Re: [help-texinfo] ../tools/info/makedoc: No such file or directory [solved]

[Gavin Smith]

On Fri, Dec 26, 2014 at 11:43 AM,  <address@hidden> wrote:
> Can you confirm that the info distribution has a binary "makedoc"? What is
> it supposed to do?
>
> I can't find a makedoc in Debian which would be part of texinfo. But then,
> I think the missing makedoc itself is a secondary problem for the OP.
>
As Karl said the 'makedoc' program that is part of the Info source is
nothing to do with TeX or anything, and it is not installed.

It is a tool used in the build system of Info. If you look at the
source in e.g. info/session.c you will see there are many uses of a
macro "DECLARE_INFO_COMMAND" to define functions that implement user
commands. Defining the commands this way allows the program to access
information about the user commands without the need to maintain lists
in separate locations with information like names of commands, the
function implementing them. or the documentation text, which would be
time-consuming and error-prone. makedoc is a core part of the Info
build system that I've practically never had any problems with.

In short, users of the program should not have to care about this program.

When cross-compiling, this program should be build for the "build"
architecture, not the "host". There are a few possible solutions,
outlined at http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/automake/2014-01/msg00006.html.
At the moment I think using AX_CC_FOR_BUILD from Autoconf Archive
would be the best.