Cross-compile a gnulib based project to MinGW

Question

I am trying to cross-compile this project to MinGW.

The project uses autotools as the build system, and depends on libcurl, CUnit, Jansson and some gnulib modules.

I have all the dependancies compiled for x86_64-w64-mingw32 and installed under /home/user/mingw64

I run:

$ gnulib-tool --update
$ autoreconf -fi
$ CURL_CFLAGS="-I/home/user/mingw64/usr/local/include" \
CURL_LIBS="-L/home/user/mingw64/usr/local/lib -lcurl" \
JANSSON_CFLAGS="-I/home/user/mingw64/usr/local/include" \
JANSSON_LIBS="-L/home/user/mingw64/usr/local/lib -ljansson" \
CUNIT_CFLAGS="-I/home/user/mingw64/usr/local/include" \
CUNIT_LIBS="-L/home/user/mingw64/usr/local/lib -lcunit" \
./configure --host=x86_64-w64-mingw32
$ make

And I get this error:

make  all-recursive
make[1]: Entering directory '/home/user/projects/shill'
Making all in po
make[2]: Entering directory '/home/user/projects/shill/po'
make[2]: Nothing to be done for 'all'.
make[2]: Leaving directory '/home/user/projects/shill/po'
Making all in lib
make[2]: Entering directory '/home/user/projects/shill/lib'
make[2]: *** No rule to make target 'lib/errno.h', needed by 'all'.  Stop.
make[2]: Leaving directory '/home/user/projects/shill/lib'
Makefile:1897: recipe for target 'all-recursive' failed
make[1]: *** [all-recursive] Error 1
make[1]: Leaving directory '/home/user/projects/shill'
Makefile:1429: recipe for target 'all' failed
make: *** [all] Error 2

errno.h is part of the gnulib modules. So I think that the problem comes from this section in the Makefile.am:

# Find gnulib headers.
ACLOCAL_AMFLAGS = -I m4

AM_CPPFLAGS = \
  -DLOCALEDIR='"$(localedir)"' \
  -Ilib -I$(top_srcdir)/lib \
  -Isrc -I$(top_srcdir)/src \

But I can't figure out the solution. I followed exactly the instructions described in the gnulib manual.

Answer 1

I managed to find a workaround for this issue. Apparently autotools aren't as easy as I thought they are.

1. I had to regenerate gnulib modules, this time specifying the --makefile-name parameter. ie.

   $ gnulib-tool ... --makefile-name=gnulib.mk ...
   

2. I removed lib/Makefile from automake generated files in configure.ac. So instead of:

   dnl Put automake generated files results here
   AC_CONFIG_FILES([Makefile
          po/Makefile.in
          lib/Makefile])
   

   Now I have:

   dnl Put automake generated files results here
   AC_CONFIG_FILES([Makefile
              po/Makefile.in])
   

3. I removed lib form SUBDIRS in Makefile.am. ie. Instead of:

   # Subdirectories to descend into.
   SUBDIRS = po lib
   

   I have:

   # Subdirectories to descend into.
   SUBDIRS = po
   

4. I created a new file in lib directory called local.mk with this content:

   include lib/gnulib.mk
   
   # Allow "make distdir" to succeed before "make all" has run.
   dist-hook: $(noinst_LIBRARIES)
   .PHONY: dist-hook
   

5. And included it in Makefile.am.

   include $(top_srcdir)/lib/local.mk
   

6. Finally I had to run this command:

   $ ./build-aux/prefix-gnulib-mk --lib-name=libshill lib/gnulib.mk
   

That was it.