title: autoconf configure warning: /usr/bin/file: No such file or directory
body: <p>When I use my configure in a ubuntu OS (16), there seems to be no problem. I have installed the autoconf tool and dependencies.  </p>
  
  <p>When I run the same configure file in a ubuntu (16 or latest) The problems is that I did not install any autotools. I am getting the following error message.</p>
  
  <pre><code>./configure: line 7022: /usr/bin/file: No such file or directory
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>This is harmless to the build process.  I just want to understand what's going on. The configure file:</p>
  
  <pre><code>7022     case `/usr/bin/file conftest.o` in
  7023       *32-bit*)
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>It looks that my docker does not have /usr/bin/file.  Which ubuntu packages contain the file utility.  The problem with finding any useful information about '/usr/bin/file' is that file is such a common term, it is not easy to find more info.  On my system with the file utility, I can get the following info from the man page of file:</p>
  
  <pre><code>AVAILABILITY
       You can obtain the original author's latest version by anonymous FTP on ftp.astron.com in the direc‐
       tory /pub/file/file-X.YZ.tar.gz.
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>My question: is 'file' a very basic utility or it is recently added to the autotolls package? Should I install it?</p>