Difficulty installing flex-2.5.33.tar.gz on Linux (Debian); 'make' fails

Question

I'm trying to install 'flex'. I don't have a previous version of flex installed. I'm running a stripped down version of Linux, so I don't have apt-get or yum. To install I untarred the flex package (flex-2.5.33.tar.gz) and ran ./configure (which works). However, then I ran make and it failed. I've attached the output of ./configure and make if that helps. What should I do?

-Nick

• CONFIGURE

meshLium-AX:/mnt/sda/flex-2.5.33# ./configure
checking for a BSD-compatible install... /usr/bin/install -c
checking whether build environment is sane... yes
checking for gawk... no
checking for mawk... mawk
checking whether make sets $(MAKE)... yes
checking whether NLS is requested... yes
checking for msgfmt... no
checking for gmsgfmt... :
checking for xgettext... no
checking for msgmerge... no
checking for style of include used by make... GNU
checking for gcc... gcc
checking for C compiler default output... a.out
checking whether the C compiler works... yes
checking whether we are cross compiling... no
checking for suffix of executables...
checking for suffix of object files... o
checking whether we are using the GNU C compiler... yes
checking whether gcc accepts -g... yes
checking for gcc option to accept ANSI C... none needed
checking dependency style of gcc... gcc3
checking build system type... i586-pc-linux-gnu
checking host system type... i586-pc-linux-gnu
checking for ld used by GCC... /usr/bin/ld
checking if the linker (/usr/bin/ld) is GNU ld... yes
checking for shared library run path origin... done
checking whether NLS is requested... yes
checking for GNU gettext in libc... yes
checking whether to use NLS... yes
checking where the gettext function comes from... libc
checking for bison... no
checking for byacc... no
checking for flex... no
checking for lex... no
checking for yywrap in -lfl... no
checking for yywrap in -ll... no
checking for gcc... (cached) gcc
checking whether we are using the GNU C compiler... (cached) yes
checking whether gcc accepts -g... (cached) yes
checking for gcc option to accept ANSI C... (cached) none needed
checking dependency style of gcc... (cached) gcc3
checking for g++... no
checking for c++... no
checking for gpp... no
checking for aCC... no
checking for CC... no
checking for cxx... no
checking for cc++... no
checking for cl... no
checking for FCC... no
checking for KCC... no
checking for RCC... no
checking for xlC_r... no
checking for xlC... no
checking whether we are using the GNU C++ compiler... no
checking whether g++ accepts -g... no
checking dependency style of g++... none
checking whether ln -s works... no, using cp -p
checking for ranlib... ranlib
checking for bison... bison
checking for help2man... help2man
checking for gm4... no
checking for gnum4... no
checking for m4... /usr/local/bin/m4
checking for GNU m4... yes
checking for indent... indent
configure: WARNING: no indent program found: make indent target will not function
checking for log in -lm... yes
checking how to run the C preprocessor... gcc -E
checking for egrep... grep -E
checking for ANSI C header files... yes
checking for sys/types.h... yes
checking for sys/stat.h... yes
checking for stdlib.h... yes
checking for string.h... yes
checking for memory.h... yes
checking for strings.h... yes
checking for inttypes.h... yes
checking for stdint.h... yes
checking for unistd.h... yes
checking for unistd.h... (cached) yes
checking stdbool.h usability... yes
checking stdbool.h presence... yes
checking for stdbool.h... yes
checking netinet/in.h usability... yes
checking netinet/in.h presence... yes
checking for netinet/in.h... yes
checking limits.h usability... yes
checking limits.h presence... yes
checking for limits.h... yes
checking sys/wait.h usability... yes
checking sys/wait.h presence... yes
checking for sys/wait.h... yes
checking sys/params.h usability... no
checking sys/params.h presence... no
checking for sys/params.h... no
checking cunistd usability... no
checking cunistd presence... no
checking for cunistd... no
checking locale.h usability... yes
checking locale.h presence... yes
checking for locale.h... yes
checking libintl.h usability... yes
checking libintl.h presence... yes
checking for libintl.h... yes
checking regex.h usability... yes
checking regex.h presence... yes
checking for regex.h... yes
checking for size_t... yes
checking whether __func__ is declared... yes
configure: creating ./config.status
config.status: creating flex.spec
config.status: creating Makefile
config.status: creating doc/Makefile
config.status: creating examples/Makefile
config.status: creating examples/fastwc/Makefile
config.status: creating examples/manual/Makefile
config.status: creating m4/Makefile
config.status: creating po/Makefile.in
config.status: creating tools/Makefile
config.status: creating tests/Makefile
config.status: creating tests/TEMPLATE/Makefile
config.status: creating tests/test-array-nr/Makefile
config.status: creating tests/test-array-r/Makefile
config.status: creating tests/test-basic-nr/Makefile
config.status: creating tests/test-basic-r/Makefile
config.status: creating tests/test-bison-yylloc/Makefile
config.status: creating tests/test-bison-yylval/Makefile
config.status: creating tests/test-c-cpp-nr/Makefile
config.status: creating tests/test-c-cpp-r/Makefile
config.status: creating tests/test-header-nr/Makefile
config.status: creating tests/test-header-r/Makefile
config.status: creating tests/test-include-by-buffer/Makefile
config.status: creating tests/test-include-by-push/Makefile
config.status: creating tests/test-include-by-reentrant/Makefile
config.status: creating tests/test-multiple-scanners-nr/Makefile
config.status: creating tests/test-multiple-scanners-r/Makefile
config.status: creating tests/test-noansi-nr/Makefile
config.status: creating tests/test-noansi-r/Makefile
config.status: creating tests/test-prefix-nr/Makefile
config.status: creating tests/test-prefix-r/Makefile
config.status: creating tests/test-pthread/Makefile
config.status: creating tests/test-string-nr/Makefile
config.status: creating tests/test-string-r/Makefile
config.status: creating tests/test-yyextra/Makefile
config.status: creating tests/test-lineno-nr/Makefile
config.status: creating tests/test-lineno-r/Makefile
config.status: creating tests/test-linedir-r/Makefile
config.status: creating tests/test-debug-r/Makefile
config.status: creating tests/test-debug-nr/Makefile
config.status: creating tests/test-mem-nr/Makefile
config.status: creating tests/test-mem-r/Makefile
config.status: creating tests/test-posix/Makefile
config.status: creating tests/test-posixly-correct/Makefile
config.status: creating tests/test-table-opts/Makefile
config.status: creating tests/test-c++-basic/Makefile
config.status: creating tests/test-bison-nr/Makefile
config.status: creating tests/test-reject/Makefile
config.status: creating tests/test-c++-multiple-scanners/Makefile
config.status: creating tests/test-top/Makefile
config.status: creating tests/test-rescan-nr/Makefile
config.status: creating tests/test-rescan-r/Makefile
config.status: creating config.h
config.status: executing default-1 commands
config.status: creating po/POTFILES
config.status: creating po/Makefile
config.status: executing depfiles commands

