Problem compiling new upstream version, what to do?

[Stan Vasilyev <stan.vasilyev@csun.edu>]

I'm trying to package the new version of xdialog: Xdialog-2.1.2. The upstream 
tarball doesn't compile on my system. When I run configure and make I get:

RANLIB@: Command not found

I found a way to fix that error by running autogen.sh in the source tree. 
Should I repackage the upstream tarball or email the upstream author about 
this problem?

Thanks,
Stan

PS, Here is the full output of make:

make
make  all-recursive
make[1]: Entering directory `/home/stan/debian/xdialog/Xdialog-2.1.2'
Making all in m4
make[2]: Entering directory `/home/stan/debian/xdialog/Xdialog-2.1.2/m4'
make[2]: Nothing to be done for `all'.
make[2]: Leaving directory `/home/stan/debian/xdialog/Xdialog-2.1.2/m4'
Making all in lib
make[2]: Entering directory `/home/stan/debian/xdialog/Xdialog-2.1.2/lib'
gcc -DHAVE_CONFIG_H -I. -I. -I.. -DLOCALEDIR=\"/usr/local/share/locale\" -I.    
-g -O2 -Wall -s -c getopt.c
gcc -DHAVE_CONFIG_H -I. -I. -I.. -DLOCALEDIR=\"/usr/local/share/locale\" -I.    
-g -O2 -Wall -s -c getopt1.c
rm -f libgetopt.a
ar cru libgetopt.a getopt.o getopt1.o
make[2]: RANLIB@: Command not found
make[2]: *** [libgetopt.a] Error 127
make[2]: Leaving directory `/home/stan/debian/xdialog/Xdialog-2.1.2/lib'
make[1]: *** [all-recursive] Error 1
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/stan/debian/xdialog/Xdialog-2.1.2'
make: *** [all-recursive-am] Error 2