Cannot build on Debian 12

[Zsar]

Steps to reproduce:

1. Installed dependencies listed here.
2. called ./configure as instructed here.

Errors, config.h not emitted:

./configure: line 4974: AC_HEADER_MAJOR_FIXED: command not found
./configure: line 9030: TYPE_SOCKLEN_T: command not found
./configure: line 9538: syntax error near unexpected token `struct'
./configure: line 9538: `AC_HAVE_TYPE(struct addrinfo, #include <netdb.h>)'

3. Next step fails predictably:

$ make
make: *** No targets specified and no makefile found.  Stop.

Using autoconf/stable,stable,now 2.71-3 all on Debian 12.8.

Full log attached.

[Zsar]

FWIW: ./configure succeeds using

• autoconf/oldoldstable,oldoldstable,now 2.69-11 all on Debian 10.13
• autoconf/oldstable,oldstable,now 2.69-14 all on Debian 11.9

Installing autoconf2.69/stable,stable,now 2.69-3.1 all in addition to the base package on Debian 12 apparently makes it work there.

[Zsar]

<rant>In my experience "if a project uses autoconf, building from source is broken" has been a 100% experience for me over the last ~five years on a wide variety of Linux environments, covering different versions of Debian, Ubuntu, MSYS2, Arch.

Invariably some AC_<something> error is involved and invariably it seems that trying some other minor version of autoconf is the - or at least the biggest part of the - solution. That program just seems to be the embodiment of brittleness. </rant>

[charmitro]

Can't read the logs atm, but give sudo apt build-dep rsync a try and retry building. Maybe you'll get everything you want from there.