• MAKE

meshLium-AX:/mnt/sda/flex-2.5.33# make
cd . && /bin/sh /mnt/sda/flex-2.5.33/missing --run aclocal-1.7 -I m4
/mnt/sda/flex-2.5.33/missing: line 46: aclocal-1.7: command not found
WARNING: `aclocal-1.7' is missing on your system.  You should only need it if
         you modified `acinclude.m4' or `configure.in'.  You might want
         to install the `Automake' and `Perl' packages.  Grab them from
         any GNU archive site.
cd . && \
      /bin/sh /mnt/sda/flex-2.5.33/missing --run automake-1.7 --gnits  Makefile
/mnt/sda/flex-2.5.33/missing: line 46: automake-1.7: command not found
WARNING: `automake-1.7' is missing on your system.  You should only need it if
         you modified `Makefile.am', `acinclude.m4' or `configure.in'.
         You might want to install the `Automake' and `Perl' packages.
         Grab them from any GNU archive site.
cd . && /bin/sh /mnt/sda/flex-2.5.33/missing --run autoconf
/bin/sh ./config.status --recheck
running /bin/sh ./configure   --no-create --no-recursion
checking for a BSD-compatible install... /usr/bin/install -c
checking whether build environment is sane... yes
checking for gawk... no
checking for mawk... mawk
checking whether make sets $(MAKE)... yes
checking whether NLS is requested... yes
checking for msgfmt... no
checking for gmsgfmt... :
checking for xgettext... no
checking for msgmerge... no
checking for style of include used by make... GNU
checking for gcc... gcc
checking for C compiler default output file name... a.out
checking whether the C compiler works... yes
checking whether we are cross compiling... no
checking for suffix of executables...
checking for suffix of object files... o
checking whether we are using the GNU C compiler... yes
checking whether gcc accepts -g... yes
checking for gcc option to accept ISO C89... none needed
checking dependency style of gcc... gcc3
checking build system type... i586-pc-linux-gnu
checking host system type... i586-pc-linux-gnu
checking for ld used by GCC... /usr/bin/ld
checking if the linker (/usr/bin/ld) is GNU ld... yes
checking for shared library run path origin... done
checking whether NLS is requested... yes
checking for GNU gettext in libc... yes
checking whether to use NLS... yes
checking where the gettext function comes from... libc
checking for bison... no
checking for byacc... no
checking for flex... no
checking for lex... no
checking for gcc... (cached) gcc
checking whether we are using the GNU C compiler... (cached) yes
checking whether gcc accepts -g... (cached) yes
checking for gcc option to accept ISO C89... (cached) none needed
checking dependency style of gcc... (cached) gcc3
checking for g++... no
checking for c++... no
checking for gpp... no
checking for aCC... no
checking for CC... no
checking for cxx... no
checking for cc++... no
checking for cl.exe... no
checking for FCC... no
checking for KCC... no
checking for RCC... no
checking for xlC_r... no
checking for xlC... no
checking whether we are using the GNU C++ compiler... no
checking whether g++ accepts -g... no
checking dependency style of g++... none
checking whether ln -s works... no, using cp -p
checking for ranlib... ranlib
checking for bison... bison
checking for help2man... help2man
checking for gm4... no
checking for gnum4... no
checking for m4... /usr/local/bin/m4
checking for GNU m4... yes
