Why am I getting this aclocal error?

Question

I'm trying to compile libbsd from source on Ubuntu 13.04. I'm using a toolchain to cross-compile, but automake is on the local machine. I have aclocal-1.13 in the PATH and everything, but I'm still getting this error. I've tried looking them up but can't get any lead. What's going on here?

<...>
config.status: executing libtool commands
CDPATH="${ZSH_VERSION+.}:" && cd .. && /bin/bash /home/me/libbsd/build-aux/missing aclocal-1.13 -I m4
error: cannot get project version.
configure.ac:9: error: AC_INIT should be called with package and version arguments
/usr/share/aclocal-1.13/init.m4:23: AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE is expanded from...
configure.ac:9: the top level
autom4te: /usr/bin/m4 failed with exit status: 1
aclocal-1.13: error: echo failed with exit status: 1
make: *** [../aclocal.m4] Error 1

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

The error here is configure.ac:9: error: AC_INIT should be called with package and version arguments. You are getting this error because on line 9 of your configure.ac you are not passing package and version arguments to AC_INIT.

The exact information can be found here: https://www.gnu.org/software/automake/manual/automake.html#Public-Macros

Namely,

If your configure.ac has:

AC_INIT([src/foo.c])
AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE([mumble], [1.5])

You should correct it as follows:

AC_INIT([mumble], [1.5])
AC_CONFIG_SRCDIR([src/foo.c])
AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE

Although the other notes around it are important too imho.