widget.o            ../lwlib/liblw.a -L/usr/X11R6/lib    -lXaw -lXm
u  -lXt -lSM -lICE -lXext -lX11          -ltermcap        -lm    
unexelf.c:501: elf.h: No such file or directory
gmake[1]: *** [temacs] Error 1
gmake[1]: Leaving directory `/sw/NetBSD/wrkobj/editors/emacs/work.i386/emacs-20.
5/src'
gmake: *** [src] Error 2
*** Error code 2

Stop.
*** Error code 1

Stop.
*** Error code 1

Was the updated emacs package tried on i386? Additionally I can mention that
the unmodified emacs releases don't work in NetBSD/i386-current since the ELF
conversion.

best regards
Erik Bertelsen