autoreconf: command not found

Question

autoreconf -fiv
-bash: autoreconf: command not found

I've tried everything listed in this link, but I still can't find any auto(re)conf.

pi@no:~/motion $ apt-cache search autoreconf
pi@no:~/motion $ apt-cache search autoconf
pkg-config - manage compile and link flags for libraries

I'm on a pi with Raspbian buster.

---

side-story:

I was originally trying to use motion v4.1.1 but which (might?) doesn't work with RTSP, so trying to get the v4.2.2.

OK, can't build, so let's use the .deb:

pi@no:~ $ sudo dpkg -i pi_buster_motion_4.2.2-1_armhf.deb
(Reading database ... 132229 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack pi_buster_motion_4.2.2-1_armhf.deb ...
Unpacking motion (4.2.2-1) over (4.1.1-1.1+b2) ...
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of motion:
 motion depends on libmicrohttpd12 (>= 0.9.50); however:
  Package libmicrohttpd12 is not installed.

dpkg: error processing package motion (--install):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
Processing triggers for systemd (241-5+rpi1) ...
Processing triggers for man-db (2.8.5-2) ...
Errors were encountered while processing:
 motion

Please?

pi@no:~ $ sudo apt-get install libmicrohttpd12
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Package libmicrohttpd12 is not available, but is referred to by another package.
This may mean that the package is missing, has been obsoleted, or
is only available from another source

E: Package 'libmicrohttpd12' has no installation candidate

ok, "very" please?

pi@no:~ $ apt-cache search libmicrohttpd
...

Still Love linux.

Answer 1

apt-cache search only searches for packages by name and description, not what they contain. For your intended use case you probably should use apt-file:

$ sudo apt install -y apt-file
...
$ sudo apt-file update
...
$ apt-file search autoreconf
autoconf: /usr/bin/autoreconf
autoconf: /usr/share/man/man1/autoreconf.1.gz
autoconf-dickey: /usr/bin/autoreconf-dickey
...

So to get autoreconf you should install the autoconf package.

As for why you're unable to find libmicrohttpd12, it definitely exists in the Buster repos at the time of writing. The likely explanation is that you have not done a recent run of sudo apt update

Answer 2

You should better use the more up to date installation manager apt. It is just a wrapper for the underlying tools apt-get, apt-search and others but with additional functions. You will find with:

rpi ~$ apt search autoreconf
Sorting... Done
Full Text Search... Done
dh-autoreconf/stable 19 all
  debhelper add-on to call autoreconf and clean up after the build

dh-dist-zilla/stable 1.3.7 all
  debhelper add-on to call dzil build and clean up after the build

Then look with:

rpi ~$ apt show dh-autoreconf
Package: dh-autoreconf
Version: 19
--- snip ---
Description: debhelper add-on to call autoreconf and clean up after the build
 dh-autoreconf provides a debhelper sequence addon named 'autoreconf' and two
 commands, dh_autoreconf and dh_autoreconf_clean.
--- snip ---

Is it this what you are looking for or do you want dh-dist-zilla?