Prior to: commit 697804f48f4217dab145d96175c6cddf560ec614 Date: Thu Apr 16 10:13:06 2015 +0200 Make cpp/poppler-version.h header optional we errored out if --with-system-poppler was used and there was no cpp/poppler-version.h That was 6 years ago, so it's possible that restoring that error on not seeing cpp/poppler-version.h and changing the min version of poppler to whichever one introduced cpp/poppler-version.h would work nowadays without controversy and avoid the loophole you tripped up in.