(automake-1.16.info)Top


GNU Automake
************

This manual is for GNU Automake (version 1.16.1, 5 November 2018), a
program that creates GNU standards-compliant Makefiles from template
files.

   Copyright © 1995-2018 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

     Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this
     document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License,
     Version 1.3 or any later version published by the Free Software
     Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, with no Front-Cover texts,
     and with no Back-Cover Texts.  A copy of the license is included in
     the section entitled “GNU Free Documentation License.”

Introduction: Automake’s purpose
Autotools Introduction: An Introduction to the Autotools
Generalities: General ideas
Examples: Some example packages
automake Invocation: Creating a Makefile.in
configure: Scanning configure.ac, using aclocal
Directories: Declaring subdirectories
Programs: Building programs and libraries
Other Objects: Other derived objects
Other GNU Tools: Other GNU Tools
Documentation: Building documentation
Install: What gets installed
Clean: What gets cleaned
Dist: What goes in a distribution
Tests: Support for test suites
Rebuilding: Automatic rebuilding of Makefile
Options: Changing Automake’s behavior
Miscellaneous: Miscellaneous rules
Include: Including extra files in an Automake template
Conditionals: Conditionals
Silencing Make: Obtain less verbose output from ‘make’
Gnits: The effect of ‘--gnu’ and ‘--gnits’
Not Enough: When Automake is not Enough
Distributing: Distributing the Makefile.in
API Versioning: About compatibility between Automake versions
Upgrading: Upgrading to a Newer Automake Version
FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions
Copying This Manual: How to make copies of this manual
Indices: Indices of variables, macros, and concepts

— The Detailed Node Listing — An Introduction to the Autotools

GNU Build System: Introducing the GNU Build System
Use Cases: Use Cases for the GNU Build System
Why Autotools: How Autotools Help
Hello World: A Small Hello World Package

Use Cases for the GNU Build System

Basic Installation: Common installation procedure
Standard Targets: A list of standard Makefile targets
Standard Directory Variables: A list of standard directory variables
Standard Configuration Variables: Using configuration variables
config.site: Using a config.site file
VPATH Builds: Parallel build trees
Two-Part Install: Installing data and programs separately
Cross-Compilation: Building for other architectures
Renaming: Renaming programs at install time
DESTDIR: Building binary packages with DESTDIR
Preparing Distributions: Rolling out tarballs
Dependency Tracking: Automatic dependency tracking
Nested Packages: The GNU Build Systems can be nested

A Small Hello World

Creating amhello: Create ‘amhello-1.0.tar.gz’ from scratch
amhello's configure.ac Setup Explained
amhello's Makefile.am Setup Explained

General ideas

General Operation: General operation of Automake
Strictness: Standards conformance checking
Uniform: The Uniform Naming Scheme
Length Limitations: Staying below the command line length limit
Canonicalization: How derived variables are named
User Variables: Variables reserved for the user
Auxiliary Programs: Programs automake might require

Some example packages

Complete: A simple example, start to finish
true: Building true and false

Scanning ‘configure.ac’, using ‘aclocal’

Requirements: Configuration requirements
Optional: Other things Automake recognizes
aclocal Invocation: Auto-generating aclocal.m4
Macros: Autoconf macros supplied with Automake

Auto-generating aclocal.m4

aclocal Options: Options supported by aclocal
Macro Search Path: How aclocal finds .m4 files
Extending aclocal: Writing your own aclocal macros
Local Macros: Organizing local macros
Serials: Serial lines in Autoconf macros
Future of aclocal: aclocal’s scheduled death

Autoconf macros supplied with Automake

Public Macros: Macros that you can use.
Private Macros: Macros that you should not use.

Directories

Subdirectories: Building subdirectories recursively
Conditional Subdirectories: Conditionally not building directories
Alternative: Subdirectories without recursion
Subpackages: Nesting packages

Conditional Subdirectories

SUBDIRS vs DIST_SUBDIRS: Two sets of directories
Subdirectories with AM_CONDITIONAL: Specifying conditional subdirectories
Subdirectories with AC_SUBST: Another way for conditional recursion
Unconfigured Subdirectories: Not even creating a ‘Makefile’

Building Programs and Libraries

A Program: Building a program
A Library: Building a library
A Shared Library: Building a Libtool library
Program and Library Variables: Variables controlling program and
Default _SOURCES: Default source files
LIBOBJS: Special handling for LIBOBJS and ALLOCA
Program Variables: Variables used when building a program
Yacc and Lex: Yacc and Lex support
C++ Support: Compiling C++ sources
Objective C Support: Compiling Objective C sources
Objective C++ Support: Compiling Objective C++ sources
Unified Parallel C Support: Compiling Unified Parallel C sources
Assembly Support: Compiling assembly sources
Fortran 77 Support: Compiling Fortran 77 sources
Fortran 9x Support: Compiling Fortran 9x sources
Java Support with gcj: Compiling Java sources using gcj
Vala Support: Compiling Vala sources
Support for Other Languages: Compiling other languages
Dependencies: Automatic dependency tracking
EXEEXT: Support for executable extensions

