libtool: install: error: relink `libmyprog.la' with the above command before installing it

Question

I'm encountering the titular linking error while running make distcheck within a project I'm authoring:

$ uname -a
Linux vbox 3.2.0-26-generic #41-Ubuntu SMP Thu Jun 14 17:49:24 UTC 2012 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
$ cat /etc/issue
Ubuntu 12.04 LTS \n \l

$ libtool --version
libtool (GNU libtool) 2.4.2
Written by Gordon Matzigkeit <gord@gnu.ai.mit.edu>, 1996

Copyright (C) 2011 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions.  There is NO
warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
$ g++ --version
g++ (Ubuntu/Linaro 4.6.3-1ubuntu5) 4.6.3
Copyright (C) 2011 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions.  There is NO
warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

$ automake --version
automake (GNU automake) 1.11.3
Copyright (C) 2011 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
License GPLv2+: GNU GPL version 2 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.html>
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

Written by Tom Tromey <tromey@redhat.com>
       and Alexandre Duret-Lutz <adl@gnu.org>.

As you can see it is coming up on Ubuntu 12.04 using g++ 4.6 and libtool 2.4.2. On OS X 10.7.4 using g++ 4.2.1 and libtool 2.4.2 (both installed via homebrew) the error does not appear. It also does not appear in make check.

Here's the relevant snippet of Makefile.am:

# -- myprog --
#

lib_LTLIBRARIES += myproj/myprog/libmyprog.la
myproj_myprog_libmyprog_la_SOURCES = # ...
myproj_myprog_libmyprog_la_LIBADD = myproj/mylib/libmylib.la

sbin_PROGRAMS += myproj/myprog/myprog
myproj_myprog_myprog_SOURCES = myproj/myprog/main.cc
myproj_myprog_myprog_LDADD = myproj/myprog/libmyprog.la

# -- mylib --
#

lib_LTLIBRARIES += myprog/mylib/libmylib.la
myproj_mylib_libmylib_la_SOURCES = # ...

And the error itself:

/usr/bin/ld: cannot find -lmylib
collect2: ld returned 1 exit status
libtool: install: error: relink `myproj/myprog/libmyprog.la' with the above command before installing it

How do I fix this?

Answer 1

In a nutshell, order (apparently) matters:

# -- mylib --
#

lib_LTLIBRARIES += myprog/mylib/libmylib.la
myproj_mylib_libmylib_la_SOURCES = # ...

# -- myprog --
#

lib_LTLIBRARIES += myproj/myprog/libmyprog.la
myproj_myprog_libmyprog_la_SOURCES = # ...
myproj_myprog_libmyprog_la_LIBADD = myproj/mylib/libmylib.la

sbin_PROGRAMS += myproj/myprog/myprog
myproj_myprog_myprog_SOURCES = myproj/myprog/main.cc
myproj_myprog_myprog_LDADD = myproj/myprog/libmyprog.la

Now my project builds (check and distcheck) on all mentioned platforms.