[ < ] | [ > ] | [ << ] | [ Up ] | [ >> ] | [Top] | [Contents] | [Index] | [ ? ] |
2. An Introduction to the Autotools
If you are new to Automake, maybe you know that it is part of a set of tools called The Autotools. Maybe you've already delved into a package full of files named ‘configure’, ‘configure.ac’, ‘Makefile.in’, ‘Makefile.am’, ‘aclocal.m4’, …, some of them claiming to be generated by Autoconf or Automake. But the exact purpose of these files and their relations is probably fuzzy. The goal of this chapter is to introduce you to this machinery, to show you how it works and how powerful it is. If you've never installed or seen such a package, do not worry: this chapter will walk you through it.
If you need some teaching material, more illustrations, or a less
automake
-centered continuation, some slides for this
introduction are available in Alexandre Duret-Lutz's
Autotools Tutorial.
This chapter is the written version of the first part of his tutorial.
2.1 Introducing the GNU Build System | ||
2.2 Use Cases for the GNU Build System | ||
2.3 How Autotools Help | ||
2.4 A Small Hello World | A Small Hello World Package |