Autoconf

processing

Autoconf is a tool for producing shell scripts that automatically configure software source code packages to adapt to many kinds of UNIX-like systems. The configuration scripts produced by Autoconf are independent of Autoconf when they are run, so their users do not need to have Autoconf.

Together with Automake and Libtool, Autoconf forms the GNU build system.

Autoconf makes use of GNU m4 to transform a user-written 'configure.ac' (formerly, and on older projects called 'configure.in') file to a portable shell script called 'configure'. The 'configure' script runs non-interactively, and generates customized headers and makefiles derived from pre-written templates. You could say that autoconf compiles the M4 program in 'configure.ac' into a shell script.

External links

• GNU Autoconf home page
• GNU Autoconf macro archive
• Online version of The Goat Book
• Tutorial "Learning Autoconf and Automake" by Eleftherios Gkioulekas
• Another tutorial.
• Murray Cumming (of GTKmm fame) produced these Autotools cheat sheets.
• Autotoolset home page
• Tutorial "Using Autoconf for fun and profit" by Axel Liljencrantz shows how to perform common, useful tests like checking for headers and providing fallbacks for missing functions using Autoconf
• The "Autotools Tutorial" by Alexandre Duret-Lutz introduces Autoconf, Automake, Libtool, and Gettext.