(automake-1.16.info)Directories

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7 Directories
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For simple projects that distribute all files in the same directory it
is enough to have a single ‘Makefile.am’ that builds everything in
place.

   In larger projects, it is common to organize files in different
directories, in a tree.  For example, there could be a directory for the
program’s source, one for the testsuite, and one for the documentation;
or, for very large projects, there could be one directory per program,
per library or per module.

   The traditional approach is to build these subdirectories
recursively, employing _make recursion_: each directory contains its own
‘Makefile’, and when ‘make’ is run from the top-level directory, it
enters each subdirectory in turn, and invokes there a new ