A bit more data, still no joy. Any help/advice would be welcome.
Keep in mind this is on Linux, because below it talks about Windows, which seems weird.
I did a complete fake install in /usr/local/jde/autoconf, and then tried again, with the following errors:
% autoreconf -i -s
cvs [checkout aborted]: no such tag gettext-0_14_1
/usr/bin/autopoint: line 259: fatal_error: command not found
find: tmpwrk18412/archive: No such file or directory
find: tmpwrk18412/archive: No such file or directory configure.in:11: `automake requires `AM_CONFIG_HEADER', not `AC_CONFIG_HEADER' configure.in: installing `config/install-sh' configure.in: installing `config/mkinstalldirs' configure.in: installing `config/missing' Makefile.am:34: make_LDADD was already defined in condition TRUE, which implies condition WINDOWSENV_TRUE
# Only process if target is MS-Windows
make_LDADD (User, where = Makefile.am:34) +=
{
TRUE => @LIBOBJS@ @ALLOCA@ $(GLOBLIB) @GETLOADAVG_LIBS@ @LIBINTL@
} Makefile.am:44: AM_CPPFLAGS was already defined in condition TRUE, which implies condition WINDOWSENV_TRUE
# Only process if target is MS-Windows
AM_CPPFLAGS (User, where = Makefile.am:44) +=
{
TRUE => $(GLOBINC)
} configure.in:14: require version 1.8.2, but have 1.6.3
doc/Makefile.am:6: installing `config/texinfo.tex'
glob/Makefile.am: installing `config/depcomp' Makefile.am:34: make_LDADD was already defined in condition TRUE, which implies condition WINDOWSENV_TRUE
# Only process if target is MS-Windows
make_LDADD (User, where = Makefile.am:34) +=
{
TRUE => @LIBOBJS@ @ALLOCA@ $(GLOBLIB) @GETLOADAVG_LIBS@ @LIBINTL@
} Makefile.am:44: AM_CPPFLAGS was already defined in condition TRUE, which implies condition WINDOWSENV_TRUE
# Only process if target is MS-Windows
AM_CPPFLAGS (User, where = Makefile.am:44) +=
{
TRUE => $(GLOBINC)
} Makefile.am:3: require version 1.8, but have 1.6.3
autoreconf: automake failed with exit status: 1