autoconf not generating makefile?

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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

Pomcroy answered 27/6, 2012 at 12:44 Comment(1)

More Autoconf junk. That project should die and burn to the ground so something better can grow. – Taligrade 16/5, 2019 at 1:2

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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.

Eyrir answered 12/10, 2012 at 6:6 Comment(3)

How is that an answer ? What exactly fixed it ? – Stamata 12/10, 2012 at 6:9

Good point. I have re-read the original question (rather than the problem I was solving) and added a clarification. – Eyrir 12/10, 2012 at 6:16

In my case the line was already there, autoreconf --install was all that was needed to fix the issue. – Pinworm 12/6, 2014 at 9:30

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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.

Roast answered 27/6, 2012 at 12:55 Comment(2)

the above are generated within the configure.ac, trouble is i don't know what i am looking for within the config.log – Pomcroy 27/6, 2012 at 13:4

here is an error message i have found configure: error: cannot find install-sh, install.sh, or shtool – Pomcroy 27/6, 2012 at 14:9

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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

Pomcroy answered 27/6, 2012 at 14:21 Comment(1)

You may want to accept an answer, be it yours if it's the best. – Stamata 12/10, 2012 at 6:21

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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.

Mingy answered 9/8, 2016 at 5:35 Comment(0)

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