(autoconf.info)Invoking config.status

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11 Recreating a Configuration
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The 'configure' script creates a file named 'config.status' which
describes which configuration options were specified when the package
was last configured.  This file is a shell script which, if run, will
recreate the same configuration.

   You can give 'config.status' the '--recheck' option to update itself.
This option is useful if you change 'configure', so that the results of
some tests might be different from the previous run.  The '--recheck'
option re-runs 'configure' with the same arguments you used before, plus
the '--no-create' option, which prevent 'configure' from running
'config.status' and creating 'Makefile' and other files, and the
'--no-recursion' option, which prevents 'configure' from running other
'configure' scripts in subdirectories.  (This is so other 'Makefile'
rules can run 'config.status' when it changes; Note: Automatic
Remaking, for an example).

   'config.status' also accepts the options '--help', which prints a
summary of the options to 'config.status', and '--version', which prints
the version of Autoconf used to create the 'configure' script that
generated 'config.status'.

   'config.status' checks several optional environment variables that
can alter its behavior:

 -- Variable: CONFIG_SHELL
     The shell with which to run 'configure' for the '--recheck' option.
     It must be Bourne-compatible.  The default is '/bin/sh'.

 -- Variable: CONFIG_STATUS
     The file name to use for the shell script that records the
     configuration.  The default is './config.status'.  This variable is
     useful when one package uses parts of another and the 'configure'
     scripts shouldn't be merged because they are maintained separately.

   The following variables provide one way for separately distributed
packages to share the values computed by 'configure'.  Doing so can be
useful if some of the packages need a superset of the features that one
of them, perhaps a common library, does.  These variables allow a
'config.status' file to create files other than the ones that its
'configure.in' specifies, so it can be used for a different package.

 -- Variable: CONFIG_FILES
     The files in which to perform '@VARIABLE@' substitutions.  The
     default is the arguments given to 'AC_OUTPUT' in 'configure.in'.

 -- Variable: CONFIG_HEADERS
     The files in which to substitute C '#define' statements.  The
     default is the arguments given to 'AC_CONFIG_HEADER'; if that macro
     was not called, 'config.status' ignores this variable.

   These variables also allow you to write 'Makefile' rules that
regenerate only some of the files.  For example, in the dependencies
given above (Note: Automatic Remaking), 'config.status' is run twice
when 'configure.in' has changed.  If that bothers you, you can make each
run only regenerate the files for that rule:

     config.h: stamp-h
     stamp-h: config.h.in config.status
             CONFIG_FILES= CONFIG_HEADERS=config.h ./config.status
             echo > stamp-h

     Makefile: Makefile.in config.status
             CONFIG_FILES=Makefile CONFIG_HEADERS= ./config.status

(If 'configure.in' does not call 'AC_CONFIG_HEADER', there is no need to
set 'CONFIG_HEADERS' in the 'make' rules.)