Problem building PAL library with automake version mismatch in WSL

[paudelsirjana612-spec]

Subject: Problem building PAL library with automake version mismatch in WSL
Hello,
I am trying to install the PAL (Positional Astronomy Library) from the source code on my system, but I'm consistently running into an issue with the build process. I would appreciate any guidance you can offer.
My Goal:
To successfully build and install the PAL library (version 0.9.7).
My System:

• OS: Windows 10/11

• Environment: WSL2 with Ubuntu

• Dependencies: The ERFA library is already installed in a local directory.
  The Problem:
  I am unable to generate the configure script for the PAL library. When I run autoreconf -i, I get an automake version mismatch error. The project seems to require a specific version (1.8.2-starlink), which is causing the build to fail.
  Steps I Have Taken (with exact output):

• I have already navigated into the PAL source directory (pal-0.9.7). My file structure looks like this:
  sirjana@DESKTOP-LEDV5JA:~$ ls -F
  automake-1.8.2/ erfa/ pal/ root-6.18.04/
  automake-1.8.2.tar.gz erfa-install/ pal-0.9.7/ starlink/

• When I run the autoreconf -i command inside the pal-0.9.7 folder, I get the following error:
  sirjana@DESKTOP-LEDV5JA:~/pal-0.9.7$ autoreconf -i
  configure.ac:11: require Automake 1.8.2-starlink, but have 1.8.2
  autoreconf: automake failed with exit status: 1

• I have located the Starlink-specific automake executable using the find command:
  sirjana@DESKTOP-LEDV5JA:~/pal-0.9.7$ find ../starlink -name "*automake"
  ../starlink/thirdparty/fsf/autotools/automake/automake

• I tried to explicitly use this path to run autoreconf -i, but it also failed with a similar error:
  sirjana@DESKTOP-LEDV5JA:~/pal-0.9.7$ AUTOMAKE=../starlink/thirdparty/fsf/autotools/automake/automake autoreconf -i

... This also failed with an automake version mismatch error

I believe the issue is that the autoreconf process is not correctly using the automake executable from the Starlink directory.
Could you please provide the correct command or steps to force the build process to use the specific automake version required by the PAL library?

[paudelsirjana612-spec]

I have downloaded the official v0,9,8 release package fixed the automake issue , the configure script now runs successfully. But the make command fails with a "fetal error: star/util.h: No such file or directory" message.
I ran the make command after successfully running configure, and I got the following error:
sirjana@DESKTOP-LEDV5JA:/mnt/c/Users/Acer/Downloads/pal-0.9.8$ make

... (compilation output)

palDfltin.c:142:11: fatal error: star/util.h: No such file or directory
142 | # include "star/util.h"
| ^~~~~~~~~~~~~
compilation terminated.
make[1]: * [Makefile:1088: libpal_la-palDfltin.lo] Error 1
make[1]: Leaving directory '/mnt/c/Users/Acer/Downloads/pal-0.9.8'
make: * [Makefile:749: all] Error 2

• I used the find command to locate the util.h file within my starlink directory:
  sirjana@DESKTOP-LEDV5JA:/mnt/c/Users/Acer/Downloads/pal-0.9.8$ find ~/starlink -name "util.h"
  /home/sirjana/starlink/libraries/starutil/util.h

• I then checked the contents of the starutil directory, which contains the util.h file:
  sirjana@DESKTOP-LEDV5JA:/mnt/c/Users/Acer/Downloads/pal-0.9.8$ ls -F /home/sirjana/starlink/libraries/starutil/
  LICENCE bootstrap* component.xml.in star_strappend.c star_strlcat.c starutil_link.in* strlcpy.c utiltest.c
  Makefile.am component.xml configure.ac star_strellcpy.c star_strlcpy.c strlcat.c util.h

[timj]

I see we are behind in making formal tar file releases, but the 0.9.8 release should not need any automake usage since it should come with a configure script that you can run directly. Do not try to regenerate the configure script. That configure script should automatically detect whether star/util.h is available or not and do the right thing.