Lilypond build dependencies

[Joseph Rushton Wakeling]

Hello all,

I'm trying to build Lilypond from git-HEAD source for the first time in a while 
and running into some curiosities from the ./configure script.  This is on 
Ubuntu 13.10.

First of all: ./configure requests a number of build dependencies that are not 
listed on the pages here:
http://lilypond.org/doc/v2.17/Documentation/contributor/requirements-for-running-lilypond
http://lilypond.org/doc/v2.17/Documentation/contributor/requirements-for-compiling-lilypond
http://lilypond.org/doc/v2.17/Documentation/contributor/requirements-for-building-documentation

... which included dblatex, epsf.tex (contained in texlive-generic-recommended) 
and lh (contained in texlive-lang-cyrillic).  At a guess, perhaps these would 
typically be installed as recommended by the packages that are listed, so anyone 
(like me) installing _only_ what's listed (and its strict dependencies) will 
come up against this issue.

I'm sure that if I'd just run apt-get build-dep lilypond all would have been 
fine, but the listed dependencies are the first thing one reads.

The blocker to building is the metapost version currently in Ubuntu 13.10. 
./configure reports:
ERROR: Please install required programs:  mpost (due to a bug in metapost, 
versions 1.600 <= x < 1.803 are not supported; installed: 1.802)

What's the problem here, and is it possible to work around (i.e. tell 
./configure "I don't care, go ahead and accept working with 1.802) or is the bug 
sufficiently show-stopping that nothing can be done bar install the updated 
metapost?

Thanks & best wishes,

    -- Joe