Building a program

Program Sources: Defining program sources
Linking: Linking with libraries or extra objects
Conditional Sources: Handling conditional sources
Conditional Programs: Building a program conditionally

Building a Shared Library

Libtool Concept: Introducing Libtool
Libtool Libraries: Declaring Libtool Libraries
Conditional Libtool Libraries: Building Libtool Libraries Conditionally
Conditional Libtool Sources: Choosing Library Sources Conditionally
Libtool Convenience Libraries: Building Convenience Libtool Libraries
Libtool Modules: Building Libtool Modules
Libtool Flags: Using _LIBADD, _LDFLAGS, and _LIBTOOLFLAGS
LTLIBOBJS: Using $(LTLIBOBJS) and $(LTALLOCA)
Libtool Issues: Common Issues Related to Libtool’s Use

Common Issues Related to Libtool’s Use

Error required file ltmain.sh not found: The need to run libtoolize
Objects created both with libtool and without: Avoid a specific build race

Fortran 77 Support

Preprocessing Fortran 77: Preprocessing Fortran 77 sources
Compiling Fortran 77 Files: Compiling Fortran 77 sources
Mixing Fortran 77 With C and C++: Mixing Fortran 77 With C and C++

Mixing Fortran 77 With C and C++

How the Linker is Chosen: Automatic linker selection

Fortran 9x Support

Compiling Fortran 9x Files: Compiling Fortran 9x sources

Other Derived Objects

Scripts: Executable scripts
Headers: Header files
Data: Architecture-independent data files
Sources: Derived sources

Built Sources

Built Sources Example: Several ways to handle built sources.

Other GNU Tools

Emacs Lisp: Emacs Lisp
gettext: Gettext
Libtool: Libtool
Java: Java bytecode compilation (deprecated)
Python: Python

Building documentation

Texinfo: Texinfo
Man Pages: Man pages

What Gets Installed

Basics of Installation: What gets installed where
The Two Parts of Install: Installing data and programs separately
Extending Installation: Adding your own rules for installation
Staged Installs: Installation in a temporary location
Install Rules for the User: Useful additional rules

What Goes in a Distribution

Basics of Distribution: Files distributed by default
Fine-grained Distribution Control: ‘dist_’ and ‘nodist_’ prefixes
The dist Hook: A target for last-minute distribution changes
Checking the Distribution: ‘make distcheck’ explained
The Types of Distributions: A variety of formats and compression methods

Support for test suites

Generalities about Testing: Generic concepts and terminology about testing
Simple Tests: Listing test scripts in ‘TESTS’
Custom Test Drivers: Writing and using custom test drivers
Using the TAP test protocol: Integrating test scripts that use the TAP protocol
DejaGnu Tests: Interfacing with the ‘dejagnu’ testing framework
Install Tests: Running tests on installed packages

Simple Tests

Scripts-based Testsuites: Automake-specific concepts and terminology
Serial Test Harness: Older (and discouraged) serial test harness
Parallel Test Harness: Generic concurrent test harness

Using the TAP test protocol

Introduction to TAP
Use TAP with the Automake test harness
Incompatibilities with other TAP parsers and drivers
Links and external resources on TAP

Custom Test Drivers

Overview of Custom Test Drivers Support
Declaring Custom Test Drivers
API for Custom Test Drivers

API for Custom Test Drivers

Command-line arguments for test drivers
Log files generation and test results recording
Testsuite progress output

Changing Automake’s Behavior

Options generalities: Semantics of Automake option
List of Automake options: A comprehensive list of Automake options

Miscellaneous Rules

Tags: Interfacing to cscope, etags and mkid
Suffixes: Handling new file extensions

Conditionals

Usage of Conditionals: Declaring conditional content
Limits of Conditionals: Enclosing complete statements

Silencing Make

Make verbosity: Make is verbose by default
Tricks For Silencing Make: Standard and generic ways to silence make
Automake Silent Rules: How Automake can help in silencing make

When Automake Isn’t Enough

Extending: Adding new rules or overriding existing ones.
Third-Party Makefiles: Integrating Non-Automake ‘Makefile’s.

Frequently Asked Questions about Automake

CVS: CVS and generated files
maintainer-mode: missing and AM_MAINTAINER_MODE
Wildcards: Why doesn’t Automake support wildcards?
Limitations on File Names: Limitations on source and installed file names
Errors with distclean: Files left in build directory after distclean
Flag Variables Ordering: CFLAGS vs. AM_CFLAGS vs. mumble_CFLAGS
Renamed Objects: Why are object files sometimes renamed?
Per-Object Flags: How to simulate per-object flags?
Multiple Outputs: Writing rules for tools with many output files
Hard-Coded Install Paths: Installing to hard-coded locations
Debugging Make Rules: Strategies when things don’t work as expected
Reporting Bugs: Feedback on bugs and feature requests

Copying This Manual

GNU Free Documentation License: License for copying this manual

Indices

Macro Index: Index of Autoconf macros
Variable Index: Index of Makefile variables
General Index: General index

automatically generated by info2www version 1.2.2.9