As I had written in [0], using /usr/bin/install instead of install-sh
can significantly speed up the time to run make install, and hence make
check. Using /usr/bin/install is standard in all autotools-using
projects. PostgreSQL has removed the use of /usr/bin/install because of
the incident described in [1], which was basically configure picking up
some random "install" program in the path, which didn't do what we
wanted. The Autoconf test has been much improved in the meantime, it
checks whether calling the program actually installs a file now, so it's
unlikely that another false positive would be picked up.
Therefore I propose to put back the AC_PROG_INSTALL configure check and
associated bits that were taken out back then. See attached patch.
[0]: http://petereisentraut.blogspot.fi/2012/03/postgresql-make-install-times.html
[1]: http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2001-03/msg00312.php