"Fixing" ebuild using old autotools

MPD (example) added AM_SILENT_RULES (silent build) to its configure.ac not too long ago. This macro is only available in automake 1.11. The ebuild that is in the mpd overlay explicitly state that it wants automake 1.10 and therefore fails. The fix? Install automake >= 1.11 and then change the ebuild like this.

Find the line:

WANT_AUTOMAKE="1.10"

and change it to:

WANT_AUTOMAKE="1.11"

or

WANT_AUTOMAKE="latest"

Mind you, this will make the ebuild mismatch with the manifest and therefore still fail. Report it to the overlay maintainer so they can fix it proper.

In the meantime you can prefix your emerge command with:

FEATURES="-strict"

to bypass the manifest check and force an install.