configure error

I am trying to build libxfce4util from the sources (on libxfce4util@9dd7973f), using this environment variables (also tried without them with the same result):

export PREFIX=/usr/local
export  \
  CFLAGS="-O2 -pipe" \
  PKG_CONFIG_PATH="${PREFIX}/lib/pkgconfig:$PKG_CONFIG_PATH" \
  XDG_DATA_DIRS="$PREFIX/share:$XDG_DATA_DIRS"

Also i have compiled xfce4-dev-tools here

me@host:~$ ls /usr/local/bin/x*
/usr/local/bin/xdt-autogen  /usr/local/bin/xfce-build       /usr/local/bin/xfce-get-release-notes  /usr/local/bin/xfce-update-news
/usr/local/bin/xdt-csource  /usr/local/bin/xfce-do-release  /usr/local/bin/xfce-get-translations

me@host:~$ xdt-autogen --version
xdt-autogen 4.19.0

When i run

./autogen.sh --prefix=${PREFIX}

from sources i get this:

Running /usr/local/src/libxfce4util/configure --enable-maintainer-mode --prefix=/usr/local...
./configure: line 2717: syntax error near unexpected token `('
./configure: line 2717: `LIBXFCE4UTIL_VERSION=xdt_version()'

Please explain what i do wrong?

You have to install xfce4-dev-tools 4.19.0 in /usr instead of the system version. For some reason it doesn't find the m4 macros even though XDG_DATA_DIRS is correctly set.

Running ./autogen.sh in the latest xfce4-dev-tools, we will have prefix of /usr/local, shouldn't it be /usr? This seems to also cause a problem in thunar#557 (comment 80637), and maybe !87 (merged) is not the proper fix.

!87 (merged) is a possible fix, but installing in /usr is probably better anyway. It's up to @skunnyk.

added 1. Build label

moved from libxfce4util#19 (moved)

mentioned in merge request !87 (merged)

assigned to @Tamaranch

You can also set ACLOCAL_PATH (export ACLOCAL_PATH="$PREFIX/share/aclocal"), which is the relevant env var in this case, and not XDG_DATA_DIRS as I said above. See !87 (merged) for a fix.

Alternatively you can do

export ACLOCAL_FLAGS="-I $PREFIX/share/aclocal"

added 1. Regression label

changed milestone to %Xfce 4.20

I've just run into this issue as well. I'm starting the build process of XFCE from a very bare system so I'm needing to install and download lots of different libraries from scratch. That being said, to match the original poster:

root@plimp0:~/git/libxfce4util# which xdt-autogen
/usr/local/bin/xdt-autogen
root@plimp0:~/git/libxfce4util# xdt-autogen --version
xdt-autogen 4.19.0git-b65a49a

I didn't do any sort of prefixes or anything. All of it is default. As such, when I run ./autogen.sh:

root@plimp0:~/git/libxfce4util# ./autogen.sh
Preparing package directory /home/root/git/libxfce4util...
Running gtkdocize --copy...
Running autoreconf...
autoreconf: export WARNINGS=
autoreconf: Entering directory '.'
autoreconf: running: autopoint --force
autoreconf: running: aclocal --force -I m4 ${ACLOCAL_FLAGS}
autoreconf: configure.ac: tracing
autoreconf: running: libtoolize --copy --force
libtoolize: putting auxiliary files in '.'.
libtoolize: copying file './ltmain.sh'
libtoolize: putting macros in AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIRS, 'm4'.
libtoolize: copying file 'm4/libtool.m4'
libtoolize: copying file 'm4/ltoptions.m4'
libtoolize: copying file 'm4/ltsugar.m4'
libtoolize: copying file 'm4/ltversion.m4'
libtoolize: copying file 'm4/lt~obsolete.m4'
autoreconf: configure.ac: not using Intltool
autoreconf: running: gtkdocize --copy
autoreconf: running: aclocal --force -I m4 ${ACLOCAL_FLAGS}
autoreconf: running: /usr/bin/autoconf --force
autoreconf: running: /usr/bin/autoheader --force
autoreconf: running: automake --add-missing --copy --force-missing
configure.ac:70: installing './compile'
configure.ac:39: installing './missing'
libxfce4util/Makefile.am: installing './depcomp'
autoreconf: './config.sub' is updated
autoreconf: './config.guess' is updated
autoreconf: Leaving directory '.'

