Building autoconf

Is anyone here?  I am trying to build a package (xlsxio) that requires
autoconf, but I have not been able to get autoconf to work at all.

 

Platform is Windows 10, using mingw-64 to compile both C and C++ sourcecode.
I have used both MSYS and MSYS2 to configure/build autoconf, but the
invariable fails. 

 

In case it's useful, here is a typical transcript that shows the error - any
suggestions where to look?

 

*******************Owner@DESKTOP-LD2PLB3 ~/src/autoconf-2.69

$ ./configure

checking for a BSD-compatible install... /bin/install -c

checking whether build environment is sane... yes

checking for a thread-safe mkdir -p... /bin/mkdir -p

checking for gawk... gawk

checking whether make sets $(MAKE)... yes

checking build system type... i686-pc-mingw32

checking host system type... i686-pc-mingw32

configure: autobuild project... GNU Autoconf

configure: autobuild revision... 2.69

configure: autobuild hostname... DESKTOP-LD2PLB3

configure: autobuild timestamp... 20190316T060229Z

checking whether /bin/sh -n is known to work... yes

checking for characters that cannot appear in file names... \\"<>*?|

checking whether directories can have trailing spaces... no

checking for expr... /bin/expr

checking for GNU M4 that supports accurate traces... /usr/local/bin/m4

checking whether /usr/local/bin/m4 accepts --gnu... yes

checking how m4 supports trace files... --debugfile

checking for perl... /c/perl64/bin/perl

checking whether /c/perl64/bin/perl Fcntl::flock is implemented... yes

checking for emacs... no

checking for xemacs... no

checking for emacs... no

checking where .elc files should go... ${datadir}/emacs/site-lisp

checking for grep that handles long lines and -e... /bin/grep

checking for egrep... /bin/grep -E

checking for a sed that does not truncate output... /bin/sed

checking whether make is case sensitive... yes

configure: creating ./config.status

config.status: creating tests/Makefile

config.status: creating tests/atlocal

config.status: creating man/Makefile

config.status: creating lib/emacs/Makefile

config.status: creating Makefile

config.status: creating doc/Makefile

config.status: creating lib/Makefile

config.status: creating lib/Autom4te/Makefile

config.status: creating lib/autoscan/Makefile

config.status: creating lib/m4sugar/Makefile

config.status: creating lib/autoconf/Makefile

config.status: creating lib/autotest/Makefile

config.status: creating bin/Makefile

config.status: executing tests/atconfig commands

 

Owner@DESKTOP-LD2PLB3 ~/src/autoconf-2.69

$ make

make  all-recursive

make[1]: Entering directory
`/c/Users/Owner/Documents/Mike/src/autoconf-2.69'

Making all in bin

make[2]: Entering directory
`/c/Users/Owner/Documents/Mike/src/autoconf-2.69/bin'

rm -f autom4te autom4te.tmp

srcdir=''; \

          test -f ./autom4te.in || srcdir=./; \

          sed -e 's|@SHELL[@]|/bin/sh|g' -e
's|@PERL[@]|/c/perl64/bin/perl|g' -e 's|@PERL_FLOCK[@]|yes|g' -e
's|@bindir[@]|/usr/local/bin|g' -e
's|@pkgdatadir[@]|/usr/local/share/autoconf|g' -e
's|@prefix[@]|/usr/local|g' -e 's|@autoconf-name[@]|'`echo autoconf | sed
's,x,x,'`'|g' -e 's|@autoheader-name[@]|'`echo autoheader | sed
's,x,x,'`'|g' -e 's|@autom4te-name[@]|'`echo autom4te | sed 's,x,x,'`'|g' -e
's|@M4[@]|/usr/local/bin/m4|g' -e 's|@M4_DEBUGFILE[@]|--debugfile|g' -e
's|@M4_GNU[@]|--gnu|g' -e 's|@AWK[@]|gawk|g' -e 's|@RELEASE_YEAR[@]|'`sed
's/^\([0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9]\).*/\1/;q' ../ChangeLog`'|g' -e
's|@VERSION[@]|2.69|g' -e 's|@PACKAGE_NAME[@]|GNU Autoconf|g' -e
's|@configure_input[@]|Generated from autom4te.in; do not edit by hand.|g'
${srcdir}autom4te.in >autom4te.tmp

chmod +x autom4te.tmp

chmod a-w autom4te.tmp

mv autom4te.tmp autom4te

autom4te_perllibdir='..'/lib AUTOM4TE_CFG='../lib/autom4te.cfg'
../bin/autom4te -B '..'/lib -B '..'/lib         --language M4sh --cache ''
--melt ./autoconf.as -o autoconf.in

The system cannot find the path specified.

autom4te: need GNU m4 1.4 or later: /usr/local/bin/m4

make[2]: *** [autoconf.in] Error 1

make[2]: Leaving directory
`/c/Users/Owner/Documents/Mike/src/autoconf-2.69/bin'

make[1]: *** [all-recursive] Error 1

make[1]: Leaving directory `/c/Users/Owner/Documents/Mike/src/autoconf-2.69'

make: *** [all] Error 2

 

Owner@DESKTOP-LD2PLB3 ~/src/autoconf-2.69

$ where m4

C:\Users\Owner\LocalPrograms\msys\1.0\local\bin\m4.exe

C:\Users\Owner\LocalPrograms\msys\1.0\bin\m4.exe

 

Owner@DESKTOP-LD2PLB3 ~/src/autoconf-2.69

$ m4 --version

m4 (GNU M4) 1.4.18

Copyright (C) 2016 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later
<http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.

This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.

There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

 

Written by Rene' Seindal.