Re: Autoconf, config.in and configure in fileutils 4.1

[Bob Proulx]

f l <address@hidden> [2002-09-06 19:35:03 -0400]:
> I modified the source (just a path) of fileutils 4.1 and now
> I want to compile.
> 
> So I execute:
> 
> aclocal -I m4
> autoconf
> autoheader
> automake -a -c
> 
> And when I want to execute ./configure I got this output:
> 
> $ ./configure
> ./configure: line 10: syntax error near unexpected token `;'
> ./configure: line 10: `' ECHO_T=' ' ;;'
> 
> I'm using automake 1.6.2 and autoconf 2.53

A lot of work just to rebuild the existing package.  And you will need
particular versions of the auto* tools in order to rebuild.  They must
match what is expected in the *.am files and the configure.ac file.  I
expect you don't have the right versions.  I am sure Jim will jump in
with the correct versions needed.  Fortunately for what you want you
don't need to rebuild the Makefiles or the configure script.

When making changes I suggest that you unpack a pristine copy of the
sources, then configure and make them normally to verify that you can
build before making any changes.

  tar xzvf fileutils-x.y.z.tar.gz
  cd fileutils-x.y.z
  ./configure
  make
  make check

Then since you know you can build and everything checks you can make
your changes to the source.

  edit sources
  make
  make check

Just because you changed the sources does not mean you have to rebuild
the configure script.  In many (most?) cases it is better not to try.

What paths are you trying to change?  Are you aware of the configure
--prefix option and others in that series?  For example?

  ./configure --prefix /opt/local

  ./configure --help

Bob