This bug is more or less the same as https://sourceware.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=14678 , only this one is for GDB 7.9.

If you don't have makeinfo installed, the make will fail:

make[5]: Entering directory `/home/ward/tmp/eb_sandbox_20150311_13-46-46_buOYR/GDB/7.9/GCC-4.9.2/gdb-7.9/gdb/doc'
(test "ln -s" = "ln -s" && \
	  ln -s ./all-cfg.texi gdb-cfg.texi) || \
	ln ./all-cfg.texi gdb-cfg.texi || \
	cp ./all-cfg.texi gdb-cfg.texi
date=`sed -n -e 's/^.* BFD_VERSION_DATE \(.*\)$/\1/p' ./../../bfd/version.h`; \
	sed -e "s/DATE/$date/" < ./../version.in > version.subst
echo "@set GDBVN `sed q version.subst`" > ./GDBvn.new
if [ -n "(GDB) " ]; then \
	  echo "@set VERSION_PACKAGE (GDB) " >> ./GDBvn.new; \
	fi
echo "@set BUGURL @uref{http://www.gnu.org/software/gdb/bugs/}" >> ./GDBvn.new
if [ "@uref{http://www.gnu.org/software/gdb/bugs/}" = "@uref{http://www.gnu.org/software/gdb/bugs/}" ]; then \
	  echo "@set BUGURL_DEFAULT" >> ./GDBvn.new; \
	fi
if test -z "-I ./../../readline/doc"; then \
	  echo "@set SYSTEM_READLINE" >> ./GDBvn.new; \
	fi
if [ -n "" ]; then \
	  echo "@set SYSTEM_GDBINIT " >> ./GDBvn.new; \
	fi
mv GDBvn.new GDBvn.texi
/home/ward/tmp/eb_sandbox_20150311_13-46-46_buOYR/GDB/7.9/GCC-4.9.2/gdb-7.9/missing makeinfo --split-size=5000000 --split-size=5000000   -I ./../../readline/doc -I ./../mi -I . \
		-o gdb.info ./gdb.texinfo
/home/ward/tmp/eb_sandbox_20150311_13-46-46_buOYR/GDB/7.9/GCC-4.9.2/gdb-7.9/missing: line 81: makeinfo: command not found
WARNING: 'makeinfo' is missing on your system.
         You should only need it if you modified a '.texi' file, or
         any other file indirectly affecting the aspect of the manual.
         You might want to install the Texinfo package:
         <http://www.gnu.org/software/texinfo/>
         The spurious makeinfo call might also be the consequence of
         using a buggy 'make' (AIX, DU, IRIX), in which case you might
         want to install GNU make:
         <http://www.gnu.org/software/make/>
make[5]: *** [gdb.info] Error 127
make[5]: Leaving directory `/home/ward/tmp/eb_sandbox_20150311_13-46-46_buOYR/GDB/7.9/GCC-4.9.2/gdb-7.9/gdb/doc'
make[4]: *** [subdir_do] Error 1
make[4]: Leaving directory `/home/ward/tmp/eb_sandbox_20150311_13-46-46_buOYR/GDB/7.9/GCC-4.9.2/gdb-7.9/gdb'
make[3]: *** [install-only] Error 2
make[3]: Leaving directory `/home/ward/tmp/eb_sandbox_20150311_13-46-46_buOYR/GDB/7.9/GCC-4.9.2/gdb-7.9/gdb'
make[2]: *** [install] Error 2
make[2]: Leaving directory `/home/ward/tmp/eb_sandbox_20150311_13-46-46_buOYR/GDB/7.9/GCC-4.9.2/gdb-7.9/gdb'
make[1]: *** [install-gdb] Error 2
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/ward/tmp/eb_sandbox_20150311_13-46-46_buOYR/GDB/7.9/GCC-4.9.2/gdb-7.9'
make: *** [install] Error 2


This is because the missing script passes the return code (127) from the failed call to makeinfo to make. Setting MAKEINFO=true (or false) will not help because the configure script does a version check on makeinfo.