Autoconf

Table of Contents

• Autoconf
• 1 Introduction
• 2 The GNU Build System
  • 2.1 Automake
  • 2.2 Gnulib
  • 2.3 Libtool
  • 2.4 Pointers
• 3 Making configure Scripts
  • 3.1 Writing configure.ac
    • 3.1.1 A Shell Script Compiler
    • 3.1.2 The Autoconf Language
    • 3.1.3 Standard configure.ac Layout
  • 3.2 Using autoscan to Create configure.ac
  • 3.3 Using ifnames to List Conditionals
  • 3.4 Using autoconf to Create configure
  • 3.5 Using autoreconf to Update configure Scripts
• 4 Initialization and Output Files
  • 4.1 Initializing configure
  • 4.2 Notices in configure
  • 4.3 Finding configure Input
  • 4.4 Outputting Files
  • 4.5 Performing Configuration Actions
  • 4.6 Creating Configuration Files
  • 4.7 Substitutions in Makefiles
    • 4.7.1 Preset Output Variables
    • 4.7.2 Installation Directory Variables
    • 4.7.3 Changed Directory Variables
    • 4.7.4 Build Directories
    • 4.7.5 Automatic Remaking
  • 4.8 Configuration Header Files
    • 4.8.1 Configuration Header Templates
    • 4.8.2 Using autoheader to Create config.h.in
    • 4.8.3 Autoheader Macros
  • 4.9 Running Arbitrary Configuration Commands
  • 4.10 Creating Configuration Links
  • 4.11 Configuring Other Packages in Subdirectories
  • 4.12 Default Prefix
• 5 Existing Tests
  • 5.1 Common Behavior
    • 5.1.1 Standard Symbols
    • 5.1.2 Default Includes
  • 5.2 Alternative Programs
    • 5.2.1 Particular Program Checks
    • 5.2.2 Generic Program and File Checks
  • 5.3 Files
  • 5.4 Library Files
  • 5.5 Library Functions
    • 5.5.1 Portability of C Functions
    • 5.5.2 Particular Function Checks
    • 5.5.3 Generic Function Checks
  • 5.6 Header Files
    • 5.6.1 Portability of Headers
    • 5.6.2 Particular Header Checks
    • 5.6.3 Generic Header Checks
  • 5.7 Declarations
    • 5.7.1 Particular Declaration Checks
    • 5.7.2 Generic Declaration Checks
  • 5.8 Structures
    • 5.8.1 Particular Structure Checks
    • 5.8.2 Generic Structure Checks
  • 5.9 Types
    • 5.9.1 Particular Type Checks
    • 5.9.2 Generic Type Checks
  • 5.10 Compilers and Preprocessors
    • 5.10.1 Specific Compiler Characteristics
    • 5.10.2 Generic Compiler Characteristics
    • 5.10.3 C Compiler Characteristics
    • 5.10.4 C++ Compiler Characteristics
    • 5.10.5 Objective C Compiler Characteristics
    • 5.10.6 Erlang Compiler and Interpreter Characteristics
    • 5.10.7 Fortran Compiler Characteristics
  • 5.11 System Services
  • 5.12 Posix Variants
  • 5.13 Erlang Libraries
• 6 Writing Tests
  • 6.1 Language Choice
  • 6.2 Writing Test Programs
    • 6.2.1 Guidelines for Test Programs
    • 6.2.2 Test Functions
    • 6.2.3 Generating Sources
  • 6.3 Running the Preprocessor
  • 6.4 Running the Compiler
  • 6.5 Running the Linker
  • 6.6 Checking Runtime Behavior
  • 6.7 Systemology
  • 6.8 Multiple Cases
• 7 Results of Tests
  • 7.1 Defining C Preprocessor Symbols
  • 7.2 Setting Output Variables
  • 7.3 Special Characters in Output Variables
  • 7.4 Caching Results
    • 7.4.1 Cache Variable Names
    • 7.4.2 Cache Files
    • 7.4.3 Cache Checkpointing
  • 7.5 Printing Messages
• 8 Programming in M4
  • 8.1 M4 Quotation
    • 8.1.1 Active Characters
    • 8.1.2 One Macro Call
    • 8.1.3 Quotation and Nested Macros
    • 8.1.4 changequote is Evil
    • 8.1.5 Quadrigraphs
    • 8.1.6 Quotation Rule Of Thumb
  • 8.2 Using autom4te
    • 8.2.1 Invoking autom4te
    • 8.2.2 Customizing autom4te
  • 8.3 Programming in M4sugar
    • 8.3.1 Redefined M4 Macros
    • 8.3.2 Looping constructs
    • 8.3.3 Evaluation Macros
    • 8.3.4 Text processing Macros
    • 8.3.5 Forbidden Patterns
  • 8.4 Programming in M4sh
  • 8.5 File Descriptor Macros
• 9 Writing Autoconf Macros
  • 9.1 Macro Definitions
  • 9.2 Macro Names
  • 9.3 Reporting Messages
  • 9.4 Dependencies Between Macros
    • 9.4.1 Prerequisite Macros
    • 9.4.2 Suggested Ordering
    • 9.4.3 One-Shot Macros
  • 9.5 Obsoleting Macros
