Re: Grumpy libtool does not copy files

[Ralf Wildenhues]

Hello Jan,

* Jan Engelhardt wrote on Tue, Jul 28, 2009 at 03:14:01PM CEST:
> Errors are worst when there is no message explaining why
> it could not copy it.

True.  Also, users come up with broken systems that one could never
think of.  ;->

So, to avoid further surprises, please ensure you have all programs
available that are listed in
  info standards "Utilities in Makefiles"

on your development system.

> # libtoolize --copy --force --verbose
> libtoolize: putting auxiliary files in `.'.
> libtoolize: can not copy `/usr/share/libtool/config/ltmain.sh' to `./'
> libtoolize: Not copying `m4/argz.m4', libltdl not used.
> libtoolize: putting macros in AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIR, `m4'.
> libtoolize: can not copy `/usr/share/aclocal/libtool.m4' to `m4/'
> libtoolize: Not copying `m4/ltdl.m4', libltdl not used.
> libtoolize: can not copy `/usr/share/aclocal/ltoptions.m4' to `m4/'
> libtoolize: can not copy `/usr/share/aclocal/ltsugar.m4' to `m4/'
> libtoolize: can not copy `/usr/share/aclocal/ltversion.m4' to `m4/'
> libtoolize: can not copy `/usr/share/aclocal/lt~obsolete.m4' to `m4/'
> 
> The source location exists, is readable, m4 is writable, I don't know 
> what's wrong.
> Once I gotten around to remove all the 2>/dev/null things, it finally 
> showed up.
> 
> /usr/bin/libtoolize: line 943: tar: command not found
> 
> *sigh* Why does it need it tar.. (or: why don't distros have a 
> dependency on it, if it's _really_ needed) can't a cp do?

Well, we found this to be the only method to portably install a set of
files where relative time stamps and permissions are preserved, both
among themselves as well as possibly among other symlinked files.  This
is necessary in order to install libltdl files into user projects
without the package being spuriously re-bootstrapped afterwards.

The limitations of cp are discussed in the shell portability section of
the Autoconf manual.

Although, we probably should communicate more clearly that tar is a
prerequisite of libtoolize.  I didn't know there existed a distro that
doesn't have tar in its base setup though.

Cheers,
Ralf