fixing error: undefined macro: AC_PROG_LIBTOOL

May 17th, 2007 by Lawrence David

i was getting this error while trying to compile faad2:

configure.in:14: error: possibly undefined macro: AC_PROG_LIBTOOL
If this token and others are legitimate, please use m4_pattern_allow.
See the Autoconf documentation.
autoreconf: /usr/bin/autoconf failed with exit status: 1

i made this error go away by install “libtool:”

$ sudo apt-get install libtool

Posted in Unix | 33 Comments »

if that was helpful ...

check out the other tips and tricks i've compiled on these pages. you might learn something else interesting!

33 Responses to “fixing error: undefined macro: AC_PROG_LIBTOOL”

on 10 Jul 2007 at 6:37 pm Archon810

Thanks! Exactly the error I was getting, all because of missing libtool. faad is a bitch to install!
on 08 Aug 2007 at 10:04 am cythraul

Thanks!
on 01 Oct 2007 at 12:51 am pushpam

configure.in:50: error: possibly undefined macro: AC_PROG_LIBTOOL
If this token and others are legitimate, please use m4_pattern_allow.
See the Autoconf documentation.
autoreconf: /sw/bin/autoconf-2.59 failed with exit status: 1

thanks for giving solution….i was fighting with this error from one week..
on 31 Jan 2008 at 1:12 pm jjrjr

Hi I am having the same problem however I do not have the apt-get tool installed on my server.

Is there another resolution to this problem?

Thanks
on 08 Mar 2008 at 10:17 pm Jerry

thanks, that fixed my building issue
on 01 May 2008 at 1:21 pm Légion

Thanks

It save my previous time.

Regards,
Légion.
on 27 May 2008 at 1:01 am evan

Thanks !
I just wanted install faad2(codecs) for ffmpeg,having the same problem !

It takes me nearly one hour ~~~~

Best Regards~
on 18 Jun 2008 at 7:57 am Mike

Yea Google! Ran into the same problem on Ubuntu 6.06 server. Thanks!
on 25 Jun 2008 at 5:15 pm Jonathan

Awesome need to query

configure.in:14: error: possibly undefined macro: AC_PROG_LIBTOOL
If this token and others are legitimate, please use m4_pattern_allow.
See the Autoconf documentation.
on 06 Jul 2008 at 1:05 am John

Many thanks. Worked for me.
on 11 Sep 2008 at 2:25 am dekkard

————— EXPLANATION —————–

that’s right
to fix the error mentioned you need to install libtool
but that’s not all

it might happen that you have to install it from sources
in this case you MUST SPECIFY prefix for configure script:
./configure –prefix=/usr

otherwise you have to deal with paths somehow to make aoutoconf see your thirdparty macros, which libtool contains

PS/ took an hour to find it out myself
anyway thanx for giving a tip
on 05 Nov 2008 at 11:52 pm Brandon

Thanks! Exactly what was needed.

I much appreciate you taking time to post solutions!

–B
on 10 Dec 2008 at 7:02 pm Kay Schubert

Exactly the problem I had (though on OpenSuse). Thanks!
on 23 Jan 2009 at 1:24 am DeadWisdom

Thanks!
on 21 Jun 2009 at 5:19 am Beuj

Woohoo, thanks a lot, you save me man
on 22 Jul 2009 at 5:41 am daniel

brilliant – just the answer i needed! (Centos 5.2)
on 28 Sep 2009 at 4:06 pm Benjamin W. Smith

Very glad that I stumbled on your post. Your answer was helpful, thank you.

I’d like to say, however, that a “possibly undefined macro” doesn’t even *remotely* spell “you need libtool” to me.

One more reason I truly dislike automake/autoconf.
on 26 Nov 2009 at 12:43 pm flo

thx!!
on 27 Nov 2009 at 3:13 am jay

Thx!! hit the exact issue!
on 05 Dec 2009 at 7:35 am Leszek

Yabadabaduuuu !

Thanks a lot !
on 10 Dec 2009 at 5:15 pm ortseamo

thnx for help
on 26 Apr 2010 at 2:39 pm baküzen » Blog Archive » Moses Machine Translation

[...] able to fix it easily by installing libtool (in ubuntu: sudo apt-get install libtool -thanks to this site for the info) and then tried again and it worked fine. Now, this next step will separate [...]
on 01 Jun 2010 at 7:46 pm Ben

I had the same problem while attempting to install faad2-2.7. Thank you for the solution.

The faad2 author should perform his own tests during installation and not reply on his users to find this post, if you ask me.
on 05 Jun 2010 at 2:14 pm Aric

Ran into this problem while trying to install PET (http://wiki.delph-in.net/moin/PetTop). Your fix worked perfectly. Many thanks!
on 31 Aug 2010 at 12:10 am lukas

LOVE IT
on 05 Dec 2010 at 11:33 pm snowis

Thanks, this was very helpful!
on 07 Jun 2011 at 4:26 pm someone

First google hit when searching for the same error and the fix is valid, so … bump to keep it in the first place
on 11 Jun 2011 at 5:01 pm joanignasi

many thanks!
on 20 Aug 2011 at 6:22 pm s3phy

Thanks, fixed my problem too (while trying to install gPhoto from SVN)
on 23 Aug 2011 at 1:20 pm guest

thanks
on 02 Apr 2012 at 1:40 pm ricardo rivaldo

Solved, same error WITH CyberlinkCC / UBUNTU 11.04 :
~/bin/CyberLinkCC$ ./bootstrap
configure.in:70: error: possibly undefined macro: AC_PROG_LIBTOOL
If this token and others are legitimate, please use m4_pattern_allow.
See the Autoconf documentation.

libtool install solved the issue.

thank you !
on 03 Apr 2012 at 2:15 pm KTP

Getting this error all over the place jhbuild’ing gnome 3.4 I have libtool installed, so this isn’t the only problem.
on 17 May 2012 at 1:27 pm Amanda

Thank you so much – I ran into the same error when installing a rubygem (rbczmq)

configure.in:54: error: possibly undefined macro: AC_LIBTOOL_WIN32_DLL
If this token and others are legitimate, please use m4_pattern_allow.
See the Autoconf documentation.
configure.in:55: error: possibly undefined macro: AC_PROG_LIBTOOL
configure:5242: error: possibly undefined macro: AC_DISABLE_STATIC
configure:5246: error: possibly undefined macro: AC_ENABLE_STATIC

and this (well, I used brew install libtool) fixed it for me. I was in for hours more frustration without you!