Re: Problem using AC_CANONICAL_BUILD

[Dawood Tariq]

On 4/13/12 12:54 PM, Nick Bowler wrote:
> On 2012-04-13 13:40 -0600, Eric Blake wrote:
> > On 04/13/2012 01:31 PM, Dawood Tariq wrote:
> > > Hello all,
> > >
> > > I'm using autoconf 2.68 on Darwin kernel version 10.8.0. I want to use
> > > the AX_PROG_JAVAH macro to determine the location of the jni.h header
> > > file and set the CPPFLAGS accordingly. This macro uses the $build_os
> > > variable which is generated by the AC_CANONICAL_BUILD macro. If I don't
> > > use the AX_PROG_JAVAH and AC_CANONICAL_BUILD macros, my configure script
> > > works fine. But if I invoke either of them, I get the following error:
> > >
> > > configure: error: cannot find install-sh, install.sh, or shtool in "."
> > > "./.." "./../.."
> > >
> > > Why am I getting this message and how can I get around it?
> > Probably because you didn't properly populate your AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR
> > directory.  I'm guessing you aren't using automake (since automake will
> > automatically place a copy of install-sh into your CONFIG_AUX_DIR)?  If
> > so, the solution is to manually place a version of install-sh alongside
> > your copies of config.guess and config.sub, all in the directory you
> > passed to AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR (or, if you aren't using AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR,
> > into your top-level directory, although I do recommend using
> > AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR).  The version of install-sh shipped with autoconf
> > 2.68 is adequate for the purpose.
> Nevertheless, it's surprising (to me) that AC_CANONICAL_BUILD would
> require install-sh.  I can reproduce the error with the following
> configure.ac:
>
>    AC_INIT([test], [1.0])
>    AC_CANONICAL_BUILD
>    AC_OUTPUT
>
> The autoconf manual documents the install-sh requirement if you call
> AC_PROG_INSTALL, but the above does not call AC_PROG_INSTALL, nor does
> it appear in the output of "autoconf -t AC_PROG_INSTALL".
>
> Moreover, after copying install-sh/config.guess/config.sub, the
> generated configure script doesn't even test for a working install, nor
> does it reference install-sh in any capacity other than to bail out if
> it's not present.
>
> > https://www.gnu.org/software/autoconf/manual/autoconf.html#Canonicalizing
> This section of the manual only says you need to copy config.guess and
> config.sub.  The requirement for install-sh is not mentioned.
>
> Cheers,

Thank you for the feedback! The script works fine after copying the 
install-sh, config.guess, config.sub files. For now, I found that 
simpler to do than to use automake. I thought I may have been missing 
something or doing something silly but was surprised by the 'install-sh' 
requirement myself. Anyway, thank you again!