Sketchy start at information on using files in gnulib. for mktemp, need these files (including adding to EXTRA_DIST): $GNULIBSRC/m4/check-decl.m4 m4 $GNULIBSRC/m4/mkstemp.m4 m4 $GNULIBSRC/m4/prereq.m4 m4 $GNULIBSRC/lib/tempname.c lib $GNULIBSRC/lib/mkstemp.c lib then in configure.ac: AC_DEFUN([texinfo_MACROS], [ AC_REQUIRE([jm_PREREQ_TEMPNAME])dnl for mkstemp AC_REQUIRE([UTILS_FUNC_MKSTEMP]) ])dnl texinfo_MACROS