checking for indent... indent
configure: WARNING: no indent program found: make indent target will not function
checking for log in -lm... yes
checking how to run the C preprocessor... gcc -E
checking for grep that handles long lines and -e... /bin/grep
checking for egrep... /bin/grep -E
checking for ANSI C header files... yes
checking for sys/types.h... yes
checking for sys/stat.h... yes
checking for stdlib.h... yes
checking for string.h... yes
checking for memory.h... yes
checking for strings.h... yes
checking for inttypes.h... yes
checking for stdint.h... yes
checking for unistd.h... yes
checking for unistd.h... (cached) yes
checking stdbool.h usability... yes
checking stdbool.h presence... yes
checking for stdbool.h... yes
checking netinet/in.h usability... yes
checking netinet/in.h presence... yes
checking for netinet/in.h... yes
checking limits.h usability... yes
checking limits.h presence... yes
checking for limits.h... yes
checking sys/wait.h usability... yes
checking sys/wait.h presence... yes
checking for sys/wait.h... yes
checking sys/params.h usability... no
checking sys/params.h presence... no
checking for sys/params.h... no
checking cunistd usability... no
checking cunistd presence... no
checking for cunistd... no
checking locale.h usability... yes
checking locale.h presence... yes
checking for locale.h... yes
checking libintl.h usability... yes
checking libintl.h presence... yes
checking for libintl.h... yes
checking regex.h usability... yes
checking regex.h presence... yes
checking for regex.h... yes
checking for size_t... yes
checking whether __func__ is declared... yes
configure: creating ./config.status
cd . && /bin/sh ./config.status Makefile depfiles
config.status: creating Makefile
config.status: WARNING:  'Makefile.in' seems to ignore the --datarootdir setting
config.status: executing depfiles commands
cd . && /bin/sh /mnt/sda/flex-2.5.33/missing --run autoheader
perl: warning: Setting locale failed.
perl: warning: Please check that your locale settings:
    LANGUAGE = (unset),
    LC_ALL = (unset),
    LANG = "en_US.UTF-8"
    are supported and installed on your system.
perl: warning: Falling back to the standard locale ("C").
perl: warning: Setting locale failed.
perl: warning: Please check that your locale settings:
    LANGUAGE = (unset),
    LC_ALL = (unset),
    LANG = "en_US.UTF-8"
    are supported and installed on your system.
perl: warning: Falling back to the standard locale ("C").
touch ./conf.in
cd . && /bin/sh ./config.status config.h
config.status: creating config.h
make  all-recursive
make[1]: Entering directory `/mnt/sda/flex-2.5.33'
Making all in .
make[2]: Entering directory `/mnt/sda/flex-2.5.33'
if gcc -DHAVE_CONFIG_H -I. -I. -I.  -DLOCALEDIR=\"/usr/local/share/locale\" -I/usr/local/include -I./intl   -g -O2 -MT libmain.o -MD -MP -MF ".deps/libmain.Tpo" \
      -c -o libmain.o `test -f 'libmain.c' || echo './'`libmain.c; \
    then mv -f ".deps/libmain.Tpo" ".deps/libmain.Po"; \
    else rm -f ".deps/libmain.Tpo"; exit 1; \
    fi
if gcc -DHAVE_CONFIG_H -I. -I. -I.  -DLOCALEDIR=\"/usr/local/share/locale\" -I/usr/local/include -I./intl   -g -O2 -MT libyywrap.o -MD -MP -MF ".deps/libyywrap.Tpo" \
      -c -o libyywrap.o `test -f 'libyywrap.c' || echo './'`libyywrap.c; \
    then mv -f ".deps/libyywrap.Tpo" ".deps/libyywrap.Po"; \
