svn repository bootstrap woes

[Vaughn Treude]

Hello:
I know there are subversion gurus out there, so maybe you can help me:
I've been trying to build some files from a subversion repository. 
Target system is running Mandriva 2005; I've never used subversion
before so I had to download it.  I then got the source files downloaded
using the svn command and tried to build them - surprise, no configure
script or makefile!  The readme file says I need to run "bootstrap" to
create a configure script.  Fine, but I was missing half a dozen apps
(autoconf, automake, libtool, gettext, etc.) which I downloaded one at a
time.  Finally I think I've got everything and I get this ridiculous
message.

autopoint: *** infrastructure files for version 0.11.5 not found; this
is autopoint from GNU gettext-tools 0.14.1
autopoint: *** Stop.

Does this mean I have to downgrade my version of autopoint?  If so, that
really pisses me off, especially in light of the feedback from Google
saying that older versions of autopoint had major security
vulnerabilities.

Of course, there's always the possibility that this message is totally
erroneous (seems to happen to me about 50% of the time).  One posting I
found via Google claimed this message was the result of missing CVS,
except that I'm NOT missing CVS.  Never used it, though, perhaps I need
to configure it or something, maybe the repository doesn't exist.

Another odd problem was that I couldn't find the gettextize script
anywhere.  One site said it's been replaced by setup-gettext, so I got
that script and created a link (maybe not the right thing to do.)

I suppose I could try an older version of gettext-tools but I don't want
to screw up my system that way unless it's absolutely necessary.

Any hints?

Vaughn