Autoconf

• Autoconf
  • Autoconf v2.6.2
  • Autoconf v2.5.7
  • Autoconf Macro Archive

• configure.ac/in

options

~option	description
--srcdir=dirname	to specify the directory where sources are
--prefix --exec-prefix --bindir --sbindir --libexecdir --sysconfdir --sharedstatedir --localstatedir --libdir --includedir --oldincludedir --datarootdir --datadir --infodir --localedir --mandir --docdir --htmldir --dvidir --pdfdir --psdir	standard directory variables
--build=buildtype	should be equivalent to a plain buildtype argument
--host=hosttype	compile a program to run on a host type that differs from the build type
--target=targettype	specify a target different from the host
--enable-feature[=parameter]	build and install an optional user-level facility called feature. Giving an optional parameter of ‘no’ should omit feature, if it is built by default.
--with-package	configure this package to work with package
variable=value	override the default values of commands or arguments in the build

Initialization

macro	Autoconf	Autoheader	Automake
AC_PREREQ	required Autoconf version
AC_INIT	Autoconf initialization
AC_CONFIG_SRCDIR (unique-file-in-source-dir)	checks for this file's existence to make sure that the directory that it is told contains the source code in fact does.
AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE			1.This macro does several things which are required for proper Automake operation. 2.If you are writing your ‘Makefile.in’ by hand, then you don't need to call this command.
AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS	run configure in each subdirectory

Library

macro	Autoconf	Autoheader	Automake
AC_LIBOBJ(function)	Specify that ‘function.c’ must be included in the executables to replace a missing or broken implementation of function.
AC_CHECK_FUNCS (function, action-if-found, action-if-not-found)	define HAVE_function(in all capitals) if it is available
AC_REPLACE_FUNCS	Like AC_CHECK_FUNCS, but uses AC_LIBOBJ(function) as action-if-not-found

Tests

macro	Autoconf	Autoheader	Automake
AC_CHECK_HEADERS(xxx.h)	On systems that have xxx.h, configure defines ‘HAVE_XXX_H’ to 1. Otherwise, the whole line is commented out.
AC_PROG_RANLIB	If you are building a library, then your configure script must determine how to handle ‘ranlib’
AC_PROG_MAKE_SET	define output variable SET_MAKE, needed if you want to have your makefiles call recursively makefiles at subdirectories. This macro checks whether this is needed, and, if so, it sets the ‘Makefile’ variable SET_MAKE to the result.
AC_PROG_INSTALL	checks to see whether your system has a BSD compatible install utility. If not then it uses ‘install-sh’
AC_PROC_XX	suitable compiler for XX program, AC_PROG_CC checks to see which C compiler you have
AC_TRY_LINK(includes, function-body, action-if, action-if-not)	compile test programs to test for functions and global variables(for Examining Libraries)
AC_TRY_COMPILE(includes, function-body, action-if, action-if-not)	check for a syntax feature of the compiler(for Examining Syntax)

Results

macro	Autoconf	Autoheader	Automake
AC_DEFINE	define a C preprocessor macro for variable	the template for a symbol is created from the description argument
AC_SUBST	Create an output variable from a shell variable. Make AC_OUTPUT substitute the variable into output files
AC_CACHE_VAL(cache-id, commands-to-set-it)	If the results of the check identified by cache-id were NOT in the cache file that was read, run the shell commands commands-to-set-it.

Instantiating

• configure is in charge of examining your system, but config.status actually instantiates based on the results of configure.

macro	Autoconf	Autoheader	Automake
AC_CONFIG_HEADER([config.h])/AM_CONFIG_HEADER(config.h)	config.h.in is template file; config.h is output file
AC_CONFIG_FILES(xx) / AC_OUTPUT(xx) (depreciated)	tells configure which files must be generated from templates		AC_CONFIG_FILES([foo/Makefile]) will cause Automake to generate ‘foo/Makefile.in’ if ‘foo/Makefile.am’ exists
AC_CONFIG_LINKS	Make AC_OUTPUT link each of the existing files source to the corresponding link name dest
AC_OUTPUT	1. AC_OUTPUT tells the configure script to generate the files specified in the list of AC_CONFIG_FILES from their templates 2.generate ‘config.status’ and launch it

Site Configuration

macro	Autoconf	Autoheader	Automake
AC_ARG_WITH	—with-package or —without-package