Re: Failure to boostrap bison from git repository

[Joel E. Denny]

On Mon, 30 May 2011, Stefano Lattarini wrote:

> On Monday 30 May 2011, Joel E wrote:
> > On Wed, 18 May 2011, Stefano Lattarini wrote:
> > 
> > > I'm consistently failing at bootstrapping Bison from the official git
> > > repository.
> > 
> > >  autoreconf: running: /usr/bin/autoconf --force
> > >  configure.ac:110: error: possibly undefined macro: AC_PROG_GNU_M4
> > >       If this token and others are legitimate, please use 
> > > m4_pattern_allow.
> > >       See the Autoconf documentation.
> > >  autoreconf: /usr/bin/autoconf failed with exit status: 1

> I've tried with two sets of versions of the tools:

Do both sets give you the exact error above?

>  [SYSTEM TOOLS, installed from *.deb packages on Debian unstable]
> 
>   $ m4 --version
>   m4 (GNU M4) 1.4.14

There have been some buggy m4 releases.  You might try building 1.4.16.  
Depending on where you install it, you might then need to rebuild autoconf 
to use it.

>   $ autoconf --version
>   autoconf (GNU Autoconf) 2.67

What version of m4 is your autoconf configured to use?  What's the output 
of the following commands?

  % autom4te --version
  % `echo 'm4_divert(0)__program__' | autom4te --language=m4sugar` --version

>  [CUSTOM TOOLS, installed from development versions of autoconf and m4]

I've seen at least one bison bug report already due to a development 
version of autoconf.  It's not the same bug, and perhaps it's been fixed 
by now, but I would suggest you stick with stable versions of such tools 
for now.