hi akim, first, thank you for responding!
i finally did find out what was wrong: autoconf 2.5x and 2.13 debian packages were both installed on my system. the *packages* don't conflict but the programs do. inadvertantly, some of what i did used the 2.5 tools and some used the 2.13 tools. i made sure to use only the 2.5x tools, and lo and behold it worked. a configure script was generated and it almost ran to completion. checking whether gcc accepts -g... yes checking for gcc option to accept ANSI C... none needed configure: error: cannot find install-sh or install.sh in . ./.. ./../.. /usr/bin/install is on my system, and is also in my PATH. but according to the autoconf info page: - Macro: AC_PROG_INSTALL Set output variable `INSTALL' to the path of a BSD compatible `install' program, if one is found in the current `PATH'. Otherwise, set `INSTALL' to `DIR/install-sh -c', checking the directories specified to `AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR' the info page also says that AC_PROG_INSTALL filters out "install" implementations that are known to be buggy, but i doubt GNU install is buggy. i was able to get configure to complete successfully by commenting out AC_PROG_INSTALL in configure.in, but that's a bandaid fix. how can i get configure to recognize /usr/bin/install? pete begin Akim Demaille <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > | hi all, > | i'm trying to learn autoconf by converting one of my programs to use > | autoconf. i'm having difficulty; here's what i tried: > | > | % cp Makefile Makefile.orig > | % mv Makefile Makefile.in > | % autoscan > | % mv configure.scan configure.in > | % autoheader > | % autoconf > | autoconf: Undefined macros: > | configure.in:22:AC_FUNC_ERROR_AT_LINE > | configure.in:23:AC_FUNC_MALLOC > | configure.in:27:AC_CONFIG_FILES([Makefile]) > | configure.in:3:AC_CONFIG_SRCDIR([xpose.c]) > | p@satan% ./configure > | configure: error: can not find sources in . or .. > | > | the tutorial i'm using claimed that this should've worked. clearly > | autoconf _should_ know macro functions like AC_FUNC_MALLOC, so i must be > | missing a very basic and obvious step. > > How bizarre... How about giving the version number? Of autoscan and > autoconf. > > | can someone tell me what i'm doing wrong? > | > | thanks! > | pete -- Fingerprint: B9F1 6CF3 47C4 7CD8 D33E 70A9 A3B9 1945 67EA 951D