[Coin-discuss] Help with COIN configuration...

[Andreas Waechter]

Hi Bill,

>> I'm going to leave the "official reply" to the experts, but I
>> do know that the autotools are very sensitive to the
>> particular version you are using. Mixing and matching does
>> not work well. To get the exact version we are all using, see
>> the instructions here:
>>
>> https://projects.coin-or.org/BuildTools/wiki/pm-get-autotools
>>
>> I tried running "autoreconf --install" myself and didn't get
>> the same errors, but I am using the approved version.
>
> I'm using autoconf 2.59, which is the prereq in coin's configure.ac.  I
> don't see documentation to indicate what the 'blessed' versions are for
> other tools.

see

https://projects.coin-or.org/BuildTools/wiki/pm-get-autotools

please note that we ask people that recommit code to the COIN repository 
to get the GNU basic version of the autotools (from the source code), 
since packaged distributions often have minor modifications.

>> By the
>> way, what is the reason for running autoreconf? I can't
>> really figure out what it is for by reading the man page. I
>> tried running it, but still couldn't get much intuition. I'm
>> pretty new to the autotools.
>
>> From the 'autoreconf' info file: `autoreconf' runs `autoconf',
> `autoheader', `aclocal', `automake',
> `libtoolize', and `autopoint' (when appropriate) repeatedly to update
> the GNU Build System in the specified directories and their
> subdirectories (*note Subdirectories::).
>
> Basically, it simplifies the process of applying the components of the
> GNU Build System.

I guess this is what our run_autotools scripts does (which in addition 
checks that you are indeed using the correct versions ;)

Cheers

Andreas