Turns out the bug was apple's version of ranlib. They are quite different. Apple: apple$ ranlib -V Apple Computer, Inc. version cctools-590.18 ranlib: no archives specified Usage: ranlib [-sactfqLT] [-] archive [...] Debian: debian$ ranlib --version GNU ranlib 2.16.91 20051117 Debian GNU/Linux Copyright 2005 Free Software Foundation, Inc. This program is free software; you may redistribute it under the terms of the GNU General Public License. This program has absolutely no warranty.