Zsh source archives are distributed with pre-created documentation, including a file zsh.texi. You checked zsh from git, so you only get the original source files. The documentation is created using Yodl , and the makefile is configured to collect documentation by default. Install Yodl (on OSX you may need to build it from the source). If you are in a hurry and do not want to create documentation, configure the makefile to skip the documentation assembly: remove Docfrom SUBDIRSand from the loop forin the target all.