6. Scanning ‘configure.ac’

Automake scans the package's ‘configure.ac’ to determine certain information about the package. Some autoconf macros are required and some variables must be defined in ‘configure.ac’. Automake will also use information from ‘configure.ac’ to further tailor its output.

Automake also supplies some Autoconf macros to make the maintenance easier. These macros can automatically be put into your ‘aclocal.m4’ using the aclocal program.