installation issue on LinuxMint LMDE 2 Betsy

[eriksank]

$ ./autogen.sh

autoreconf: Entering directory `.'
autoreconf: configure.ac: not using Gettext
autoreconf: running: aclocal --force -I m4
autoreconf: configure.ac: tracing
autoreconf: running: libtoolize --copy --force
libtoolize: putting auxiliary files in AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR, `build-aux'.
libtoolize: copying file `build-aux/ltmain.sh'
libtoolize: putting macros in AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIR, `m4'.
libtoolize: copying file `m4/libtool.m4'
libtoolize: copying file `m4/ltoptions.m4'
libtoolize: copying file `m4/ltsugar.m4'
libtoolize: copying file `m4/ltversion.m4'
libtoolize: copying file `m4/lt~obsolete.m4'
autoreconf: running: /usr/bin/autoconf --force
configure.ac:15: error: possibly undefined macro: LT_SYS_DLSEARCH_PATH
      If this token and others are legitimate, please use m4_pattern_allow.
      See the Autoconf documentation.
configure.ac:16: error: possibly undefined macro: LT_SYS_MODULE_EXT
autoreconf: /usr/bin/autoconf failed with exit status: 1

bash and libffi-dev are installed.

Any idea, why this occurs?

[taviso]

Hmm, LT_SYS_DLSEARCH_PATH should be available because of the minimum version check.

What version of libtool is this?

[eriksank]

$ libtool --version
libtool (GNU libtool) 2.4.2
Written by Gordon Matzigkeit <gord@gnu.ai.mit.edu>, 1996

[taviso]

I really have no idea, I downloaded 2.4.2 and that is defined:

$ grep 'AC_DEFUN.*LT_SYS_DLSEARCH_PATH' libtool-2.4.2/libltdl/m4/ltdl.m4
AC_DEFUN([LT_SYS_DLSEARCH_PATH],

Can you check if your ltdl.m4 looks sane? It's in /usr/share/aclocal/ on my system.

[eriksank]

Well, there seems to be no package on my system that installs ltdl.m4:

$ dpkg-query --search  ltdl.m4
dpkg-query: no path found matching pattern *ltdl.m4*

Packages installing in /usr/share/aclocal:

$ dpkg-query --search '/usr/share/aclocal/*' | \
       awk '{ print $1; }' | sort | uniq | rev | cut -c 2- | rev
autoconf-archive
gettext
gnome-common
gthumb-data
intltool
libexpat1-dev:amd64
libfreetype6-dev
libgconf2-dev
libglib2.0-dev
libgstreamer0.10-dev
libgtk2.0-dev
libgtk-3-dev:amd64
libtool
libwayland-dev
libxml2-dev:amd64
pkg-config
shtool
xfonts-utils
xtrans-dev

The file is missing. It does not get installed by the libtool package:

$ dpkg --status libtool | grep Version
Version: 2.4.2-1.11
$ dpkg --listfiles libtool
/.
/usr
/usr/bin
/usr/bin/libtoolize
/usr/share
/usr/share/aclocal
/usr/share/aclocal/argz.m4
/usr/share/aclocal/ltversion.m4
/usr/share/aclocal/lt~obsolete.m4
/usr/share/aclocal/libtool.m4
/usr/share/aclocal/ltoptions.m4
/usr/share/aclocal/ltsugar.m4
/usr/share/libtool
/usr/share/libtool/config
/usr/share/libtool/config/install-sh
/usr/share/libtool/config/compile
/usr/share/libtool/config/ltmain.sh
/usr/share/libtool/config/depcomp
/usr/share/libtool/config/missing
/usr/share/doc
/usr/share/doc/libtool
/usr/share/doc/libtool/README.gz
/usr/share/doc/libtool/copyright
/usr/share/doc/libtool/NEWS.gz
/usr/share/doc/libtool/TODO.gz
/usr/share/doc/libtool/README.Debian
/usr/share/doc/libtool/AUTHORS
/usr/share/doc/libtool/changelog.Debian.gz
/usr/share/doc/libtool/THANKS.gz
/usr/share/doc/libtool/changelog.gz
/usr/share/man
/usr/share/man/man1
/usr/share/man/man1/libtoolize.1.gz
/usr/share/libtool/config/config.guess
/usr/share/libtool/config/config.sub

It does not get installed by libtool-bin either (Why two packages?):

$ dpkg --status libtool-bin | grep Version
Version: 2.4.2-1.11
$ dpkg --listfiles libtool-bin
/.
/usr
/usr/bin
/usr/bin/libtool
/usr/share
/usr/share/doc
/usr/share/doc/libtool-bin
/usr/share/doc/libtool-bin/copyright
/usr/share/doc/libtool-bin/changelog.Debian.gz
/usr/share/doc/libtool-bin/changelog.gz
/usr/share/man
/usr/share/man/man1
/usr/share/man/man1/libtool.1.gz

So, it is clear that the package manager refuses to install this file. Therefore, I just ransacked the file from https://raw.githubusercontent.com/frida/libtool/master/m4/ltdl.m4 and dumped it in /usr/share/aclocal, after which everything compiled and installed fine:

$ ls  -lh /usr/local/lib/ctypes.*
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root staff 922 May  2 23:17 /usr/local/lib/ctypes.la
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root staff 72K May  2 23:17 /usr/local/lib/ctypes.so

Thanks for the help! I think that the installation should be ok now.

[taviso]

That is very strange! That is definitely a bug with your distribution's libtool package, hopefully the maintainer will fix it if you file a bug with them.

[oliwer]

In case someone gets a similar issue, you are supposed to install the libltdl-devpackage on Debian/Ubuntu to get ltdl.m4.