Ran into a problem with autotools today, thought I’d share my solution. First, the error only happened on an old system:

$ bash autogen.sh 
Found libtoolize
Remember to add `AC_PROG_LIBTOOL' to `configure.ac'.
libtoolize: `config.guess' exists: use `--force' to overwrite
libtoolize: `config.sub' exists: use `--force' to overwrite
libtoolize: `ltmain.sh' exists: use `--force' to overwrite
autoreconf: Entering directory `.'
autoreconf: configure.ac: not using Gettext
autoreconf: running: aclocal --force -I m4
configure.ac:1: error: m4_defn: undefined macro: _m4_divert_diversion
configure.ac:1: the top level
autom4te: /usr/bin/m4 failed with exit status: 1
aclocal: autom4te failed with exit status: 1
autoreconf: aclocal failed with exit status: 1

The autogen.sh file is this one: https://github.com/inliniac/suricata/blob/master/autogen.sh

First lines of configure.ac:

AC_CONFIG_HEADERS([config.h])
AC_INIT(suricata, 2.0dev)
AC_CONFIG_SRCDIR([src/suricata.c])
AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIR(m4)

Solution? Move AC_CONFIG_HEADERS to below AC_INIT, like so:

AC_INIT(suricata, 2.0dev)
AC_CONFIG_HEADERS([config.h])
AC_CONFIG_SRCDIR([src/suricata.c])
AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIR(m4)