How to fix "failed to run aclocal: No such file or directory"

Last updated on July 29, 2020 by Dan Nanni

Question: I am trying to build a program on Linux. The development release of the program comes with autogen.sh script. When I run it to create configure script, however, I am getting the following error:

Can't exec "aclocal": No such file or directory at /usr/share/autoconf/Autom4te/FileUtils.pm line 326.
autoreconf: failed to run aclocal: No such file or directory

How can I fix this problem?

The development release of a program source code often comes with autogen.sh which is used to prepare a build process, including verifying program functionality and generating configure script. This autogen.sh script then relies on autoreconf to invoke autoconf, automake, aclocal and other related tools.

The missing aclocal is part of automake package. Thus, to fix this error, install the following package.

On Debian, Ubuntu or Linux Mint:

To install automake on Debian-based system:

$ sudo apt-get install automake

On CentOS, Fedora or RHEL:

To install automake on Red-Hat-based system:

$ sudo yum install automake

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