Re: Couldn't locate INSTALL file

[Rudra Banerjee]

I don't know any unix which doesn't provide autotools. Please try 'sudo dnf 
install automake' with dnf replaced by your package manager and you are done.
This is because, if you're asked for autoconf, it will ask you for aitomake and 
make as well.

Sent from Alto

________________________________
On Tuesday, 7 February 2017 at 16:56 Eric Blake <address@hidden> wrote:

On 02/07/2017 12:50 AM, Ying Chang wrote:
> Hi, I am a biologist who doesn't know much about computers. I need to
> install autoconf as it is one of the dependencies of a program that I want
> to use. I downloaded the autoconf package with 'git clone git://
> git.sv.gnu.org/autoconf' .

Building from git is NOT the recommended way to casually meet a
prerequisite; git builds are intended primarily for development of
autoconf itself, rather than using autoconf for other projects.

The primary means of installing autoconf is by using a pre-built package
(if you are using a distribution), or by using a tarball
(ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/autoconf/), where 2.69 is the latest release
(although I'm hoping to release 2.70 soon).

> The README file says that I should read BUGS and
> INSTALL. But there is no INSTALL file in the package.

INSTALL exists in the tarballs (it is created as part of bootstrapping
the git checkouit). When building from git, you first have to bootstrap
the package, at which point the directions in HACKING are relevant. But
note that the directions in HACKING state that you cannot bootstrap
autoconf from git unless you have _first_ installed autoconf from a
tarball (or distribution) - so you're right back to needing that
tarball. And if you are not planning on developing autoconf itself,
then why bother with bootstrapping git?

--
Eric Blake eblake redhat com +1-919-301-3266
Libvirt virtualization library http://libvirt.org