Re: new package build error: archiver requires 'AM_PROG_AR' in 'configure.ac'

[Ludovic Courtès]

Hi Hartmut,

Hartmut Goebel <address@hidden> skribis:

> I try to build the asn1c package, see below. But this fails with the
> following error message.
>
> /gnu/store/…-automake-1.15/share/automake-1.15/am/ltlibrary.am:
> warning: 'libasn1compiler.la': linking libtool libraries using a non-POSIX
> archiver requires 'AM_PROG_AR' in 'configure.ac'
>
> Is this a common issue?
>
> (define-public asn1c
>   (package
>     (name "asn1c")
>     (version "0.9.27")
>     (source (origin
>       (method url-fetch)
>       (uri (string-append "https://lionet.info/soft/asn1c-"; version
> ".tar.gz"))
>       (sha256 (base32
> "17nvn2kzvlryasr9dzqg6gs27b9lvqpval0k31pb64bjqbhn8pq2"))))

The beauty of autotools is that users do not need to install them:
tarballs contain everything one needs to configure, build, and install
the thing.

That is indeed the case here:

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
$ wget -q -O - https://lionet.info/soft/asn1c-0.9.27.tar.gz |tar tzvf -|grep -E 
'/(configure|Makefile\.in)$'
-rw-r--r-- vlm/staff     25216 2015-02-13 11:37 asn1c-0.9.27/Makefile.in
-rwxr-xr-x vlm/staff    461298 2015-02-13 11:37 asn1c-0.9.27/configure
-rw-r--r-- vlm/staff     88715 2015-02-13 11:37 
asn1c-0.9.27/skeletons/Makefile.in
-rw-r--r-- vlm/staff     22608 2015-02-13 11:37 
asn1c-0.9.27/skeletons/tests/Makefile.in
-rw-r--r-- vlm/staff     14801 2015-02-13 11:37 
asn1c-0.9.27/libasn1print/Makefile.in
-rw-r--r-- vlm/staff     16298 2015-02-13 11:37 
asn1c-0.9.27/libasn1parser/Makefile.in
-rw-r--r-- vlm/staff     23109 2015-02-13 11:37 
asn1c-0.9.27/libasn1fix/Makefile.in
-rw-r--r-- vlm/staff     15866 2015-02-13 11:37 
asn1c-0.9.27/libasn1compiler/Makefile.in
-rw-r--r-- vlm/staff     14085 2015-02-13 11:37 
asn1c-0.9.27/examples/Makefile.in
-rw-r--r-- vlm/staff     19073 2015-02-13 11:37 asn1c-0.9.27/doc/Makefile.in
-rw-r--r-- vlm/staff     10138 2015-02-13 11:37 
asn1c-0.9.27/doc/docsrc/Makefile.in
-rw-r--r-- vlm/staff     29360 2015-02-13 11:37 asn1c-0.9.27/asn1c/Makefile.in
-rw-r--r-- vlm/staff     13211 2015-02-13 11:37 
asn1c-0.9.27/asn1c/tests/Makefile.in
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

The above shows that the Autoconf- and Automake-generated files are
indeed present in the tarball, so you don’t need to use the autotools at
all.

HTH!

Ludo’.