docker unable to compile program (possibly undefied macro AC_MSG_ERROR)

Question

I'm trying to compile the following program inside of a docker container.

https://github.com/adaptivecomputing/torque

When attempting to run autoconf I am given an error "possibly undefined macro: AC_MSG_ERROR"

Google has dozens of results for this exact error. Most of them are solved by installing pkg-config or libtool-ltdl

As you can see from my docker file, both of those packages are installed.

FROM centos

RUN yum install -y autoconf make autogen gcc gcc-c++ openssl-devel git libxml2-devel libtool libtool-ltdl
RUN git clone git://github.com/adaptivecomputing/torque.git -b 4.2.6.1 /tmp/pbs_server
RUN cd /tmp/pbs_server
RUN autoconf
RUN ./configure --with-debug
RUN make -j4
RUN make install

Here is the error that I get when running docker build .

Step 4 : RUN autoconf  
configure.ac:50: error: possibly undefined macro: AC_MSG_ERROR  
      If this token and others are legitimate, please use m4_pattern_allow.  
      See the Autoconf documentation.  
configure.ac:54: error: possibly undefined macro: AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE  
configure.ac:57: error: possibly undefined macro: AM_PROG_CC_C_O  
configure.ac:63: error: possibly undefined macro: AM_MAINTAINER_MODE  
configure.ac:82: error: possibly undefined macro: AM_CONFIG_HEADER  
configure.ac:144: error: possibly undefined macro: AM_CONDITIONAL  
configure.ac:644: error: possibly undefined macro: AC_PROG_LIBTOOL  
configure.ac:651: error: possibly undefined macro: AM_PROG_LEX  
configure.ac:2053: error: possibly undefined macro: AC_DECL_H_ERRNO  
configure.ac:2056: error: possibly undefined macro: AC_DECL_FD_SET_SYS_SELECT_H  
configure.ac:2138: error: possibly undefined macro: AC_C_BIGENDIAN_CROSS  
configure.ac:2204: error: possibly undefined macro: AC_CREATE_GENERIC_CONFIG

I have no problems compiling this program outside of docker and inside a normal server. I suspect there is a library or something that is missing.

Can anyone explain why I am getting this error, or better yet, how to work around it?

ldav1s ldav1s · Accepted Answer · 2014-02-06T20:34:21

As @BrettHale said, you'll need to install automake (I don't see in in the yum install line), as torque definitely uses it. And this:

RUN autoconf

probably should be:

RUN ./autogen.sh

It'll invoke autoconf, as well as other stuff. I still don't see why what you did seemed to die immediately. AC_MSG_ERROR, etc. are part of the base macros of autoconf. Almost like those macros are unreadable within docker...

docker unable to compile program (possibly undefied macro AC_MSG_ERROR)

2 Answers