./configure: line 2039: syntax error near unexpected token `foreign'

[Benjamin Gilbert]

On 11/07/2011 11:34 AM, Mathieu Malaterre wrote:
>    I am trying to compile openslide directly from github. According to
> README one need run ./configure. Since this file is not shipped, I ran
> autoconf first. But now I am getting the following error:
>
> ./configure: line 2039: syntax error near unexpected token `foreign'
> ./configure: line 2039: `AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE(foreign subdir-objects
> 1.11.1 dist-xz)'

Hello Mathieu,

It sounds as though you may have run the "autoconf" command rather than 
"autoreconf -i", which is the standard way of setting up Autotools in a 
checked-out source tree.  You should be able to fix this by first 
ensuring you have automake and libtool installed on your system, then 
running "autoreconf -fi" inside the source tree.

--Benjamin Gilbert