View Source: AutoTools - Waikato Linux Users Group

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The AutoTools are a collection of [GNU] tools to manage the build environment for highly portable projects.

They include:
* Autoconf (the thing that generates <tt>configure</tt> scripts)
* Automake (the thing that generates MakeFile~s from <tt>Makefile.am</tt> sources)

If you think about it, Automake is basically an extra layer added to patch up limitations in the original Makefile concept. Some development projects have been moving to alternatives to Make and parts of Autotools, such as [CMake|http://lwn.net/Articles/188693/] and [Jam|http://www.perforce.com/jam/jam.html].

!configure file

conﬁgure probes the systems for required functions, libraries, and tools and then it generates a conﬁg.h ﬁle with all #defines as well as [MakeFile]s to  build the package.

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Notes:
* [a site full of useful autoconf macros|http://autoconf-archive.cryp.to/]

If you get weird errors like:
<verbatim>
configure.in:13: error: possibly undefined macro: AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE
      If this token and others are legitimate, please use m4_pattern_allow.
      See the Autoconf documentation.
configure.in:28: error: possibly undefined macro: AM_CONFIG_HEADER
configure.in:35: error: possibly undefined macro: AC_PROG_LIBTOOL
configure.in:395: error: possibly undefined macro: AM_CONDITIONAL
</verbatim>

then this means you probably need to upgrade automake(1).

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CategoryProgramming

2 pages link to AutoTools:

Last edited on Monday, June 25, 2007 12:23:21 pm by LawrenceDoliveiro

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