Re: error: installing './INSTALL'; error while making link: File exists

[Bruce Korb]

Long, long ago I learned that the safest thing is to purge my build
directory and create a new one.
After that, I link in all of my managed sources and then create any
derived sources I need.
After doing that, I run "autoreconf" and get the result you see. IOW,
it is a really clean directory.

On Sat, Aug 31, 2019 at 5:31 PM Dan Kegel <address@hidden> wrote:
>
> I don't know what you're trying to make, but you could
> try cleaning the directory to remove stale symlinks first...
> or unpacking the source tarball into a clean directory
> and building there.
>
> Here's the code you're probably hitting, fwiw:
>
> ```
>           # Install the missing file.  Symlink if we
>           # can, copy if we must.  Note: delete the file
>           # first, in case it is a dangling symlink.
>           $message = "installing '$fullfile'";
>  ...
>           # Windows Perl will hang if we try to delete a
>           # file that doesn't exist.
>           unlink ($fullfile) if -f $fullfile;
>           if ($symlink_exists && ! $copy_missing)
>             {
>               if (! symlink ("$libdir/$file", $fullfile)
>                   || ! -e $fullfile)
>                 {
>                   $suppress = 0;
>                   $trailer = "; error while making link: $!";
>                 }
>             }
>           elsif (system ('cp', "$libdir/$file", $fullfile))
>             {
>               $suppress = 0;
>               $trailer = "\n    error while copying";
>             }
> - Dan
>
> On Sat, Aug 31, 2019 at 5:17 PM Bruce Korb <address@hidden> wrote:
> >
> > Hi,
> >
> > Googling doesn't get me any answers and I cannot rebuild until
> > autoreconf is gotten working.
> > The embedded autoreconf step that fails is automake. I have no idea at
> > all what the message is really trying to say. Help, please?
> >
> > $ automake --add-missing --no-force
> > Makefile.am: error: installing './INSTALL'; error while making link: File 
> > exists
> > doc/Makefile.am:71: warning: call gen_man,gnu-pw-mgr,opts.def:
> > non-POSIX variable
> > name
> > doc/Makefile.am:71: (probably a GNU make extension)
> > doc/Makefile.am:80: warning: call gen_man,sort-pw-cfg,sort-opts.def:
> > non-POSIX va
> > riable name
> > doc/Makefile.am:80: (probably a GNU make extension)
> > doc/Makefile.am:90: warning: call check_exe,gnu-pw-mgr : non-POSIX variable 
> > name
> > doc/Makefile.am:90: (probably a GNU make extension)
> > doc/Makefile.am:91: warning: call gen_invoke,gnu-pw-mgr,opts.def :
> > non-POSIX vari
> > able name
> > doc/Makefile.am:91: (probably a GNU make extension)
> > doc/Makefile.am:101: warning: call check_exe,sort-pw-cfg : non-POSIX
> > variable nam
> > e
> > doc/Makefile.am:101: (probably a GNU make extension)
> > doc/Makefile.am:102: warning: call
> > gen_invoke,sort-pw-cfg,sort-opts.def : non-POS
> > IX variable name
> > doc/Makefile.am:102: (probably a GNU make extension)
> >
> >



-- 
 - Bruce