Adventures in making make

[Jeff Evarts]

I'd been performance-hacking on make-3.79.1, and wanted to get the latest version. I went here:

  http://savannah.gnu.org/cvs/?group=make

Read the page, and did this:

  % export CVS_RSH="ssh"
  % cvs -z3 -d:pserver:address@hidden:/sources/make co <modulename>

And tried the "old" way

  % cd make; 
  % ./configure; make

But no ./configure. Hrm. To the documentation, Robin! There is no README.build, but README.cvs has the following command in it:

% autoreconf -i -s

Which failed as follows:

  cvs [checkout aborted]: no such tag gettext-0_14_1
  /usr/bin/autopoint: line 259: fatal_error: command not found
  find: tmpwrk13627/archive: No such file or directory
  find: tmpwrk13627/archive: No such file or directory
  configure.in:5: error: Autoconf version 2.59 or higher is required
  configure.in:5: the top level
  autom4te: /usr/bin/m4 failed with exit status: 1
  autoreconf: configure.in: AM_GNU_GETTEXT_VERSION is used, but not AM_GNU_GETTEXT

So I got the latest version of autoconf, assuming that would include autoreconf (woot, I was right!)

  % cvs -z3 -d:pserver:address@hidden
:/sources/autoconf co autoconf
  % cd autoconf
  % ./configure
  % make

Because
we have a standard distribution here at work, and a hermetic tool chain
so we all build the same things, it's not like I can --install, so

  % PATH=`pwd`/bin:$PATH
  % autoreconf -i -s
  Can't locate Autom4te/ChannelDefs.pm in @INC (@INC contains: /usr/local/share/autoconf 
  /usr/lib/perl5/5.8.0/i386-linux-thread-multi /usr/lib/perl5/5.8.0 
  /usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.8.0/i386-linux-thread-multi /usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.8.0 
  /usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.6.1 /usr/lib/perl5/site_perl 
  /usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/5.8.0/i386-linux-thread-multi /usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/5.8.0 
  /usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl /usr/lib/perl5/5.8.0/i386-linux-thread-multi /usr/lib/perl5/5.8.0 .) at 
  /home/jde/make/tmp/autoconf/bin/autoreconf line 42.
  BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at /home/jde/make/tmp/autoconf/bin/autoreconf line 42.

OK, built a temporary /usr/local/share/autoconf, copied the files in, and reran:

 
% autoreconf -i
-s                                            
  cvs [checkout aborted]: no such tag gettext-0_14_1
  /usr/bin/autopoint: line 259: fatal_error: command not found
  find: tmpwrk15251/archive: No such file or directory
  find: tmpwrk15251/archive: No such file or directory
  sh: line 1: /usr/local/bin/autoconf: No such file or directory
  autoreconf: configure.in
: AM_GNU_GETTEXT_VERSION is used, but not AM_GNU_GETTEXT
  Can't exec "/usr/local/bin/autoconf": No such file or directory at 
  /usr/local/share/autoconf/Autom4te/FileUtils.pm line 291.
  autoreconf: failed to run /usr/local/bin/autoconf: No such file or directory

So that's where I am right now.

A couple of questions:

1)
Is this the "normal" way to build make? It seems circuitous. Since
./configure relies on autoconf, and autoconf relies on autoreconf, and
autoreconf depends on make, I'm not sure why there isn't a
"./configure" file in the "make" directory.

2) Is there a useable "./configure" script for RedHat out there somewhere that I could "just use"?

3)
Perhaps a "README.build" would be warranted in the make project, which
would detail the steps involved in making make if they're actually this
involved.

4) Is there a shortcut I'm missing?

Thanks in advance for any help,
-Jeff Evarts