    else rm -f ".deps/libyywrap.Tpo"; exit 1; \
    fi
rm -f libfl.a
ar cru libfl.a libmain.o libyywrap.o
ranlib libfl.a
if gcc -DHAVE_CONFIG_H -I. -I. -I.  -DLOCALEDIR=\"/usr/local/share/locale\" -I/usr/local/include -I./intl   -g -O2 -MT ccl.o -MD -MP -MF ".deps/ccl.Tpo" \
      -c -o ccl.o `test -f 'ccl.c' || echo './'`ccl.c; \
    then mv -f ".deps/ccl.Tpo" ".deps/ccl.Po"; \
    else rm -f ".deps/ccl.Tpo"; exit 1; \
    fi
if gcc -DHAVE_CONFIG_H -I. -I. -I.  -DLOCALEDIR=\"/usr/local/share/locale\" -I/usr/local/include -I./intl   -g -O2 -MT dfa.o -MD -MP -MF ".deps/dfa.Tpo" \
      -c -o dfa.o `test -f 'dfa.c' || echo './'`dfa.c; \
    then mv -f ".deps/dfa.Tpo" ".deps/dfa.Po"; \
    else rm -f ".deps/dfa.Tpo"; exit 1; \
    fi
if gcc -DHAVE_CONFIG_H -I. -I. -I.  -DLOCALEDIR=\"/usr/local/share/locale\" -I/usr/local/include -I./intl   -g -O2 -MT ecs.o -MD -MP -MF ".deps/ecs.Tpo" \
      -c -o ecs.o `test -f 'ecs.c' || echo './'`ecs.c; \
    then mv -f ".deps/ecs.Tpo" ".deps/ecs.Po"; \
    else rm -f ".deps/ecs.Tpo"; exit 1; \
    fi
if gcc -DHAVE_CONFIG_H -I. -I. -I.  -DLOCALEDIR=\"/usr/local/share/locale\" -I/usr/local/include -I./intl   -g -O2 -MT gen.o -MD -MP -MF ".deps/gen.Tpo" \
      -c -o gen.o `test -f 'gen.c' || echo './'`gen.c; \
    then mv -f ".deps/gen.Tpo" ".deps/gen.Po"; \
    else rm -f ".deps/gen.Tpo"; exit 1; \
    fi
if gcc -DHAVE_CONFIG_H -I. -I. -I.  -DLOCALEDIR=\"/usr/local/share/locale\" -I/usr/local/include -I./intl   -g -O2 -MT main.o -MD -MP -MF ".deps/main.Tpo" \
      -c -o main.o `test -f 'main.c' || echo './'`main.c; \
    then mv -f ".deps/main.Tpo" ".deps/main.Po"; \
    else rm -f ".deps/main.Tpo"; exit 1; \
    fi
if gcc -DHAVE_CONFIG_H -I. -I. -I.  -DLOCALEDIR=\"/usr/local/share/locale\" -I/usr/local/include -I./intl   -g -O2 -MT misc.o -MD -MP -MF ".deps/misc.Tpo" \
      -c -o misc.o `test -f 'misc.c' || echo './'`misc.c; \
    then mv -f ".deps/misc.Tpo" ".deps/misc.Po"; \
    else rm -f ".deps/misc.Tpo"; exit 1; \
    fi
if gcc -DHAVE_CONFIG_H -I. -I. -I.  -DLOCALEDIR=\"/usr/local/share/locale\" -I/usr/local/include -I./intl   -g -O2 -MT nfa.o -MD -MP -MF ".deps/nfa.Tpo" \
      -c -o nfa.o `test -f 'nfa.c' || echo './'`nfa.c; \
    then mv -f ".deps/nfa.Tpo" ".deps/nfa.Po"; \
    else rm -f ".deps/nfa.Tpo"; exit 1; \
    fi
if gcc -DHAVE_CONFIG_H -I. -I. -I.  -DLOCALEDIR=\"/usr/local/share/locale\" -I/usr/local/include -I./intl   -g -O2 -MT parse.o -MD -MP -MF ".deps/parse.Tpo" \
      -c -o parse.o `test -f 'parse.c' || echo './'`parse.c; \
    then mv -f ".deps/parse.Tpo" ".deps/parse.Po"; \
    else rm -f ".deps/parse.Tpo"; exit 1; \
    fi
/bin/sh /mnt/sda/flex-2.5.33/missing --run flex   `test -f scan.l || echo './'`scan.l
/mnt/sda/flex-2.5.33/missing: line 46: flex: command not found
WARNING: `flex' is missing on your system.  You should only need it if
         you modified a `.l' file.  You may need the `Flex' package
         in order for those modifications to take effect.  You can get
         `Flex' from any GNU archive site.
sed '/^#/ s|\.c|scan.c|' .c >scan.c
sed: can't read .c: No such file or directory
make[2]: *** [scan.c] Error 2
make[2]: Leaving directory `/mnt/sda/flex-2.5.33'
make[1]: *** [all-recursive] Error 1
make[1]: Leaving directory `/mnt/sda/flex-2.5.33'
make: *** [all] Error 2