Running /home/root/git/libxfce4util/configure --enable-maintainer-mode ...
./configure: line 2718: syntax error near unexpected token `('
./configure: line 2718: `LIBXFCE4UTIL_VERSION=xdt_version()'

My $PATH: /opt/xilinx/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/sbin:/sbin

Current git commit I'm on (Master@65b2177f5d4630fc00711e2ed2767b76fe67d2b9)

So, from here, I'm going to try and do as you suggested and I'll post again if that fixes it or if I get another issue.

The suggestion of yours that I followed was doing #62 (comment 70812):

You can also set ACLOCAL_PATH (export ACLOCAL_PATH="$PREFIX/share/aclocal"), which is the relevant env var in this case, and not XDG_DATA_DIRS as I said above. See !87 (merged) for a fix.

So, this is what I did exactly:

root@plimp0:~/git/libxfce4util# export ACLOCAL_PATH="/usr/local/share/aclocal"

Then I got the following output:

root@plimp0:~/git/libxfce4util# ./autogen.sh
Preparing package directory /home/root/git/libxfce4util...
Running gtkdocize --copy...
Running autoreconf...
autoreconf: export WARNINGS=
autoreconf: Entering directory '.'
autoreconf: running: autopoint --force
autoreconf: running: aclocal --force -I m4 ${ACLOCAL_FLAGS}
autoreconf: configure.ac: tracing
autoreconf: running: libtoolize --copy --force
libtoolize: putting auxiliary files in '.'.
libtoolize: copying file './ltmain.sh'
libtoolize: putting macros in AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIRS, 'm4'.
libtoolize: copying file 'm4/libtool.m4'
libtoolize: copying file 'm4/ltoptions.m4'
libtoolize: copying file 'm4/ltsugar.m4'
libtoolize: copying file 'm4/ltversion.m4'
libtoolize: copying file 'm4/lt~obsolete.m4'
autoreconf: configure.ac: not using Intltool
autoreconf: running: gtkdocize --copy
autoreconf: running: aclocal --force -I m4 ${ACLOCAL_FLAGS}
autoreconf: running: /usr/bin/autoconf --force
autoreconf: running: /usr/bin/autoheader --force
autoreconf: running: automake --add-missing --copy --force-missing
configure.ac:70: installing './compile'
configure.ac:39: installing './missing'
libxfce4util/Makefile.am: installing './depcomp'
autoreconf: './config.sub' is updated
autoreconf: './config.guess' is updated
autoreconf: Leaving directory '.'

