configure failure for a new hdf5 install

Hi folks,

New deployment (and new user :)) on an unusual platform - z/OS (i370-ibm-openedition); installing from hdf5-1.8.15-patch1

After a way on in the configure process it appears to stop after a failure calling xmalloc() ....

checking if bad code for log2 routine is generated... no
checking additional programs should be built... no
checking if deprecated public symbols are available... yes
checking which version of public symbols to use by default... v18
checking whether to perform strict file format checks... no
checking whether to have library information embedded in the executables... yes
checking if alignment restrictions are strictly enforced... no
configure: creating ./config.lt
config.lt: creating libtool
/usr/local/bin/bash: xmalloc: cannot allocate 0 bytes (0 bytes allocated)

Anyone experienced this ? I can't figure out where this is being generated, but it seems quite close to the end of the configure, it's not clear if it's a problem or not.

Any help welcomed ....

Thanks, Martyn