This set of commands: gnulib-tool --create-testdir --dir m --with-tests maintainer-makefile cd m ./configure make distcheck
results in: ... configure: creating ./config.status config.status: creating Makefile config.status: creating config.h config.status: linking ../../gltests/GNUmakefile to GNUmakefile config.status: error: ../../gltests/GNUmakefile: file not found configure: error: ../../gltests/configure failed for gltests make: *** [distcheck] Error 1 The build itself works fine. It is only the distcheck rule that fails. Any ideas? I see this code in modules/gnumakefile: configure.ac: # Autoconf 2.61a.99 and earlier don't support linking a file only # in VPATH builds. But since GNUmakefile is for maintainer use # only, it does not matter if we skip the link with older autoconf. # Automake 1.10.1 and earlier try to remove GNUmakefile in non-VPATH # builds, so use a shell variable to bypass this. GNUmakefile=GNUmakefile m4_if(m4_version_compare([2.61a.100], m4_defn([m4_PACKAGE_VERSION])), [1], [], [AC_CONFIG_LINKS([$GNUmakefile:$GNUmakefile], [], [GNUmakefile=$GNUmakefile])]) However, I am using autoconf 2.63, automake 1.10.1 and libtool 2.2.6a. There is no gltests/GNUmakefile, should gnulib-tool have copied one? That's not clear to me. /Simon