1 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
2 <!DOCTYPE sect1 PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.3CR2//EN" "http://www.docbook.org/xml/4.3CR2/docbookx.dtd" [
3 <!ENTITY % autoconf-entities SYSTEM "../ent/autoconf.ent">
6 <sect1 id="aa-autoconf" xreflabel="Autoconf">
7 <title>Autoconf</title>
8 <?dbhtml filename="autoconf.html"?>
10 <para>For installation instructions see <xref linkend="ch06-autoconf"/>.</para>
14 <title>Official Download Location</title>
16 <literallayout>Autoconf (&autoconf-version;):
17 <ulink url="ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/autoconf/"/></literallayout>
21 <xi:include xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2003/XInclude" href="autoconf-contents.xml"/>
24 <sect2><title>Short descriptions</title>
26 <para><command>autoconf</command> is a tool for producing shell scripts
27 that automatically configure software source code packages to adapt to many
28 kinds of Unix-like systems. The configuration scripts it produces are
29 independent -- running them does not require the autoconf program.</para>
31 <para><command>autoheader</command> is a tool for creating template files
32 of C #define statements for configure to use.</para>
34 <para><command>autom4te</command> is a wrapper for the M4 macro
37 <para><command>autoreconf</command> comes in handy when there are a lot
38 of autoconf-generated configure scripts around. The program runs autoconf and
39 autoheader repeatedly (where appropriate) to remake the autoconf configure
40 scripts and configuration header templates in a given directory tree.</para>
42 <para><command>autoscan</command> can help to create a
43 <filename>configure.in</filename> file for a software package. It examines
44 the source files in a directory tree, searching them for common portability
45 problems and creates a <filename>configure.scan</filename> file that serves as
46 as a preliminary <filename>configure.in</filename> for the package.</para>
48 <para><command>autoupdate</command> modifies a
49 <filename>configure.in</filename> file that still calls autoconf macros
50 by their old names to use the current macro names.</para>
52 <para><command>ifnames</command> can be helpful when writing a
53 <filename>configure.in</filename> for a software package. It prints the
54 identifiers that the package uses in C preprocessor conditionals. If a package
55 has already been set up to have some portability, this program can help to
56 determine what <userinput>configure</userinput> needs to check. It can fill
57 in some gaps in a <filename>configure.in</filename> file generated by
64 <xi:include xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2003/XInclude" href="autoconf-deps.xml"/>