Autotools

• Autotoolset
  • Autotoolset Home
• Autotools
  • GNU Autoconf, Automake and Libtool
  • Using Automake and Autoconf with C++, Using Automake and Autoconf with C+ Chinese translation
  • Autotools Tutorial
  • 3.6 Make工程管理器 3.7 使用autotools
  • Autotools Tutorial for Beginners
  • The GNU configure and build system
  • GNU Autotools

• M4 macro processor
  • GNU M4 1.4.11 macro processor

command sequences

% aclocal # Creating aclocal.m4
% touch README AUTHORS NEWS ChangeLog
% automake -a # Creating Makefile.in # -ac —add-missing —copy
% autoheader # Creating config.h.in
% autoconf # Creating the “configure” Script
% ./configure
% make

File Dependencies

input files	process	output files	description
source code	autoscan	configure.ac/in	generate a preliminary configure.scan, rename it to configure.ac(configure.in)
configure.ac/in, Makefile.am	automake	Makefile.in	-ac flags tells automake that if it can’t find a file it should add the file for you by copying from its store of generic template files
	libtoolize	ltman.sh, ltconfig
configure.ac/.in, acinclude.m4	aclocal	aclocal.m4	1.get Automake-provided macros; acinclude.m4 are automatically included in aclocal.m4 for local macros into configure. 2.This file contains a copy of the definition for any m4 macros you need to run your configure.ac script.
configure.ac/in, aclocal.m4, acsite.m4	autoheader	config.h.in	1.create a template file of C ‘#define’ statements for configure to use 2.This is a template for your “config.h” file that makes sure values get set for any C macros that you want defined.
configure.ac/in, aclocal.m4, acsite.m4	autoconf	configure	autoconf use aclocal.m4 to get Automake-provided macros
	configure	config.status, config.log, config.cache	config.cache saves the results of running many of the tests.
config.h.in, Makefile.in	config.status	config.h, Makefile
config.h, Makefile	make	targets

scripts

script name	description
config.guess	print the correct configuration name for the system it is run on
config.sub	translate strings to the canonical configuration name form
install-sh	a replacement for the install program which works on platforms where install is unavailable or unusable