Autotools

File Format
Name	Autotools
Ontology	Electronic File Formats Development Autotools ; ; ;
Extension(s)	.ac, .am, .in, others
Released	~1991

Latest revision as of 07:43, 21 December 2019

Autotools (or GNU Autotools; also called the GNU Build System) is a collective name for autoconf, automake, and libtool. Together, they constitute a toolkit used to help create source packages, and compile and install such packages, on a wide variety of Unix-like computer systems.

Autotools is sometimes considered to include additional utilities beyond the "big three" listed above, such as pkg-config or gettext.

Autotools is frequently criticized for being overly complicated and messy. But its flexibility and portability have proven difficult to replicate, so unfortunately there is often no better option available.

[edit] Discussion

Autotools uses shell scripting, make, M4, and Perl. Each source package is expected to include the Autotools components necessary to compile and install it, so Autotool does not have to be installed locally in order to use it for these purposes. However, if the included components find a local copy of Autotools, they may decide to use parts of it (with consequences that could be good or bad).

[edit] Files

Characteristic filenames used by Autotools include the following:

aclocal.m4
AUTHORS
ChangeLog
compile
config.h.in
config.guess
config.log
config.status
config.sub
configure
configure.ac
configure.in
COPYING
COPYING.LESSER
COPYING.LIB
depcomp
INSTALL
install-sh
libtool
libtool.m4
ltmain.sh
lt*.m4
Makefile.am
Makefile.in
missing
NEWS
README
stamp-h
stamp-h.in
TODO

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Autotools

Latest revision as of 07:43, 21 December 2019

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@@ Line 12: / Line 12: @@
 == Discussion ==
-Autotools uses [[Bourne shell script|shell scripting]], [[Makefile|make]], [[M4]], [[Perl]]. Each source package is expected to include the Autotools components necessary to compile and install it, so Autotool does not have to be installed locally in order to use it for those purposes. However, if the included components find a local copy of Autotools, they may decide to use parts of it instead (with consequences that could be good or bad).
+Autotools uses [[Bourne shell script|shell scripting]], [[Makefile|make]], [[M4]], and [[Perl]]. Each source package is expected to include the Autotools components necessary to compile and install it, so Autotool does not have to be installed locally in order to use it for these purposes. However, if the included components find a local copy of Autotools, they may decide to use parts of it (with consequences that could be good or bad).
 == Files ==
@@ Line 22: / Line 22: @@
   config.h.in
   config.guess
+ config.log
+ config.status
   config.sub
   configure
   configure.ac
+ configure.in
   COPYING
   COPYING.LESSER
@@ Line 31: / Line 34: @@
   INSTALL
   install-sh
+ libtool
   libtool.m4
   ltmain.sh
@@ Line 39: / Line 43: @@
   NEWS
   README
+ stamp-h
+ stamp-h.in
   TODO
@@ Line 63: / Line 69: @@
 * [http://www.airs.com/blog/archives/95 The GNU Configure and Build System (Ian Lance Taylor blog post)]
 * [https://web.archive.org/web/20100729154037/http://varnish-cache.org/docs/phk/autocrap Did you call them ''autocrap'' tools?] (from archive.org)
+* [https://web.archive.org/web/20190605023533/http://voices.canonical.com/jussi.pakkanen/2011/09/13/autotools/ Why GNU Autotools is not my favorite build system]
 * [https://blog.flameeyes.eu/2016/02/yes-we-still-needs-autotools Yes we still needs autotools]
 [[Category:Archiving]]
 [[Category:Source code]]