How to build Emacs from source without makeinfo >= 4.13

How to build Emacs from source without makeinfo >= 4.13

[Pierre Rouleau]

Hi,

I am trying to get a relatively recent version of Emacs built  on Rocky
Linux 8.10.

A make on the emacs source tree obtained from the Git repo gives me:

configure: error: You do not seem to have makeinfo >= 4.13, and your
source tree does not seem to have pre-built manuals in the 'info' directory.
Please install a suitable version of makeinfo.
make: *** [GNUmakefile:110: Makefile] Error 1

I have been trying to find ways of getting around this, but can't find it.

Any suggestion?

Thanks

-- 
/Pierre

Re: How to build Emacs from source without makeinfo >= 4.13

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: Pierre Rouleau <prouleau001@gmail.com>
> Date: Thu, 27 Jun 2024 17:02:23 -0400
> 
> Hi,
> 
> I am trying to get a relatively recent version of Emacs built  on Rocky
> Linux 8.10.
> 
> A make on the emacs source tree obtained from the Git repo gives me:
> 
> configure: error: You do not seem to have makeinfo >= 4.13, and your
> source tree does not seem to have pre-built manuals in the 'info' directory.
> Please install a suitable version of makeinfo.
> make: *** [GNUmakefile:110: Makefile] Error 1
> 
> I have been trying to find ways of getting around this, but can't find it.
> 
> Any suggestion?

If you are building from Git, you must have a recent enough Texinfo
installed, and there's no way around that, except if you manually hack
the build scripts in some way I cannot imagine.

Why is it a problem to install Texinfo on Rocky Linus 8.10, whatever
that is?

Re: How to build Emacs from source without makeinfo >= 4.13

[Pierre Rouleau]

On Fri, Jun 28, 2024 at 1:45 AM Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org> wrote:

>
>
> If you are building from Git, you must have a recent enough Texinfo
> installed, and there's no way around that, except if you manually hack
> the build scripts in some way I cannot imagine.
>
Thanks for confirming this.


>
> Why is it a problem to install Texinfo on Rocky Linus 8.10, whatever
> that is?
>
> Non technical, corporate policy, reasons.
But now that I have confirmation that I can't build without Texinfo I'll
find a way to get around that.

Thanks!



-- 
/Pierre

Re: How to build Emacs from source without makeinfo >= 4.13

[Madhu]

* Eli Zaretskii <86jzi94o5d.fsf@gnu.org> :
Wrote on Fri, 28 Jun 2024 08:44:30 +0300:
>> From: Pierre Rouleau <prouleau001@gmail.com>
>> Date: Thu, 27 Jun 2024 17:02:23 -0400
>> I am trying to get a relatively recent version of Emacs built  on Rocky
>> Linux 8.10.
>>
>> A make on the emacs source tree obtained from the Git repo gives me:
>>
>> configure: error: You do not seem to have makeinfo >= 4.13, and your
>> source tree does not seem to have pre-built manuals in the 'info' directory.
>> Please install a suitable version of makeinfo.
>> make: *** [GNUmakefile:110: Makefile] Error 1
>>
>> I have been trying to find ways of getting around this, but can't find it.
>>
>> Any suggestion?
>
> If you are building from Git, you must have a recent enough Texinfo
> installed, and there's no way around that, except if you manually hack
> the build scripts in some way I cannot imagine.

1. Try MAKEINFO=/bin/true make, if that doesn't work
2. edit configure.ac to make  makeinfo requirement non-fatal
```
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -2138,7 +2138,7 @@ AC_DEFUN
 if test "$MAKEINFO" = "no"; then
   MAKEINFO=makeinfo
   if test ! -e "$srcdir/info/emacs" && test ! -e "$srcdir/info/emacs.info"; then
-    AC_MSG_ERROR( [You do not seem to have makeinfo >= 4.13, and your
+    AC_MSG_WARN( [You do not seem to have makeinfo >= 4.13, and your
 source tree does not seem to have pre-built manuals in the 'info' directory.
 Please install a suitable version of makeinfo.] )
   else
li
```

> Why is it a problem to install Texinfo on Rocky Linus 8.10, whatever
> that is?