I was unable to build from Texinfo git master. There is an error about missing -lperl:
make[2]: Entering directory '/home/g/src/texinfo/GIT/tp/Texinfo/XS' /bin/bash ./libtool --tag=CC --mode=link x86_64-linux-gnu-gcc -version-info 0:0:0 -Wl,-E -o libtexinfo-main.la -rpath /usr/local/lib/texi2any convert/libtexinfo_main_la-texinfo.lo libtexinfoxs.la libtexinfo.la libtexinfo-convert.la libperlembed_libtexinfo_main.la ./gnulib/lib/libgnu.la -Wl,-E -fstack-protector-strong -L/usr/local/lib -L/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/perl/5.34/CORE -lperl -ldl -lm -lpthread -lc -lcrypt libtool: link: x86_64-linux-gnu-gcc -shared -fPIC -DPIC convert/.libs/libtexinfo_main_la-texinfo.o -Wl,--whole-archive ./.libs/libperlembed_libtexinfo_main.a ./gnulib/lib/.libs/libgnu.a -Wl,--no-whole-archive -Wl,-rpath -Wl,/home/g/src/texinfo/GIT/tp/Texinfo/XS/.libs -Wl,-rpath -Wl,/usr/local/lib/texi2any -L/home/g/src/texinfo/GIT/tp/Texinfo/XS/.libs ./.libs/libtexinfoxs.so ./.libs/libtexinfo.so ./.libs/libtexinfo-convert.so /home/g/src/texinfo/GIT/tp/Texinfo/XS/.libs/libtexinfoxs.so /home/g/src/texinfo/GIT/tp/Texinfo/XS/.libs/libtexinfo.so -L/usr/local/lib -L/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/perl/5.34/CORE -lperl -ldl -lm -lpthread -lc -lcrypt -Wl,-E -Wl,-E -fstack-protector-strong -Wl,-soname -Wl,libtexinfo-main.so.0 -o .libs/libtexinfo-main.so.0.0.0 /usr/bin/ld: cannot find -lperl: No such file or directory collect2: error: ld returned 1 exit status make[2]: *** [Makefile:2953: libtexinfo-main.la] Error 1 make[2]: Leaving directory '/home/g/src/texinfo/GIT/tp/Texinfo/XS' I do have a libperl.so.5.34 file, but it is installed as /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libperl.so.5.34.0. I wondered if it was something to do with my Perl installation. Indeed: $ perl -V | grep embed DEBPKG:debian/libperl_embed_doc - https://bugs.debian.org/186778 Note that libperl-dev package is required for embedded linking (That referenced Debian bug dates to 2003, although it is marked as closed.) I did not have the "libperl-dev" package installed. Installing this (about 10 MB of extra disk space), and trying again, it compiled. Before I worked this out, I found that I could not link to the libperl.so file even when I gave the -L path explicitly. x86_64-linux-gnu-gcc -shared -fPIC -DPIC convert/.libs/libtexinfo_main_la-texinfo.o -Wl,--whole-archive ./.libs/libperlembed_libtexinfo_main.a ./gnulib/lib/.libs/libgnu.a -Wl,--no-whole-archive -Wl,-rpath -Wl,/home/g/src/texinfo/GIT/tp/Texinfo/XS/.libs -Wl,-rpath -Wl,/usr/local/lib/texi2any -L/home/g/src/texinfo/GIT/tp/Texinfo/XS/.libs ./.libs/libtexinfoxs.so ./.libs/libtexinfo.so ./.libs/libtexinfo-convert.so /home/g/src/texinfo/GIT/tp/Texinfo/XS/.libs/libtexinfoxs.so /home/g/src/texinfo/GIT/tp/Texinfo/XS/.libs/libtexinfo.so -L/usr/local/lib -L/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu -lperl -ldl -lm -lpthread -lc -lcrypt -Wl,-E -Wl,-E -fstack-protector-strong -Wl,-soname -Wl,libtexinfo-main.so.0 -o .libs/libtexinfo-main.so.0.0.0 /usr/bin/ld: cannot find -lperl: No such file or directory So I don't know what is going on with this libperl and why it is not being found.