Hi, I believe I have found a bug in automake relating to the parsing of filepaths and/or directories.
I am getting a make failure after running "configure", then "make" as follows: ~/autotools/proj3$ make Making all in ../proj3_src make[1]: Entering directory '/home/allwrigj/autotools/proj3_src' cd ../.. && make am--refresh make[2]: Entering directory '/home/allwrigj' make[2]: *** No rule to make target 'am--refresh'. Stop. make[2]: Leaving directory '/home/allwrigj' Makefile:278: recipe for target '../../aclocal.m4' failed make[1]: *** [../../aclocal.m4] Error 2 make[1]: Leaving directory '/home/allwrigj/autotools/proj3_src' Makefile:330: recipe for target 'all-recursive' failed make: *** [all-recursive] Error 1 I have tracked down the problem in proj3_src/Makefile : top_builddir = ../.. should be top_builddir = ../proj3 and with this change, the program compiles as expected. In proj3/ Makefile.am I have SUBDIRS= ../proj3_src and in proj3/configure.ac I have AC_INIT([../proj3_src/hello.c], [0.1]) AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE([foreign]) AC_PROG_CC AC_PROG_INSTALL AC_OUTPUT(Makefile) AC_OUTPUT(../proj3_src/Makefile) The versions of the tools are automake (GNU automake) 1.15 autoconf (GNU Autoconf) 2.69 Regards, James Allwright Software Developer, The Automobile Association The information contained in or attached to this email is intended only for the use of the individual or entity to which it is addressed. If you are not the intended recipient, you are not authorised to and must not disclose, copy, distribute or retain this message or any part of it. It may contain information which is confidential and/or covered by legal professional or other privilege (or other rules or laws with similar effect in jurisdictions outside England and Wales). AA Corporation Limited - Registered Office: Fanum House, Basing View, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 4EA Registered in England and Wales number: 03797747