Dear maintainer:

The new automake package (1.18) does not have a versioned package name
anymore, and it's called just "automake". Therefore this line in debian/rules
of libtool:

echo 'automake=automake-${AM_VERSION}' > debian/libltdl-dev.substvars

should be changed to something like

automake="automake (>= ${AM_VERSION})"

Currently, packages which BD on libltdl-dev (for example, valdrind)
fail to build with this error:

   package: sbuild-build-depends-main-dummy
   version: 0.invalid.0
   architecture: amd64
   status: broken
   reasons:
    -
     missing:
      pkg:
       package: libltdl-dev
       version: 2.5.4-6
       architecture: amd64
       unsat-dependency: automake-1.18:amd64


and there are many of them (so using "serious" as in "breaks other packages")

(cc Eric Dorland in case he has something to add).

Alternatively, automake could have a Provides: automake-1.18, but I think
the above would make that unnecessary, as "automake-1.18" has never
actually existed as a virtual package.

Thanks.

This bug also causes FTBFS on packages using dh_autoreconf.
<https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=1118303#10>

On Tue, 21 Oct 2025 00:00:05 +0200 Santiago Vila <sanvila@debian.org> wrote:
 > Package: src:libtool
 > Version: 2.5.4-6
 > Severity: serious
 >
 > Dear maintainer:
 >
 > The new automake package (1.18) does not have a versioned package name
 > anymore, and it's called just "automake". Therefore this line in
debian/rules
 > of libtool:
 >
 > echo 'automake=automake-${AM_VERSION}' > debian/libltdl-dev.substvars
 >
 > should be changed to something like
 >
 > automake="automake (>= ${AM_VERSION})"
 >


I tried to comment out the echo line from debian/rules and the packages
build and install fine. The debian/rules file uses script aclocal to
find out AM_VERSION so I suspect it makes no sense to use this value as
a dependency. If the packages depend on some versions of automake it
could be specified explicitly in debian/control. If the aclocal
computation is preserved for some reason the rules line could be changed to

echo 'am_version=${AM_VERSION}' > debian/libltdl-dev.substvars

and then use

automake (>= ${am_version})

in debian/control.

      - Tommi Höynälänmaa

We believe that the bug you reported is fixed in the latest version of
libtool, which is due to be installed in the Debian FTP archive.

A summary of the changes between this version and the previous one is
attached.

Thank you for reporting the bug, which will now be closed.  If you
have further comments please address them to 1118477@bugs.debian.org,
and the maintainer will reopen the bug report if appropriate.

Debian distribution maintenance software
pp.
Alastair McKinstry <mckinstry@debian.org> (supplier of updated libtool package)

(This message was generated automatically at their request; if you
believe that there is a problem with it please contact the archive
administrators by mailing ftpmaster@ftp-master.debian.org)
Format: 1.8
Date: Tue, 21 Oct 2025 12:49:42 +0100
Source: libtool
Architecture: source
Version: 2.5.4-7
Distribution: unstable
Urgency: medium
Maintainer: Alastair McKinstry <mckinstry@debian.org>
Changed-By: Alastair McKinstry <mckinstry@debian.org>
Closes: 1118477
Changes:
 libtool (2.5.4-7) unstable; urgency=medium
 .
   * Fix libtool automake dependency handling. Thanks to Santiago Vila.
     Closes: #1118477
Checksums-Sha1:
 ffd244aa8dd1b92182d840a5dc1775a34bdd4934 2240 libtool_2.5.4-7.dsc
 9b059ee574c48b6e0bd0b600816c053b2e7d7656 37796 libtool_2.5.4-7.debian.tar.xz
Checksums-Sha256:
 5f0828de84d75ccfb41a13aef08f67106540ebc367e9d2f89fb233eedd77812d 2240 libtool_2.5.4-7.dsc
 77d315f055d65baff90d987d577a4de2b2d77d0826c42e23fcc7129e9406566d 37796 libtool_2.5.4-7.debian.tar.xz
Files:
 eb40a83ba19a08cf13bd241ebacb7141 2240 devel optional libtool_2.5.4-7.dsc
 2777682a21005dcee40173de8e24d1db 37796 devel optional libtool_2.5.4-7.debian.tar.xz
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
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=5J9X
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

On Tue, 21 Oct 2025 00:00:05 +0200 Santiago Vila wrote:
  Therefore this line in debian/rules

I believe that should be:

   automake="automake (= ${AM_VERSION})"


Otherwise the same issues will reappear with automake 1.19 saying
"missing aclocal-1.18"


Cheers
Amos