File: libtool.info,  Node: Configuring,  Next: Distributing,  Prev: Using Automake,  Up: Integrating libtool

5.4 Configuring libtool
=======================

Libtool requires intimate knowledge of your compiler suite and operating
system to be able to create shared libraries and link against them
properly.  When you install the libtool distribution, a system-specific
libtool script is installed into your binary directory.

   However, when you distribute libtool with your own packages (*note
Distributing::), you do not always know the compiler suite and operating
system that are used to compile your package.

   For this reason, libtool must be “configured” before it can be used.
This idea should be familiar to anybody who has used a GNU ‘configure’
script.  ‘configure’ runs a number of tests for system features, then
generates the ‘Makefile’s (and possibly a ‘config.h’ header file), after
which you can run ‘make’ and build the package.

   Libtool adds its own tests to your ‘configure’ script to generate a
libtool script for the installer's host machine.

* Menu:

* LT_INIT::                     Configuring ‘libtool’ in ‘configure.ac’.
* Configure notes::             Platform-specific notes for configuration.