What is makeinfo, and how do I get it?

Question

I\'m trying to build GNU grep, and when I run make, I get:

[snip]
/bin/bash: line 9: makeinfo: command not found

What is makeinfo, and how do I

Answer 1

If you build packages from scratch:

• Download a version from here: http://www.gnu.org/software/texinfo/
  • As of writing, version 5.2 is the latest.
• Learn how to build here: http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/lfs/view/stable/chapter05/texinfo.html
  • LFS project is constantly updating, but texinfo build/install instructions rarely change.

Specifically, if you build bash from source, install docs, including man pages, will fail (silently) without makeinfo available.