Ralf, I'm still getting the same error. I followed the your tutorial until page 113. Then I got the following: % ./configure checking for a BSD-compatible install... /usr/bin/install -c checking whether build environment is sane... yes checking for gawk... gawk checking whether make sets $(MAKE)... yes checking for gcc... gcc checking for C compiler default output file name... configure: error: C compiler cannot create executables See `config.log' for more details. The config.log file provided the following information: ## --------- ## ## Platform. ## ## --------- ## hostname = localhost.localdomain uname -m = i686 uname -r = 2.6.16-1.2069_FC4 uname -s = Linux uname -v = #1 Tue Mar 28 12:19:10 EST 2006 /usr/bin/uname -p = unknown /bin/uname -X = unknown /bin/arch = i686 /usr/bin/arch -k = unknown /usr/convex/getsysinfo = unknown hostinfo = unknown /bin/machine = unknown /usr/bin/oslevel = unknown /bin/universe = unknown PATH: /usr/kerberos/bin PATH: /usr/local/bin PATH: /usr/bin PATH: /bin PATH: /usr/X11R6/bin PATH: /usr/games PATH: /home/duke/bin PATH: /sbin ## ----------- ## ## Core tests. ## ## ----------- ## configure:1309: checking for a BSD-compatible install configure:1364: result: /usr/bin/install -c configure:1375: checking whether build environment is sane configure:1418: result: yes configure:1483: checking for gawk configure:1499: found /usr/bin/gawk configure:1509: result: gawk configure:1519: checking whether make sets $(MAKE) configure:1539: result: yes configure:1753: checking for gcc configure:1769: found /usr/bin/gcc configure:1779: result: gcc configure:2023: checking for C compiler version configure:2026: gcc --version </dev/null >&5 gcc (GCC) 4.0.2 20051125 (Red Hat 4.0.2-8) Copyright (C) 2005 Free Software Foundation, Inc. This is free software; see the source for copying conditions. There is NO warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. configure:2029: $? = 0 configure:2031: gcc -v </dev/null >&5 Using built-in specs. Target: i386-redhat-linux Configured with: ../configure --prefix=/usr --mandir=/usr/share/man --infodir=/usr/share/info --enable-shared --enable-threads=posix --enable-checking=release --with-system-zlib --enable-__cxa_atexit --disable-libunwind-exceptions --enable-libgcj-multifile --enable-languages=c,c++,objc,java,f95,ada --enable-java-awt=gtk --with-java-home=/usr/lib/jvm/java-1.4.2-gcj-1.4.2.0/jre --host=i386-redhat-linux Thread model: posix gcc version 4.0.2 20051125 (Red Hat 4.0.2-8) configure:2034: $? = 0 configure:2036: gcc -V </dev/null >&5 gcc: '-V' option must have argument configure:2039: $? = 1 configure:2062: checking for C compiler default output file name configure:2065: gcc conftest.c :/usr/lib >&5 gcc: :/usr/lib: No such file or directory configure:2068: $? = 1 configure: failed program was: | /* confdefs.h. */ | | #define PACKAGE_NAME "amhello" | #define PACKAGE_TARNAME "amhello" | #define PACKAGE_VERSION "1.0" | #define PACKAGE_STRING "amhello 1.0" | #define PACKAGE_BUGREPORT [1]"duke@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx" | #define PACKAGE "amhello" | #define VERSION "1.0" | /* end confdefs.h. */ | | int | main () | { | | ; | return 0; | } configure:2107: error: C compiler cannot create executables As I said, the compiler works fine when I'm not using configure. Is there some way to (temporarily) get around all (or some of) these compiler checks? I'm willing to use any kind of workaround until I can figure out what the root problem is. Lee Ralf Wildenhues wrote: Hi Lee, * Lee Duke wrote on Tue, Apr 18, 2006 at 11:09:54AM CEST: First, I'm new to the Gnu Autotools. Then take this tutorial and read it: [2]http://www-src.lip6.fr/homepages/Alexandre.Duret-Lutz/autotools.html For reference, there is also the info documentation for Autoconf, Automake and other tools; all of them have lots of useful information. CONFIGURE.IN AC_INIT(pi.c) Old old style. The new style with package name, version, and bug address is better: AC_INIT([mypackage], [0.1], [[3]bugs@xxxxxxxxxxx]) AC_CONFIG_SRCDIR([pi.c]) And simply name the file configure.ac. dnl find and test the C compiler (_AC_COMPILER_EXEEXT_WORKS) (_AC_COMPILER_EXEEXT_CROSS) (_AC_COMPILER_EXEEXT) These three lines are bogus. Delete them, and throw away the source of information where you got them from. That's the source of your error. AC_PROG_CC AC_LANG_C Old style for AC_LANG([C]) but autoupdate would have caught that. AC_PROG_MAKE_SET AC_HEADER_STDC AC_CHECK_FUNC(atol,,AC_MSG_ERROR(oops! no atol ?!?)) The tutorial also mentions how to use correct M4 quoting.. AC_CHECK_FUNC([atol], [], [AC_MSG_ERROR([oops!])]) and much more. Cheers, Ralf References 1. mailto:duke@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 2. http://www-src.lip6.fr/homepages/Alexandre.Duret-Lutz/autotools.html 3. mailto:bugs@xxxxxxxxxxx _______________________________________________ Autoconf mailing list Autoconf@xxxxxxx http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/autoconf