Running /home/root/git/libxfce4util/configure --enable-maintainer-mode ...
checking for a BSD-compatible install... /usr/bin/install -c
checking whether build environment is sane... yes
checking for a race-free mkdir -p... /bin/mkdir -p
checking for gawk... gawk
checking whether make sets $(MAKE)... yes
checking whether make supports nested variables... yes
checking whether UID '0' is supported by ustar format... yes
checking whether GID '0' is supported by ustar format... yes
checking how to create a ustar tar archive... none
checking whether to enable maintainer-specific portions of Makefiles... yes
checking whether make supports nested variables... (cached) yes
checking whether make supports the include directive... yes (GNU style)
checking for gcc... gcc
checking whether the C compiler works... yes
checking for C compiler default output file name... a.out
checking for suffix of executables...
checking whether we are cross compiling... no
checking for suffix of object files... o
checking whether the compiler supports GNU C... yes
checking whether gcc accepts -g... yes
checking for gcc option to enable C11 features... none needed
checking whether gcc understands -c and -o together... yes
checking dependency style of gcc... gcc3
checking for stdio.h... yes
checking for stdlib.h... yes
checking for string.h... yes
checking for inttypes.h... yes
checking for stdint.h... yes
checking for strings.h... yes
checking for sys/stat.h... yes
checking for sys/types.h... yes
checking for unistd.h... yes
checking for wchar.h... yes
checking for minix/config.h... no
checking whether it is safe to define __EXTENSIONS__... yes
checking whether _XOPEN_SOURCE should be defined... no
checking for gcc... (cached) gcc
checking whether the compiler supports GNU C... (cached) yes
checking whether gcc accepts -g... (cached) yes
checking for gcc option to enable C11 features... (cached) none needed
checking whether gcc understands -c and -o together... (cached) yes
checking dependency style of gcc... (cached) gcc3
checking for perl5... no
checking for perl... perl
checking build system type... aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu
checking host system type... aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu
checking how to print strings... printf
checking for a sed that does not truncate output... /bin/sed
checking for grep that handles long lines and -e... /bin/grep
checking for egrep... /bin/grep -E
checking for fgrep... /bin/grep -F
checking for ld used by gcc... /usr/aarch64-xilinx-linux/bin/ld
checking if the linker (/usr/aarch64-xilinx-linux/bin/ld) is GNU ld... yes
checking for BSD- or MS-compatible name lister (nm)... /usr/bin/nm -B
checking the name lister (/usr/bin/nm -B) interface... BSD nm
checking whether ln -s works... yes
checking the maximum length of command line arguments... 1572864
checking how to convert aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu file names to aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu format... func_convert_file_noop
checking how to convert aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu file names to toolchain format... func_convert_file_noop
checking for /usr/aarch64-xilinx-linux/bin/ld option to reload object files... -r
checking for file... file
checking for objdump... objdump
checking how to recognize dependent libraries... pass_all
checking for dlltool... no
checking how to associate runtime and link libraries... printf %s\n
checking for ar... ar
checking for archiver @FILE support... @
checking for strip... strip
checking for ranlib... ranlib
checking command to parse /usr/bin/nm -B output from gcc object... ok
checking for sysroot... no
checking for a working dd... /bin/dd
checking how to truncate binary pipes... /bin/dd bs=4096 count=1
checking for mt... no
checking if : is a manifest tool... no
checking for dlfcn.h... yes
checking for objdir... .libs
checking if gcc supports -fno-rtti -fno-exceptions... no
checking for gcc option to produce PIC... -fPIC -DPIC
checking if gcc PIC flag -fPIC -DPIC works... yes
checking if gcc static flag -static works... no
checking if gcc supports -c -o file.o... yes
checking if gcc supports -c -o file.o... (cached) yes
checking whether the gcc linker (/usr/aarch64-xilinx-linux/bin/ld) supports shared libraries... yes
checking whether -lc should be explicitly linked in... no
checking dynamic linker characteristics... GNU/Linux ld.so
checking how to hardcode library paths into programs... immediate
checking whether stripping libraries is possible... yes
checking if libtool supports shared libraries... yes
checking whether to build shared libraries... yes
checking whether to build static libraries... no
checking for err.h... yes
checking for errno.h... yes
checking for grp.h... yes
checking for limits.h... yes
checking for locale.h... yes
checking for pwd.h... yes
checking for signal.h... yes
checking for sys/stat.h... (cached) yes
checking for sys/types.h... (cached) yes
checking for sys/utsname.h... yes
checking for time.h... yes
checking for unistd.h... (cached) yes
checking for stdarg.h... yes
checking for varargs.h... no
checking for libintl.h... yes
checking for gethostname... yes
checking for getpwnam... yes
checking for setlocale... yes
checking for strdup... yes
