libtool: unrecognized option `-static` when building

[brycekahle]

Fresh clone and first attempt at building io.js, After running ./configure and make, I encounter this error:

/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/usr/bin/make -C out BUILDTYPE=Release V=1
  rm -f /Users/bwkahle/git/io.js/out/Release/libgtest.a && ./gyp-mac-tool filter-libtool libtool  -static -o /Users/bwkahle/git/io.js/out/Release/libgtest.a /Users/bwkahle/git/io.js/out/Release/obj.target/gtest/deps/gtest/src/gtest-death-test.o /Users/bwkahle/git/io.js/out/Release/obj.target/gtest/deps/gtest/src/gtest-filepath.o /Users/bwkahle/git/io.js/out/Release/obj.target/gtest/deps/gtest/src/gtest-port.o /Users/bwkahle/git/io.js/out/Release/obj.target/gtest/deps/gtest/src/gtest-printers.o /Users/bwkahle/git/io.js/out/Release/obj.target/gtest/deps/gtest/src/gtest-test-part.o /Users/bwkahle/git/io.js/out/Release/obj.target/gtest/deps/gtest/src/gtest-typed-test.o /Users/bwkahle/git/io.js/out/Release/obj.target/gtest/deps/gtest/src/gtest.o /Users/bwkahle/git/io.js/out/Release/obj.target/gtest/deps/gtest/src/gtest_main.o
libtool: unrecognized option `-static'
libtool: Try `libtool --help' for more information.
make[1]: *** [/Users/bwkahle/git/io.js/out/Release/libgtest.a] Error 1
make: *** [iojs] Error 2

Here is version information for my build environment:

gcc -v
Configured with: --prefix=/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/usr --with-gxx-include-dir=/usr/include/c++/4.2.1
Apple LLVM version 6.1.0 (clang-602.0.53) (based on LLVM 3.6.0svn)
Target: x86_64-apple-darwin14.4.0
Thread model: posix

make -v
GNU Make 3.81
Copyright (C) 2006  Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions.
There is NO warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A
PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

This program built for i386-apple-darwin11.3.0

python --version
Python 2.7.10

Any help is much appreciated. Thanks!

[bnoordhuis]

I speculate that you have a libtool from e.g. homebrew on your path somewhere. which libtool should print /usr/bin/libtool and libtool --version should probably be 2.4.2.

[brycekahle]

Thanks for the reply! You are a correct, it was libtool from chefdk at /opt/chefdk/embedded/bin/libtool.

[jrgleason]

What happens if you are at 2.4.6? Do we need to downgrade?

[wm-oci]

It seems odd that a libtool minor update (from 2.4.2 to 2.4.6) should be a breaking change. This is also causing nodejs to fail on install, specifically to install node-gyp during node-gyp's make step.

macOS High Sierra
libtool 2.4.6
GNU Make 3.81
node 10.5.0
node-gyp -v v3.6.2

Try 'libtool --help' for more information.
libtool:   error: unrecognised option: '-static'
make: *** [Release/sass.a] Error 1
gyp ERR! build error
gyp ERR! stack Error: `make` failed with exit code: 2
gyp ERR! stack     at ChildProcess.onExit (/Users/you/project/node_modules/node-gyp/lib/build.js:258:23)
gyp ERR! stack     at ChildProcess.emit (events.js:182:13)
gyp ERR! stack     at Process.ChildProcess._handle.onexit (internal/child_process.js:237:12)
gyp ERR! System Darwin 17.4.0
gyp ERR! command "/usr/local/bin/node" "/Users/you/project/node_modules/node-gyp/bin/node-gyp.js" "rebuild" "--verbose" "--libsass_ext=" "--libsass_cflags=" "--libsass_ldflags=" "--libsass_library="
gyp ERR! cwd /Users/you/project/node_modules/node-sass
gyp ERR! node -v v10.5.0
gyp ERR! node-gyp -v v3.6.2
gyp ERR! not ok
Build failed with error code: 1

[zomglings]

Any updates on this issue? I had to do some path gymnastics to get around this on my mac.

OS: macOS High Sierra
libtool 2.4.6 (installed with MacPorts)
node 9.11.2

[zomglings]

Wit MacPorts, this worked for me:

sudo port deactivate libtool
npm install
sudo port activate libtool

[Alphatone]

Had this error with my local MAMP setup.
OS: macOS High Sierra 13.6
node: 10.12.0 / 6.11.14 (tried both)

Does not work:
PATH=/Applications/MAMP/Library/bin/:$PATH

Does work:
PATH=/usr/local/bin:$PATH

I switched back and forth between the MAMP path and the usr/local/bin, works now with the MAMP path as well. If anyone can tell me why, I would highly appreciate it.

[zk4]

try this

brew unlink libtool
rm -rf /usr/local/bin/libtool
which libtool

point to /usr/bin/libtool

[wuliupo]

try this

brew unlink libtool
rm -rf /usr/local/bin/libtool
which libtool

point to /usr/bin/libtool

Thanks @zk4 . it works for me

[benchuk]

Thanks @zk4 . it works for me as well!

[bosporos]

Since I use neither macports or homebrew (I do my builds straight from source), I had to cook up something a little more homebrew; the end-product you see before you.

A pair of liners that worked for me (should be done in the same shell context, tho, because it relies on the variable $CHANGED_FILES to keep the information; you could rework it to save to a file, too):

1. Renames all libtools in $PATH to libtool_hidden (except for /usr/bin/libtool), and dumps the paths to the libtools (pre-change) to a variable named $CHANGED_FILES. Run before compiling node

CHANGED_FILES=''; while [[ `which libtool` != '/usr/bin/libtool' ]] ; do ORIGINAL=`which libtool`; CHANGED_FILES="$CHANGED_FILES $ORIGINAL"; mv `which libtool` `which libtool`_hidden ; done

2. Moves the libtool_hidden files back to where they were originally:

for file in $CHANGED_FILES ; do mv "$(dirname $file)/libtool_hidden" $file ; done

[matthewbauer]

@brycekahle Can this be reopened? This is still a valid issue from what I can tell. node-gyp should provide a fallback in the case where GNU libtool is in your PATH. In some cases GNU libtool needs to be in your PATH based on requirements from other packages.