Bug#1126985: system-config-printer: FTBFS with gettext 0.26

Wed Feb 4 18:56:13 GMT 2026

Package: src:system-config-printer
Version: 1.5.18-4
Tags: forky sid ftbfs
User: debian-qa at lists.debian.org
Usertags: gettext-0.26

Dear maintainer:

During a rebuild of all packages in unstable using gettext 0.26
(yet to be uploaded for Debian), this package failed to build.

Below you will find the last part of the build log (probably the most
relevant part, but not necessarily). If required, the full build log
is available here:

https://people.debian.org/~sanvila/gettext/build-logs/

I've written this page to explain how to reproduce the problem:

https://people.debian.org/~sanvila/gettext/

This bug will be raised to important once gettext is uploaded for
experimental, and RC once gettext is uploaded for unstable, but
I still don't know when I will be able to do that. If you fix
this bug, it would help to have gettext in unstable sooner.

About the archive rebuild: The build was made on virtual machines from AWS,
using sbuild and a reduced chroot with only build-essential packages.

If you cannot reproduce the bug please contact me privately, as I
am willing to provide ssh access to a virtual machine where the bug is
fully reproducible.

If this is really a bug in one of the build-depends, please use
reassign and add an affects on src:system-config-printer, so that this is still
visible in the BTS web page for this package.