checking for bind_textdomain_codeset... yes
checking whether NLS is requested... yes
checking for msgfmt... /usr/bin/msgfmt
checking for gmsgfmt... /usr/bin/msgfmt
checking for xgettext... /usr/bin/xgettext
checking for msgmerge... /usr/bin/msgmerge
checking for ld used by gcc... /usr/aarch64-xilinx-linux/bin/ld
checking if the linker (/usr/aarch64-xilinx-linux/bin/ld) is GNU ld... yes
checking for shared library run path origin... done
checking how to run the C preprocessor... gcc -E
checking for CFPreferencesCopyAppValue... no
checking for CFLocaleCopyCurrent... no
checking for GNU gettext in libc... yes
checking whether to use NLS... yes
checking where the gettext function comes from... libc
checking for pkg-config... /usr/bin/pkg-config
checking pkg-config is at least version 0.9.0... yes
checking for gobject-2.0 >= 2.66.0... 2.72.3
checking GOBJECT_CFLAGS... -I/usr/include/glib-2.0 -I/usr/lib/glib-2.0/include
checking GOBJECT_LIBS... -lgobject-2.0 -lglib-2.0
checking for pkg-config... (cached) /usr/bin/pkg-config
checking pkg-config is at least version 0.9.0... yes
checking for glib-2.0 >= 2.66.0... 2.72.3
checking GLIB_CFLAGS... -I/usr/include/glib-2.0 -I/usr/lib/glib-2.0/include
checking GLIB_LIBS... -lglib-2.0
configure: setting GLIB_VERSION_MAX_ALLOWED and GLIB_VERSION_MIN_REQUIRED according to 2.66.0
checking for pkg-config... (cached) /usr/bin/pkg-config
checking pkg-config is at least version 0.9.0... yes
checking for gio-2.0 >= 2.66.0... 2.72.3
checking GIO_CFLAGS... -pthread -I/usr/include/libmount -I/usr/include/blkid -I/usr/include/glib-2.0 -I/usr/lib/glib-2.0/include
checking GIO_LIBS... -lgio-2.0 -lgobject-2.0 -lglib-2.0
checking for gtk-doc... yes
checking for gtkdoc-check... gtkdoc-check.test
checking for gtkdoc-check... /usr/bin/gtkdoc-check
checking for gtkdoc-rebase... /usr/bin/gtkdoc-rebase
checking for gtkdoc-mkpdf... /usr/bin/gtkdoc-mkpdf
checking whether to build gtk-doc documentation... no
checking for glib-2.0 >= 2.10.0 gobject-2.0  >= 2.10.0... yes
checking for gobject-introspection... yes
checking for pkg-config... (cached) /usr/bin/pkg-config
checking pkg-config is at least version 0.9.0... yes
checking for vapigen... no
checking whether to build with debugging support... yes
checking if gcc supports -Wall... yes
checking if gcc supports -Wextra... yes
checking if gcc supports -Wno-missing-field-initializers... yes
checking if gcc supports -Wno-unused-parameter... yes
checking if gcc supports -Wmissing-declarations... yes
checking if gcc supports -Wmissing-noreturn... yes
checking if gcc supports -Wpointer-arith... yes
checking if gcc supports -Wcast-align... yes
checking if gcc supports -Wformat... yes
checking if gcc supports -Wformat-security... yes
checking if gcc supports -Wformat-y2k... yes
checking if gcc supports -Winit-self... yes
checking if gcc supports -Wmissing-include-dirs... yes
checking if gcc supports -Wundef... yes
checking if gcc supports -Wredundant-decls... yes
checking if gcc supports -fstack-protector... yes
checking if gcc supports -g... yes
checking if gcc supports -Wshadow... yes
checking if gcc supports -Wnested-externs... yes
checking if gcc supports -Wold-style-definition... yes
checking if gcc supports -Wall... yes
checking if gcc supports -Wextra... yes
checking if gcc supports -Wno-missing-field-initializers... yes
checking if gcc supports -Wno-unused-parameter... yes
checking if gcc supports -Wmissing-declarations... yes
checking if gcc supports -Wmissing-noreturn... yes
checking if gcc supports -Wpointer-arith... yes
checking if gcc supports -Wcast-align... yes
checking if gcc supports -Wformat... yes
checking if gcc supports -Wformat-security... yes
checking if gcc supports -Wformat-y2k... yes
checking if gcc supports -Winit-self... yes
checking if gcc supports -Wmissing-include-dirs... yes
checking if gcc supports -Wundef... yes
checking if gcc supports -Wredundant-decls... yes
checking if gcc supports -fstack-protector... yes
checking if gcc supports -g... yes
checking if gcc supports -Wshadow... yes
checking whether /usr/aarch64-xilinx-linux/bin/ld accepts --as-needed... yes
checking whether /usr/aarch64-xilinx-linux/bin/ld accepts -O1... yes
checking whether gcc supports the GNUC visibility attribute... yes
configure: creating ./config.status
config.status: creating Makefile
config.status: creating docs/Makefile
config.status: creating docs/reference/Makefile
config.status: creating libxfce4util/libxfce4util-1.0.pc
config.status: creating libxfce4util/libxfce4util-config.h
config.status: creating libxfce4util/Makefile
config.status: creating po/Makefile.in
config.status: creating xfce4-kiosk-query/Makefile
config.status: creating config.h
config.status: executing depfiles commands
config.status: executing libtool commands
config.status: executing po-directories commands
config.status: creating po/POTFILES
config.status: creating po/Makefile

Build Configuration:

* Debug Support:  yes
* GNU Visibility: yes

Now type "make" to compile.

So, in summary, this is about autogen being unable to find the aclocal files for the compile. Perhaps adding that into the make directions could be the solution here? Either way, thanks!

closed with commit 8456563e

mentioned in issue xfdesktop#261 (closed)