What development packages do I need to compile libECBUFR from source?

In addition to the basic GNU C package (which under a debian-like system should be named "build-essential") you will also need to install automake, autoconf and libtools.

gettext development libraries (gettext-devel) and utilities are needed to process the internationalization information.

Autopoint, a development component of gettext, needs to be installed separately on Debian/Ubuntu (apt-get install autopoint). On Redhat/Fedora, if the initial configuration (reconf) fails and tells you that autopoint is not found, install gettext-devel.

You will also need doxygen to process and install the documentation. If doxygen is not installed, but all the other required packages are present, the "make" and "make install" will stop prematurely but the binaries will be installed properly.