automake fails to build in Ubuntu 18.04

[jbapple-cloudera]

Using SYSTEM_GCC=1 GCC_VERSION=7.3.0-15ubuntu2 ./buildall.sh to dodge #24, I get the following error trying to build automake:

  GEN      doc/aclocal-1.14.1
  GEN      doc/automake-1.14.1
help2man: can't get `--help' info from automake-1.14
Try `--no-discard-stderr' if option outputs to stderr
Makefile:3707: recipe for target 'doc/automake-1.14.1' failed
make: *** [doc/automake-1.14.1] Error 255
make: *** Waiting for unfinished jobs....

(That's the tail of check/automake-1.14.1.log.)

[timarmstrong]

FWIW I have no idea if SYSTEM_GCC=1 actually works, it's been unmaintained for a while.

[jbapple-cloudera]

I can get automake to build with the automake 1.15.1 source in Ubuntu 18.04: https://packages.ubuntu.com/bionic/automake

[MZDN]

(at)jbapple-cloudera: how could you get it fixed?

[four2five]

It looks like there's a known conflict between more recent versions of Perl and older versions of Automake. The solution seems to be to use at least version 1.15.1 of automake (given that Ubuntu has perl 5.26 by default):
http://gnu-automake.7480.n7.nabble.com/bug-29178-Failure-to-build-automake-gt-11-td22684.html