A number of GNU manuals are relevant to the topics
discussed in this chapter, and will give you a deeper
understanding. It is worth reading the tutorial sections of
each of these. GNU manuals come with the software, and are
also available from
https://www.gnu.org/doc/doc.html.
-
The libtool manual
explains the intermediate
.lo and .la files
created while your program or library is compiling; automake generates makefiles
which use libtool.
-
The autoconf manual
explains how to write
configure.in and its associated files.
-
The automake manual
explains how to write a
Makefile.am.
-
The gettext manual has
sections titled "Programmers" and "Maintainers"; you
should read these to learn how the intl and po
subdirectories work.
-
The GNU coding standards describe how GNU packages
should behave; autoconf
and automake try to
implement these standards.
-
The GNU hello package is
intended to demonstrate the GNU packaging standards,
and is an excellent source of examples. "GnomeHello"
and other Gnome packages are a good source of
Gnome-specific examples, of course.
-
The manuals for make, the
Bourne shell, and m4 are
essential if you need to write custom configure checks or add Makefile targets outside of automake's capabilities.