  • 9.6 Coding Style
• 10 Portable Shell Programming
  • 10.1 Shellology
  • 10.2 Here-Documents
  • 10.3 File Descriptors
  • 10.4 File System Conventions
  • 10.5 Shell Substitutions
  • 10.6 Assignments
  • 10.7 Parentheses in Shell Scripts
  • 10.8 Slashes in Shell Scripts
  • 10.9 Special Shell Variables
  • 10.10 Limitations of Shell Builtins
  • 10.11 Limitations of Usual Tools
• 11 Portable Make Programming
  • 11.1 $< in Ordinary Make Rules
  • 11.2 Failure in Make Rules
  • 11.3 Special Characters in Make Macro Names
  • 11.4 Backslash-Newline-Newline in Make Macro Values
  • 11.5 Backslash-Newline in Make Comments
  • 11.6 Long Lines in Makefiles
  • 11.7 make macro=value and Submakes
  • 11.8 The Make Macro MAKEFLAGS
  • 11.9 The Make Macro SHELL
  • 11.10 Comments in Make Rules
  • 11.11 The obj/ Subdirectory and Make
  • 11.12 Exit Status of make -k
  • 11.13 VPATH and Make
    • 11.13.1 VPATH and Double-colon Rules
    • 11.13.2 $< Not Supported in Explicit Rules
    • 11.13.3 Automatic Rule Rewriting
    • 11.13.4 OSF/Tru64 make Creates Prerequisite Directories Magically
    • 11.13.5 Make Target Lookup
  • 11.14 Single Suffix Rules and Separated Dependencies
  • 11.15 Timestamp Resolution and Make
• 12 Portable C and C++ Programming
  • 12.1 Varieties of Unportability
  • 12.2 Integer Overflow
  • 12.3 Properties of Null Pointers
  • 12.4 Buffer Overruns and Subscript Errors
  • 12.5 Floating Point Portability
  • 12.6 Exiting Portably
• 13 Manual Configuration
  • 13.1 Specifying the System Type
  • 13.2 Getting the Canonical System Type
  • 13.3 Using the System Type
• 14 Site Configuration
  • 14.1 Controlling Help Output
  • 14.2 Working With External Software
  • 14.3 Choosing Package Options
  • 14.4 Making Your Help Strings Look Pretty
  • 14.5 Configuring Site Details
  • 14.6 Transforming Program Names When Installing
    • 14.6.1 Transformation Options
    • 14.6.2 Transformation Examples
    • 14.6.3 Transformation Rules
  • 14.7 Setting Site Defaults
• 15 Running configure Scripts
  • 15.1 Basic Installation
  • 15.2 Compilers and Options
  • 15.3 Compiling For Multiple Architectures
  • 15.4 Installation Names
  • 15.5 Optional Features
  • 15.6 Specifying the System Type
  • 15.7 Sharing Defaults
  • 15.8 Defining Variables
  • 15.9 configure Invocation
• 16 Recreating a Configuration
• 17 Obsolete Constructs
  • 17.1 Obsolete config.status Invocation
  • 17.2 acconfig.h
  • 17.3 Using autoupdate to Modernize configure.ac
  • 17.4 Obsolete Macros
  • 17.5 Upgrading From Version 1
    • 17.5.1 Changed File Names
    • 17.5.2 Changed Makefiles
    • 17.5.3 Changed Macros
    • 17.5.4 Changed Results
    • 17.5.5 Changed Macro Writing
  • 17.6 Upgrading From Version 2.13
    • 17.6.1 Changed Quotation
    • 17.6.2 New Macros
    • 17.6.3 Hosts and Cross-Compilation
    • 17.6.4 AC_LIBOBJ vs. LIBOBJS
    • 17.6.5 AC_FOO_IFELSE vs. AC_TRY_FOO
• 18 Generating Test Suites with Autotest
  • 18.1 Using an Autotest Test Suite
    • 18.1.1 testsuite Scripts
    • 18.1.2 Autotest Logs
  • 18.2 Writing testsuite.at
  • 18.3 Running testsuite Scripts
  • 18.4 Making testsuite Scripts
• 19 Frequent Autoconf Questions, with answers
  • 19.1 Distributing configure Scripts
  • 19.2 Why Require GNU M4?
  • 19.3 How Can I Bootstrap?
  • 19.4 Why Not Imake?
  • 19.5 How Do I #define Installation Directories?
  • 19.6 What is autom4te.cache?
  • 19.7 Header Present But Cannot Be Compiled
• 20 History of Autoconf
  • 20.1 Genesis
  • 20.2 Exodus
  • 20.3 Leviticus
  • 20.4 Numbers
  • 20.5 Deuteronomy
• Appendix A Copying This Manual
  • A.1 GNU Free Documentation License
    • A.1.1 ADDENDUM: How to use this License for your documents
• Appendix B Indices
  • B.1 Environment Variable Index
  • B.2 Output Variable Index
  • B.3 Preprocessor Symbol Index
  • B.4 Autoconf Macro Index
  • B.5 M4 Macro Index
  • B.6 Autotest Macro Index
  • B.7 Program and Function Index
  • B.8 Concept Index