Can't build org autoloads -- Cannot open load file: cl-lib

Question

Because of ongoing difficulties with configuring org-mode, I am trying to run org-mode using the development source code repo rather than through the emacs package. I tried the simplest thing I could see, namely running uncompiled .el files, but this requires autoloads to be built, so I tried to build the autoloads. I am unable to build them, getting the following error. How can I fix this?

org 9.1.4, Emacs 25.1.1 on Mac OS X.

make autoloads
======================================================
= Invoke "make help" for a synopsis of make targets. =
= Created a default local.mk template.               =
= Setting "oldorg" as the default target.            =
= Please adapt local.mk to your local setup!         =
======================================================
Loading /Users/lyn_headley/extern/org-mode/lisp/org-compat.el (source)...
Cannot open load file: cl-lib
make: [local.mk] Error 255 (ignored)
/Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/usr/bin/make -C lisp autoloads
rm -f org-version.el org-loaddefs.el org-version.elc org-loaddefs.elc org-install.elc
org-version: 9.1.4 (release_9.1.4)
Loading /Users/lyn_headley/extern/org-mode/lisp/org-compat.el (source)...
Cannot open load file: cl-lib
make[1]: *** [org-version.el] Error 255
make: *** [autoloads] Error 2

Answer 1

You say you have Emacs 25.1 installed, but the default Emacs on OS X is some ancient version (because of Apple's refusal to use GPLv3). So I guess "make autoloads" is using the ancient default Emacs, which lacks cl-lib. So you need to read the Org instructions to see how to specify a particular version of Emacs for building. Perhaps "adapt local.mk to your local setup"?

Answer 2

@biefo led the way with his answer. I decided to make my path point to a more recent emacs:

export PATH=/Applications/Emacs.app/Contents/MacOS:$PATH

Now it looks pretty good:

 make autoloads
======================================================
= Invoke "make help" for a synopsis of make targets. =
= Created a default local.mk template.               =
= Setting "oldorg" as the default target.            =
= Please adapt local.mk to your local setup!         =
======================================================
Loading /Users/lyn_headley/extern/org-mode/lisp/org-compat.el (source)...
Loading /Users/lyn_headley/extern/org-mode/mk/org-fixup.el (source)...
/Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/usr/bin/make -C lisp autoloads
rm -f org-version.el org-loaddefs.el org-version.elc org-loaddefs.elc org-install.elc
org-version: 9.1.4 (release_9.1.4)
Loading /Users/lyn_headley/extern/org-mode/lisp/org-compat.el (source)...
Loading /Users/lyn_headley/extern/org-mode/mk/org-fixup.el (source)...
org-loaddefs: 9.1.4 (release_9.1.4)
Loading /Users/lyn_headley/extern/org-mode/lisp/org-compat.el (source)...
Loading /Users/lyn_headley/extern/org-mode/mk/org-fixup.el (source)...
Making generated-autoload-file local to  *autoload-file* while let-bound!