I can only reproduce this issue on the Ubuntu Oneiric beta and don't really understand it. When I try to build texinfo I see the following output: "make[3]: `makeinfo' is up to date. | make[3]: Leaving directory `/srv/Yocto/poky/build/tmp/work/i586-poky-linux/texinfo-4.13a-r1/texinfo-4.13/makeinfo' | /bin/sh /srv/Yocto/poky/build/tmp/work/i586-poky-linux/texinfo-4.13a-r1/texinfo-4.13/build-aux/missing --run help2man --name="translate Texinfo documents" ..//makeinfo/makeinfo -o makeinfo.1 | unset TEXI2DVI_BUILD_MODE; unset TEXI2DVI_BUILD_DIRECTORY; PATH="../util:${PATH}"; export PATH; /bin/sh /srv/Yocto/poky/build/tmp/work/i586-poky-linux/texinfo-4.13a-r1/texinfo-4.13/build-aux/missing --run help2man --name="convert Texinfo documents to DVI" ../util/texi2dvi >texi2dvi.1 | make[3]: `infokey' is up to date. | make[3]: Leaving directory `/srv/Yocto/poky/build/tmp/work/i586-poky-linux/texinfo-4.13a-r1/texinfo-4.13/info' | /bin/sh /srv/Yocto/poky/build/tmp/work/i586-poky-linux/texinfo-4.13a-r1/texinfo-4.13/build-aux/missing --run help2man --name="compile customizations for Info" ..//info/infokey -o infokey.1 | make[3]: `ginfo' is up to date. | make[3]: Leaving directory `/srv/Yocto/poky/build/tmp/work/i586-poky-linux/texinfo-4.13a-r1/texinfo-4.13/info' | /bin/sh /srv/Yocto/poky/build/tmp/work/i586-poky-linux/texinfo-4.13a-r1/texinfo-4.13/build-aux/missing --run help2man --name="read Info documents" ..//info/ginfo -o info.1 | unset TEXI2DVI_BUILD_MODE; unset TEXI2DVI_BUILD_DIRECTORY; PATH="../util:${PATH}"; export PATH; /bin/sh /srv/Yocto/poky/build/tmp/work/i586-poky-linux/texinfo-4.13a-r1/texinfo-4.13/build-aux/missing --run help2man --name="convert Texinfo documents to PDF" ../util/texi2pdf >texi2pdf.1 | help2man: can't get `--help' info from ..//install-info/ginstall-info | Try `--no-discard-stderr' if option outputs to stderr | unset TEXI2DVI_BUILD_MODE; unset TEXI2DVI_BUILD_DIRECTORY; PATH="../util:${PATH}"; export PATH; /bin/sh /srv/Yocto/poky/build/tmp/work/i586-poky-linux/texinfo-4.13a-r1/texinfo-4.13/build-aux/missing --run help2man --name="convert Texinfo documents to PDF" ../util/pdftexi2dvi >pdftexi2dvi.1 | mv makeinfo.1 makeinfo.1.tmp | help2man: can't get `--help' info from ..//info/ginfo | Try `--no-discard-stderr' if option outputs to stderr | sed '/^\.IP$/N;/\nAlso/s/I//;/\nThe/s/I//' makeinfo.1.tmp >makeinfo.1 | rm makeinfo.1.tmp | make[2]: *** [install-info.1] Error 1 | make[2]: *** Waiting for unfinished jobs.... | make[2]: *** [info.1] Error 1 | make[2]: Leaving directory `/srv/Yocto/poky/build/tmp/work/i586-poky-linux/texinfo-4.13a-r1/texinfo-4.13/doc' | make[1]: *** [all-recursive] Error 1 | make[1]: Leaving directory `/srv/Yocto/poky/build/tmp/work/i586-poky-linux/texinfo-4.13a-r1/texinfo-4.13' | make: *** [all] Error 2 | ERROR: oe_runmake failed" There's some failure running missing with the help2man program argument. Reading the help of missing I see that the help2man program value apparently just touches the output file - therefore I've prepared a patch which touches the three files 'missing help2man' fails on in do_install_prepend With the proposed patch I can successfully build texinfo on Ubuntu Oneiric Beta.
Created attachment 260 [details] The proposed patch to touch problematic help2man targets
With the proposed patch from Richard to drop help2man this issue goes away: http://lists.linuxtogo.org/pipermail/openembedded-core/2011-September/010351.html
Its no longer proposed, its in master.
Fixed by the removal of the help2man dependency and the dummy help2man script. Patch is in Edison: http://git.yoctoproject.org/cgit/cgit.cgi/poky/commit/?h=edison&id=fbec4752750cdc326a0ea670e808179adc73bed0
Definitely fixed