Protobuf 3.0.0-alpha-1 not compiling on windows

Question

I'm trying to compile protobuf 3.0.0 alpha 1 on Windows using MinGW 4.9.2 & MSYS.

According to the instructions I'm supposed to:

./configure 
make
make check
make install

I added --prefix=/c/path/to/mingw to configure (How to build Google's protobuf in Windows using MinGW?) but it didnt help.

It fails at make with the message:

CDPATH="${ZSH_VERSION+.}:" && cd . && /bin/sh /home/Markus/protobuf-3.0.0-alpha- 1/missing aclocal-1.14 -I m4

/home/Markus/protobuf-3.0.0-alpha-1/missing: line 81: aclocal-1.14: command not found

WARNING: 'aclocal-1.14' is missing on your system.

    You should only need it if you modified 'acinclude.m4' or
     'configure.ac' or m4 files included by 'configure.ac'.
     The 'aclocal' program is part of the GNU Automake package:
     <http://www.gnu.org/software/automake>
     It also requires GNU Autoconf, GNU m4 and Perl in order to run:
     <http://www.gnu.org/software/autoconf>
     <http://www.gnu.org/software/m4/>
     <http://www.perl.org/>

make: *** [aclocal.m4] Error 127

I've tried installing Automake but it doesnt come with aclocal.

Also today at work i managed to get it working on the first try with a bare MinGW & MSYS.

Answer 1

It looks like you need to install autoconf (which is separate from automake, though they are often used together). You may also need to install libtool.