Re: Confused by all the m4

[dhawkins Mines EDU (Dale K. Hawkins)]

Simon Britnell <ughbash@yahoo.com> writes:

> When I autogen.sh gnome-utils ( after a cvs -z9 update gnome-utils ),
> it complains that AM_PROG_LEX is unknown.  I did a grep 'AM_PROG_LEX'
> `find / -name "*.m4"` and found a DE_FUN of it in
> /usr/lib/share/acspecific.m4 ( or some minor variation there-of ). 
> Can anybody point me to what stupid thing I have done to stop this
> file being read?
> 
> Thanks in advance.
> 
> I've so-far had two trouble-shooting Q's answered here.  Is there a
> troubleshooting FAQ for those trying to compile this stuff.  If I
> write one, where should I add it ( gnome/doc/faq.trouble? ).
> 
> So far, I know the solution for:
> 
> 1) Can't find gnome-libs.po
> 2) ** Bad Match **
> 3) can't find AM_GTK ...
> 3) AM_PROG_LEX ( when some-one tells me ).


Validation!  I see that I am not the only one who wants this.  I
believe that I posted similar requests earlier, but the response was
not overwhelming.  I would like this to be a CVS distributed item,
just like the other apps.  (Of course, the real solution would still
be to use gnats or something similar).  Anyway, you are free to
contribute to the FAQ that I have already started.  (I have written it 
using the linux-doc DTD, because docbook was difficult to find at the
time).

http://www.dimensional.com/~dhawkins/GNOME/

-Dale

P.S.  I have nailed down the first three of your items already (and
many more besides).  I have not yet seen the LEX problem.
Let's play twenty questions:

1.  Do you have multiple directories with .m4 files?  (i.e.,
    /usr/... and /usr/local/...)  This seems to be a common failure
    mode for the autoX tools.

2.  Of course, you could just define it in Makefile.am (I think).
    Admittedly, this is the temp fix.

I did some hunting around and found the AM_PROG_LEX macro defined in 
/usr/share/autoconf/acspecific.m4.  Are all of your autoconf files in 
/usr/lib/share/XXXX?  (Notice that my path had no "lib" in the
directory.) 

Sorry, I could not give you a definitive answer, but I hope this
helps.  And please do check out the compile-FAQ.