I unpacked the tarball and ran the ./configure,
didn't work out.
Second time I ran ./configure after changing $PATH.

No distclean at all.

Why would that make the difference?

from 'INSTALL';

  5. You can remove the program binaries and object files from the
     source code directory by typing `make clean'.  To also remove the
     files that `configure' created (so you can compile the package for
     a different kind of computer), type `make distclean'.  There is
     also a `make maintainer-clean' target, but that is intended mainly
     for the package's developers.  If you use it, you may have to get
     all sorts of other programs in order to regenerate files that came
     with the distribution.

Sounds like distclean is only required after a ./configure has been run.
Presumably the pristine sources don't have any of that  'trash' in them?

Also, its very interesting, given the above, that it all went so swimmingly
well after merely changing $PATH...


On Thu, 13 Nov 2003 06:24, Paul Bijnens wrote:
> Steve Wray wrote:
>   > Finally I seem to have figured it out;
> >
> > If $PATH has another version of tar which would be found
> > before the gnu tar, even though one explicitly puts it on the
> > configure commandline, the #ifdef's in runtar.c don't appear
> > to pick it up and hence its not compiled in; all that gets compiled
> > in are the messages bitching about not having gnu tar.
>
> Don't think so. IMHO.
>
> > Or something like that.
> >
> > By setting my $PATH at configure time so that /usr/local/bin
> > was at the front, I got a build on Sloarsis which works with
> > gnu tar!
> >
> > Bug in the configure script? Or am I misunderstanding something?
>
> Forgot to run "make distclean" before you "./configure"?