I'm working with a tool that is supposed to simplify the build process of Unix-based apps. One of the things it does automatically is run "autoreconf -i" before doing "./configure". However, when it tries to build the expat library on OSX (Lion), the build fails:
$ tar xfz expat-2.0.1.tar.gz; cd expat-2.0.1
$ autoreconf -i
glibtoolize: putting auxiliary files in AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR, `conftools'.
glibtoolize: copying file `conftools/ltmain.sh'
glibtoolize: You should add the contents of the following files to `aclocal.m4':
glibtoolize: `/usr/bin/../share/aclocal/libtool.m4'
glibtoolize: `/usr/bin/../share/aclocal/ltoptions.m4'
glibtoolize: `/usr/bin/../share/aclocal/ltversion.m4'
glibtoolize: `/usr/bin/../share/aclocal/ltsugar.m4'
glibtoolize: `/usr/bin/../share/aclocal/lt~obsolete.m4'
glibtoolize: Consider adding `AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIR([m4])' to configure.in and
glibtoolize: rerunning glibtoolize, to keep the correct libtool macros in-tree.
glibtoolize: Consider adding `-I m4' to ACLOCAL_AMFLAGS in Makefile.am.
$ ./configure
(Lots of output here)
configure: creating ./config.status
config.status: creating Makefile
config.status: WARNING: Makefile.in seems to ignore the --datarootdir setting
config.status: creating expat_config.h
$ make
bin/sh ./libtool --silent --mode=compile gcc -std=gnu99 -I./lib -I. -g -O2 -Wall -Wmissing-prototypes -Wstrict-prototypes -fexceptions -DHAVE_EXPAT_CONFIG_H -o lib/xmlparse.lo -c lib/xmlparse.c
./libtool: line 473: CDPATH: command not found
./libtool: line 1297: func_opt_split: command not found
libtool: Version mismatch error. This is libtool 2.2.10, but the
libtool: definition of this LT_INIT comes from an older release.
libtool: You should recreate aclocal.m4 with macros from libtool 2.2.10
libtool: and run autoconf again.
On the other hand, if I don't do autoreconf first, it build just fiine:
$ cd ..; rm -r expat-2.0.1; tar xfz expat-2.0.1.tar.gz; cd expat-2.0.1
$ ./configure
(Lots of output here)
configure: creating ./config.status
config.status: creating Makefile
config.status: creating expat_config.h
$ make
/bin/sh ./libtool --silent --mode=compile gcc -I./lib -I. -g -O2 -Wall -Wmissing-prototypes -Wstrict-prototypes -fexceptions -DHAVE_EXPAT_CONFIG_H -o lib/xmlparse.lo -c lib/xmlparse.c
/bin/sh ./libtool --silent --mode=compile gcc -I./lib -I. -g -O2 -Wall -Wmissing-prototypes -Wstrict-prototypes -fexceptions -DHAVE_EXPAT_CONFIG_H -o lib/xmltok.lo -c lib/xmltok.c
/bin/sh ./libtool --silent --mode=compile gcc -I./lib -I. -g -O2 -Wall -Wmissing-prototypes -Wstrict-prototypes -fexceptions -DHAVE_EXPAT_CONFIG_H -o lib/xmlrole.lo -c lib/xmlrole.c
/bin/sh ./libtool --silent --mode=link gcc -I./lib -I. -g -O2 -Wall -Wmissing-prototypes -Wstrict-prototypes -fexceptions -DHAVE_EXPAT_CONFIG_H -no-undefined -version-info 6:2:5 -rpath /usr/local/lib -o libexpat.la lib/xmlparse.lo lib/xmltok.lo lib/xmlrole.lo
gcc -I./lib -I. -g -O2 -Wall -Wmissing-prototypes -Wstrict-prototypes -fexceptions -DHAVE_EXPAT_CONFIG_H -o xmlwf/xmlwf.o -c xmlwf/xmlwf.c
gcc -I./lib -I. -g -O2 -Wall -Wmissing-prototypes -Wstrict-prototypes -fexceptions -DHAVE_EXPAT_CONFIG_H -o xmlwf/xmlfile.o -c xmlwf/xmlfile.c
gcc -I./lib -I. -g -O2 -Wall -Wmissing-prototypes -Wstrict-prototypes -fexceptions -DHAVE_EXPAT_CONFIG_H -o xmlwf/codepage.o -c xmlwf/codepage.c
gcc -I./lib -I. -g -O2 -Wall -Wmissing-prototypes -Wstrict-prototypes -fexceptions -DHAVE_EXPAT_CONFIG_H -o xmlwf/unixfilemap.o -c xmlwf/unixfilemap.c
/bin/sh ./libtool --silent --mode=link gcc -I./lib -I. -g -O2 -Wall -Wmissing-prototypes -Wstrict-prototypes -fexceptions -DHAVE_EXPAT_CONFIG_H -o xmlwf/xmlwf xmlwf/xmlwf.o xmlwf/xmlfile.o xmlwf/codepage.o xmlwf/unixfilemap.o libexpat.la
What is "autoreconf -i" doing, and why is it causing the build to fail?
I think the problem is here:
libtool: Version mismatch error. This is libtool 2.2.10, but the
libtool: definition of this LT_INIT comes from an older release.
libtool: You should recreate aclocal.m4 with macros from libtool 2.2.10
libtool: and run autoconf again.
In my experience with OS X Leopard and Snow Leopard (I have not tried Lion yet), the autotools actually installed with OS X are not recent enough to actually reconfigure anything for the system. So I usually grab the latest autotools from a GNU mirror and make a local version of them if I need to reconfigure.
"autoreconf -i" copies files from the installed GNU autotools to AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR, an in this case is probably ltmain.sh.