Why does autotools create project-File.o on one machine, File.o on another?

Question

I have an autotools project. The same tarball on one machine compiles the files like this:

   gcc ... File.cpp -o project-File.o

and on the other machine:

   gcc ... File.cpp -o File.o

Does anyone know what causes this different behavior? Both machines are identically patched OS X, with the same tool versions.

Answer 1

According to the GNU Automake Documentation, the observed behavior is triggered by some specific variables set during the configuration.

You say that both computers are identically patched with the same tools, but what about their environment variables (PATH, Compilation Flags, etc) ?