Re: Problem using AC_CANONICAL_BUILD

[Eric Blake]

On 04/13/2012 01:54 PM, Nick Bowler wrote:

>>> configure: error: cannot find install-sh, install.sh, or shtool in "."
>>> "./.." "./../.."
>>>
>>> Why am I getting this message and how can I get around it?
>>
>> Probably because you didn't properly populate your AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR
>> directory.  I'm guessing you aren't using automake (since automake will
>> automatically place a copy of install-sh into your CONFIG_AUX_DIR)?  If
>> so, the solution is to manually place a version of install-sh alongside
>> your copies of config.guess and config.sub, all in the directory you
>> passed to AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR (or, if you aren't using AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR,
>> into your top-level directory, although I do recommend using
>> AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR).  The version of install-sh shipped with autoconf
>> 2.68 is adequate for the purpose.
> 
> Nevertheless, it's surprising (to me) that AC_CANONICAL_BUILD would
> require install-sh.

Technically, it doesn't.  But it _does_ require AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR, and
AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR documents that rather than probe for all possible
auxiliary files, it _only_ probes for install-sh and assumes all other
aux files are in the same location.

Can it be improved?  Probably.  Maybe we could add a macro that
registers a required aux file, and have AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR probe for the
first such registered file rather than hard-coding the search for
install-sh.  That way, using AC_CANONICAL_BUILD in isolation would then
warn you about missing config.guess, rather than missing install-sh.

But someone has to write the patches.  Would you like to volunteer?

> 
>> https://www.gnu.org/software/autoconf/manual/autoconf.html#Canonicalizing
> 
> This section of the manual only says you need to copy config.guess and
> config.sub.  The requirement for install-sh is not mentioned.

The requirement for install-sh as the hard-coded witness file was
mentioned in the #Input section under AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR.

-- 
Eric Blake   address@hidden    +1-919-301-3266
Libvirt virtualization library http://libvirt.org

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