Re: [gnu.utils.bug] AC_PROG_CC_G, et al, are not very robust

[Paul Eggert]

If the file's size is sufficiently small and if the locale is C (which
is the case here), you should be able to compute the file's size with
this portable script:

set X `ls -l "$file"`
case "$6" in
  [0-9]*)
    size=$6;;
  *)
    # We are on a non-POSIX host and the group was omitted,
    # or the user overflowed into the group.
    size=$5;;
esac