Answer 1

File scan.c is part of the source-package, but if somehow gets deleted, it has to be rebuilt from scan.l (via make scan.c) which uses flex (which is not installed yet).

So the simplest solution is re-extracting scan.c from the flex*.tar.bz2 file.

Answer 2

I downloaded a copy of flex-2.5.33. It contains both scan.l and scan.c.
-rw-r--r-- 500/500 141838 2006-02-20 20:45 flex-2.5.33/scan.c
-rw-r--r-- 500/500 20853 2006-02-14 13:28 flex-2.5.33/scan.l

It looks like you are missing the supplied scan.c.

From your make output it also looks like you are missing locale files or settings in your environment.

If you are going to be doing any other development on this machine with gnu based tools, you might consider installing autoconf and automake. It looks like the Makefile is forcing a reconfigure because those items are not present, which may be causing some unspecified issue.

Finally, you should consider having a second development machine where you can have a full development platform installed. That way you could compile/test there and see what 'normal' output should look like. Another alternative is to do your build on the development machine and install the results on your 'stripped down' target.

Answer 3

The Make output shows that it tries first to regenerate certain files which are normally not regenerated by users who just want to compile from the sources. One of those files is scan.c from scan.l which requires pre-existing flex and of course it fails.

This shouldn't be the case with downloaded tarballs. One guess is that file stamps are wrong. Try in a fresh directory

./configure
touch scan.c
make

If there is no scan.c file at all, then you have downloaded the wrong tarball or it is corrupted.

Answer 4

This is kind of a shot in the dark, but try installing help2man and see if you get any farther?

(Based this on http://rainforce.org/flex/flex-2-5-10.notes -- the thought process in that file isn't entirely clear, so it's hard to be sure, but it might be worth a try.)