Re: Unable to build amhello package from scratch on Debian

[John Calcote]

Hello Abhinav,

On 8/1/2009 9:04 AM, Abhinav Singh wrote:
> Hi,
>
> This is my first time with autotools and I tried following:
> http://www.gnu.org/software/libtool/manual/automake/Creating-amhello.html#Creating-amhello
> to get started.
>
> However when I issue the:
> *$bash: autoreconf --install*
>
> I get the following error:
> configure.ac: 4: `automake requires `AM_CONFIG_HEADER', not
> `AC_CONFIG_HEADER'
>    

Use AC_CONFIG_HEADERS, not AC_CONFIG_HEADER.

> automake: Makefile.am: required file `./NEWS' not found
> automake: Makefile.am: required file `./AUTHORS' not found
> automake: Makefile.am: required file `./ChangeLog' not found
>    

Either create empty NEWS, AUTHORS, and ChangeLog files, or else add the 
'foreign' option to AM_INIT, e.g., AM_INIT([foreign]). The Autotools 
were originally designed for GNU projects, and all GNU projects require 
these text files to exist in the top-level project directory. However, 
if you give the 'foreign' option to AM_INIT, then Automake will be less 
picky about things like this.

> configure.ac: 4: required file `./[config.h].in' not found
>    

This problem will go away when you fix the AC_CONFIG_HEADERS problem.

> Makefile.am:2: invalid variable `dist_doc_DATA'
>    

Look carefully at your top-level Makefile.am file - make sure nothing is 
misspelled or out of place according to the examples provided in the link.

> autoreconf: automake failed with exit status: 1
>
> is this a OS specific problem? Can someone help me with this?
>    

Not OS specific - just Autotools. Just as with many software tools, as 
you become more familiar with them, you will begin to understand the 
nature of these problems.

Good Luck!
John