[libvirt] Bootstrap fail, but non-useful message :/

[Matthias Bolte]

2010/11/29 Justin Clift <jclift at redhat.com>:
> Hi Eric,
>
> Just ran ./autogen.sh on an OSX box with only the system provided
> autotools installed, and got this:
>
> ************************************************************************************
> Copying file po/remove-potcdate.sin
> ./bootstrap: patching m4/gettext.m4 to remove need for intl/* ...
> ./bootstrap: glibtoolize -c -f ...
> glibtoolize: putting auxiliary files in AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR, `build-aux'.
> glibtoolize: copying file `build-aux/ltmain.sh'
> glibtoolize: putting macros in AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIR, `m4'.
> glibtoolize: copying file `m4/libtool.m4'
> glibtoolize: copying file `m4/ltoptions.m4'
> glibtoolize: copying file `m4/ltsugar.m4'
> glibtoolize: copying file `m4/ltversion.m4'
> glibtoolize: copying file `m4/lt~obsolete.m4'
> ./bootstrap: aclocal -I gnulib/m4 --force -I m4  ...
> configure.ac:13: warning: macro `AM_SILENT_RULES' not found in library
> ./bootstrap: autoconf --force ...
> configure.ac:60: error: possibly undefined macro: AC_MSG_ERROR
>      If this token and others are legitimate, please use m4_pattern_allow.
>      See the Autoconf documentation.
> configure.ac:512: error: possibly undefined macro: AC_MSG_NOTICE
> configure.ac:627: error: possibly undefined macro: PKG_CHECK_MODULES
> Failed to bootstrap, please investigate.
> $
> ************************************************************************************
>
> This system is using the "MacPorts" packaging system instead of Homebrew.
>
> The problem was easy enough to resolve by installing the newer autoconf
> and automake MacPorts provides.
>
> But, I'm concerned about the less-than-helpful error message given here.
>
> Isn't the bootstrap supposed to detect the required versions of things (as specified
> in the .conf file), and inform us clearly if they're not found?
>
> Regards and best wishes,
>
> Justin Clift
>

Looks like the system is missing pkg-config, or at least has the .m4
file is in an unexpected place so that autoconf can't find it.

bootstrap checks for pkg-config, so the binary is probably there, but
that doesn't mean that autoconf can find the corresponding .m4 file,
if it's there at all.

Matthias