File: gettext.info,  Node: aclocal,  Next: config.h.in,  Prev: mkinstalldirs,  Up: Adjusting Files

14.4.9 ‘aclocal.m4’ at top level
--------------------------------

   If you do not have an ‘aclocal.m4’ file in your distribution, the
simplest is to concatenate the files ‘build-to-host.m4’, ‘gettext.m4’,
‘host-cpu-c-abi.m4’, ‘intlmacosx.m4’, ‘iconv.m4’, ‘lib-ld.m4’,
‘lib-link.m4’, ‘lib-prefix.m4’, ‘nls.m4’, ‘po.m4’, ‘progtest.m4’ from
GNU ‘gettext’'s ‘PREFIX/share/gettext/m4/’ directory into a single file.

   If you already have an ‘aclocal.m4’ file, then you will have to merge
the said macro files into your ‘aclocal.m4’.  Note that if you are
upgrading from a previous release of GNU ‘gettext’, you should most
probably _replace_ the macros (‘AM_GNU_GETTEXT’, etc.), as they usually
change a little from one release of GNU ‘gettext’ to the next.  Their
contents may vary as we get more experience with strange systems out
there.

   You should be using GNU ‘automake’ 1.9 or newer.  With it, you need
to copy the files ‘build-to-host.m4’, ‘gettext.m4’, ‘host-cpu-c-abi.m4’,
‘intlmacosx.m4’, ‘iconv.m4’, ‘lib-ld.m4’, ‘lib-link.m4’,
‘lib-prefix.m4’, ‘nls.m4’, ‘po.m4’, ‘progtest.m4’ from GNU ‘gettext’'s
‘PREFIX/share/gettext/m4/’ directory to a subdirectory named ‘m4/’ and
add the line

     ACLOCAL_AMFLAGS = -I m4

to your top level ‘Makefile.am’.

   If you are using GNU ‘automake’ 1.12 or newer, it is even easier: Add
the line

     ACLOCAL_AMFLAGS = -I m4

to your top level ‘Makefile.am’, and run ‘aclocal --install
--system-acdir=PREFIX/share/gettext/m4 -I m4’.  This will copy the
needed files to the ‘m4/’ subdirectory automatically, before updating
‘aclocal.m4’.

   Note: This ‘--system-acdir’ option should only be used here, once.
If you were to use it after ‘autopoint’ has been run, it would destroy
the consistency that ‘autopoint’ guarantees and lead to all sorts of
malfunction at build time.

   These macros check for the internationalization support functions and
related information.