File: autoconf.info,  Node: Configuration Links,  Next: Subdirectories,  Prev: Configuration Commands,  Up: Setup

4.11 Creating Configuration Links
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You may find it convenient to create links whose destinations depend
upon results of tests.  One can use ‘AC_CONFIG_COMMANDS’ but the
creation of relative symbolic links can be delicate when the package is
built in a directory different from the source directory.

 -- Macro: AC_CONFIG_LINKS (DEST:SOURCE..., [CMDS], [INIT-CMDS])
     Make ‘AC_OUTPUT’ link each of the existing files SOURCE to the
     corresponding link name DEST.  Makes a symbolic link if possible,
     otherwise a hard link if possible, otherwise a copy.  The DEST and
     SOURCE names should be relative to the top level source or build
     directory, and should not contain shell metacharacters.  *Note
     Special Chars in Variables::.

     This macro is one of the instantiating macros; see *note
     Configuration Actions::.

     For example, this call:

          AC_CONFIG_LINKS([host.h:config/$machine.h
                          object.h:config/$obj_format.h])

     creates in the current directory ‘host.h’ as a link to
     ‘SRCDIR/config/$machine.h’, and ‘object.h’ as a link to
     ‘SRCDIR/config/$obj_format.h’.

     The tempting value ‘.’ for DEST is invalid: it makes it impossible
     for ‘config.status’ to guess the links to establish.

     One can then run:
          ./config.status host.h object.h
     to create the links.