After a fresh install on Linux Mint 17 (64-bit) I am attempting to build the latest gcc using the following (which has worked in the past):- cd gcc-4.9.1 contrib/download_prerequisites mkdir obj cd obj ../configure --disable-multilib The configure ends with the following:- ... checking where to find the target readelf... host tool checking where to find the target strip... host tool checking where to find the target windres... host tool checking where to find the target windmc... host tool checking whether to enable maintainer-specific portions of Makefiles... no configure: creating ./config.status /bin/bash: _tar: line 12: syntax error near unexpected token `(' /bin/bash: _tar: line 12: ` ?(-)*[cr]*f)' /bin/bash: error importing function definition for `_tar' config.status: creating Makefile /tmp/gcc-4.9.1/obj* What am I doing wrong, or what is missing? The current compiler (that came with Mint 17) is:- /tmp/gcc-4.9.1/obj* gcc -v Using built-in specs. COLLECT_GCC=gcc COLLECT_LTO_WRAPPER=/usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-linux-gnu/4.8/lto-wrapper Target: x86_64-linux-gnu Configured with: ../src/configure -v --with-pkgversion='Ubuntu 4.8.2-19ubuntu1' --with-bugurl=file:///usr/share/doc/gcc-4.8/README.Bugs --enable-languages=c,c++,java,go,d,fortran,objc,obj-c++ --prefix=/usr --program-suffix=-4.8 --enable-shared --enable-linker-build-id --libexecdir=/usr/lib --without-included-gettext --enable-threads=posix --with-gxx-include-dir=/usr/include/c++/4.8 --libdir=/usr/lib --enable-nls --with-sysroot=/ --enable-clocale=gnu --enable-libstdcxx-debug --enable-libstdcxx-time=yes --enable-gnu-unique-object --disable-libmudflap --enable-plugin --with-system-zlib --disable-browser-plugin --enable-java-awt=gtk --enable-gtk-cairo --with-java-home=/usr/lib/jvm/java-1.5.0-gcj-4.8-amd64/jre --enable-java-home --with-jvm-root-dir=/usr/lib/jvm/java-1.5.0-gcj-4.8-amd64 --with-jvm-jar-dir=/usr/lib/jvm-exports/java-1.5.0-gcj-4.8-amd64 --with-arch-directory=amd64 --with-ecj-jar=/usr/share/java/eclipse-ecj.jar --enable-objc-gc --enable-multiarch --disable-werror --with-arch-32=i686 --with-abi=m64 --with-multilib-list=m32,m64,mx32 --with-tune=generic --enable-checking=release --build=x86_64-linux-gnu --host=x86_64-linux-gnu --target=x86_64-linux-gnu Thread model: posix gcc version 4.8.2 (Ubuntu 4.8.2-19ubuntu1) Many thanks, Jeremy