Re: [Info-mtools] Undefined libiconv symbols

[Pali Rohár]

On Thursday 26 November 2020 23:35:40 Alain Knaff wrote:
> 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...

Hello!

Now I see where is the problem. AM_ICONV macro needs automake, but
mtools does not use automake. It uses only autoconf. So AM_ICONV cannot
be used in mtools project in current form :-(

> 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

-- 
Pali Rohár
pali.rohar@gmail.com