autoconf not generating makefile?

Question

I am currently trying to create an installation package, using autoconf to generate the configure file. I have successfully managed to auto generate these, however, when I run ./configure, no makefile is generated from Makefile.in.

My question is : how do I debug this issue in order to narrow down why it is failing?

The following is the error message I get when attempting to generate the Makefile :

configure: error: cannot find install-sh, install.sh, or shtool

More Autoconf junk. That project should die and burn to the ground so something better can grow. — jww, May 16 '19 at 01:02

jkingok · Answer 1 · 2012-10-12T06:15:12.957

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I had the same problem when I upgraded autotools version, in my case the configure.ac file was missing the following line:

AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE([1.9 foreign])

(Insert whatever version or options you need)

Then run autoreconf --install.

To answer the question about debugging: I went and looked at similar configure.ac files and worked through the differences until the error went way.

edited Oct 12 '12 at 06:15

answered Oct 12 '12 at 06:06

jkingok

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How is that an answer ? What exactly fixed it ? – Nikana Reklawyks Oct 12 '12 at 06:09
Good point. I have re-read the original question (rather than the problem I was solving) and added a clarification. – jkingok Oct 12 '12 at 06:16
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In my case the line was already there, `autoreconf --install` was all that was needed to fix the issue. – Daniel Saner Jun 12 '14 at 09:30

score 3 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 27 '12 at 12:55

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First of all, check that configure.ac contains something like:

AC_CONFIG_FILES([Makefile])
AC_OUTPUT

Otherwise it won't create the makefile for you.

If it's not that, config.log should have clues about what's going wrong.

answered Jun 27 '12 at 12:55

legoscia

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the above are generated within the configure.ac, trouble is i don't know what i am looking for within the config.log – godzilla Jun 27 '12 at 13:04
here is an error message i have found configure: error: cannot find install-sh, install.sh, or shtool – godzilla Jun 27 '12 at 14:09

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Jun 27 '12 at 14:21

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figured it out, it turns out i needed to get rid of the ac_dirs from the configure file, this fixed the issue

answered Jun 27 '12 at 14:21

godzilla

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You may want to accept an answer, be it yours if it's the best. – Nikana Reklawyks Oct 12 '12 at 06:21

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Aug 09 '16 at 05:35

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I've had this problem, and found it was due to the following line in configure.ac:

AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR([build-aux])

The line wasn't bad per se, however it needed to be moved closer to the top of the configure.ac file.

answered Aug 09 '16 at 05:35

Craig McQueen

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autoconf not generating makefile?

4 Answers4