Thanks.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[...]
 debian/rules clean
dh clean --buildsystem=autoconf
   dh_auto_clean -O--buildsystem=autoconf
   dh_autoreconf_clean -O--buildsystem=autoconf
   dh_clean -O--buildsystem=autoconf
   debian/rules execute_after_dh_clean
make[1]: Entering directory '/<<PKGBUILDDIR>>'
rm -f dbus/org.fedoraproject.Config.Printing.service
make[1]: Leaving directory '/<<PKGBUILDDIR>>'
 debian/rules binary
dh binary --buildsystem=autoconf
   dh_update_autotools_config -O--buildsystem=autoconf
   debian/rules override_dh_autoreconf
make[1]: Entering directory '/<<PKGBUILDDIR>>'
dh_autoreconf ./bootstrap
autopoint: *** AM_GNU_GETTEXT without 'external' argument is no longer supported in version 0.20
autopoint: *** Stop.
configure.ac:4: warning: macro 'AM_GNU_GETTEXT_VERSION' not found in library
configure.ac:6: warning: macro 'AM_GNU_GETTEXT' not found in library
configure.ac:5: error: macro AM_GNU_GETTEXT is not defined; is a m4 file missing?
/usr/share/aclocal/ax_require_defined.m4:35: AX_REQUIRE_DEFINED is expanded from...
configure.ac:5: the top level
autom4te: error: /usr/bin/m4 failed with exit status: 1
aclocal: error: autom4te failed with exit status: 1
aclocal.m4:17: warning: this file was generated for autoconf 2.71.
You have another version of autoconf.  It may work, but is not guaranteed to.
If you have problems, you may need to regenerate the build system entirely.
To do so, use the procedure documented by the package, typically 'autoreconf'.
configure.ac:3: error: version mismatch.  This is Automake 1.18.1,
configure.ac:3: but the definition used by this AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE
configure.ac:3: comes from Automake 1.16.5.  You should run
configure.ac:3: autoreconf -f (or otherwise erase all old files, run
configure.ac:3: aclocal to recreate aclocal.m4, and rerun automake).
aclocal.m4:17: warning: this file was generated for autoconf 2.71.
You have another version of autoconf.  It may work, but is not guaranteed to.
If you have problems, you may need to regenerate the build system entirely.
To do so, use the procedure documented by the package, typically 'autoreconf'.
configure.ac:20: warning: The macro 'AC_HELP_STRING' is obsolete.
configure.ac:20: You should run autoupdate.
./lib/autoconf/general.m4:204: AC_HELP_STRING is expanded from...
./lib/autoconf/general.m4:1553: AC_ARG_WITH is expanded from...
configure.ac:20: the top level
configure.ac:65: warning: The macro 'AC_HELP_STRING' is obsolete.
configure.ac:65: You should run autoupdate.
./lib/autoconf/general.m4:204: AC_HELP_STRING is expanded from...
./lib/autoconf/general.m4:1553: AC_ARG_WITH is expanded from...
configure.ac:65: the top level
configure.ac:101: warning: The macro 'AC_HELP_STRING' is obsolete.
configure.ac:101: You should run autoupdate.
./lib/autoconf/general.m4:204: AC_HELP_STRING is expanded from...
./lib/autoconf/general.m4:1553: AC_ARG_WITH is expanded from...
configure.ac:101: the top level
make[1]: Leaving directory '/<<PKGBUILDDIR>>'
   debian/rules override_dh_auto_configure
make[1]: Entering directory '/<<PKGBUILDDIR>>'
dh_auto_configure -- --with-udev-rules \
	             --with-udevdir=/usr/lib/udev \
	             --with-systemdsystemunitdir=/usr/lib/systemd/system \
		     --with-cups-serverbin-dir=/usr/lib/cups
	./configure --build=x86_64-linux-gnu --prefix=/usr --includedir=\${prefix}/include --mandir=\${prefix}/share/man --infodir=\${prefix}/share/info --sysconfdir=/etc --localstatedir=/var --disable-option-checking --disable-silent-rules --libdir=\${prefix}/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu --runstatedir=/run --disable-maintainer-mode --disable-dependency-tracking --with-udev-rules --with-udevdir=/usr/lib/udev --with-systemdsystemunitdir=/usr/lib/systemd/system --with-cups-serverbin-dir=/usr/lib/cups
checking for a BSD-compatible install... /usr/bin/install -c
checking whether build environment is sane... yes
checking for a race-free mkdir -p... /usr/bin/mkdir -p
checking for gawk... no
checking for mawk... mawk
checking whether make sets $(MAKE)... yes
checking whether make supports nested variables... yes
checking for a sed that does not truncate output... /usr/bin/sed
checking whether NLS is requested... yes
checking for msgfmt... /usr/bin/msgfmt
checking for gmsgfmt... /usr/bin/msgfmt
checking for xgettext... /usr/bin/xgettext
checking for msgmerge... /usr/bin/msgmerge
checking whether make supports the include directive... yes (GNU style)
checking for gcc... gcc
checking whether the C compiler works... yes
checking for C compiler default output file name... a.out
checking for suffix of executables... 
checking whether we are cross compiling... no
checking for suffix of object files... o
checking whether the compiler supports GNU C... yes
checking whether gcc accepts -g... yes
checking for gcc option to enable C11 features... none needed
checking whether gcc understands -c and -o together... yes
checking dependency style of gcc... none
checking build system type... x86_64-pc-linux-gnu
checking host system type... x86_64-pc-linux-gnu
checking for ld used by gcc... /usr/bin/x86_64-linux-gnu-ld
checking if the linker (/usr/bin/x86_64-linux-gnu-ld) is GNU ld... yes
checking for shared library run path origin... done
checking 32-bit host C ABI... no
checking how to run the C preprocessor... gcc -E
checking for egrep -e... /usr/bin/grep -E
checking for ELF binary format... yes
checking for the common suffixes of directories in the library search path... lib,lib,lib64
checking for CFPreferencesCopyAppValue... no
checking for CFLocaleCopyPreferredLanguages... no
checking for GNU gettext in libc... yes
checking whether to use NLS... yes
checking where the gettext function comes from... libc
checking for a Python interpreter with version >= 3... python3
checking for python3... /usr/bin/python3
checking for python3 version... 3.13
checking for python3 platform... linux
checking for GNU default python3 prefix... ${prefix}
checking for GNU default python3 exec_prefix... ${exec_prefix}
checking for python3 script directory (pythondir)... ${PYTHON_PREFIX}/local/lib/python3.13/dist-packages
checking for python3 extension module directory (pyexecdir)... ${PYTHON_EXEC_PREFIX}/local/lib/python3.13/dist-packages
checking for pkg-config... /usr/bin/pkg-config
checking pkg-config is at least version 0.9.0... yes
checking for CUPS SERVERBIN dir... /usr/lib/cups
checking for GLIB... yes
checking for libudev... yes
checking for libusb... yes
checking that generated files are newer than configure... done
configure: creating ./config.status
config.status: creating Makefile
config.status: creating po/Makefile.in
config.status: creating system-config-printer
config.status: creating system-config-printer-applet
config.status: creating install-printerdriver
config.status: creating dbus/scp-dbus-service
config.status: creating udev/configure-printer at .service
config.status: executing po-directories commands
config.status: creating po/POTFILES
config.status: creating po/Makefile
config.status: executing depfiles commands
make[1]: Leaving directory '/<<PKGBUILDDIR>>'
   dh_auto_build -O--buildsystem=autoconf
	make -j2
make[1]: Entering directory '/<<PKGBUILDDIR>>'
 cd . && /bin/bash /<<PKGBUILDDIR>>/missing automake-1.16 --foreign Makefile
/<<PKGBUILDDIR>>/missing: line 81: automake-1.16: command not found
WARNING: 'automake-1.16' is missing on your system.
         You should only need it if you modified 'Makefile.am' or
         'configure.ac' or m4 files included by 'configure.ac'.
         The 'automake' program is part of the GNU Automake package:
         <https://www.gnu.org/software/automake>
         It also requires GNU Autoconf, GNU m4 and Perl in order to run:
         <https://www.gnu.org/software/autoconf>
         <https://www.gnu.org/software/m4/>
         <https://www.perl.org/>
make[1]: *** [Makefile:800: Makefile.in] Error 127
make[1]: Leaving directory '/<<PKGBUILDDIR>>'
dh_auto_build: error: make -j2 returned exit code 2
make: *** [debian/rules:9: binary] Error 25
dpkg-buildpackage: error: debian/rules binary subprocess failed with exit status 2
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------