Re: [Info-mtools] Undefined libiconv symbols

[Alain Knaff]

Hi,

On 10/11/2020 15:19, Ryan Schmidt wrote:
[...]
> > > > This really looks like a problem that autoconf/automake have not used
> > > > correct compile/link flags. As I said AM_ICONV should be used. Add it
> > > > into configure.in into "dnl Checks for libraries." section and re-run
> > > > all auto* tools.
> > >
> > > I agree there should be a standard way to handle this but I am not an expert at modifying autotools 
> > > files. I tried adding "AM_ICONV" on a line by itself after the "dnl Checks for 
> > > libraries" comment, and then running autoreconf produces this error:
> > >
> > > configure.in:87: error: possibly undefined macro: AM_ICONV
> > >       If this token and others are legitimate, please use m4_pattern_allow.
> > >       See the Autoconf documentation.
> >
> > Check that you have installed gettext package. Part of it is aclocal's
> > iconv.m4 macro file which contains definition of AM_ICONV macro.
>
> Yes, gettext and its iconv.m4 are installed.

I'm preparing to make a new release, and I'm getting the exact same 
error as well, despite gettext being installed here as well...

On Debian Buster, iconv.m4 from gettext lives in /usr/share/aclocal/iconv.m4

I also tested with removing the aclocal.m4 file from the mtools sources 
(which defines a check for sys_errlist), just in case it somehow 
interferes, but this doesn't fix it either :-(


... so I resolved to just testing for libiconv using the following snippet:

AC_CHECK_LIB(iconv, iconv)

I've made a test release with this change (and also checking for 
xlocale.h, and an unrelated improvement in file locking), and placed 
this on http://alain.knaff.lu/mtools.tar.gz

Could you try out whether that compiles on your macintosh?

If not, maybe AC_CHECK_LIB(iconv, _libiconv) is needed instead?

Thanks,

Alain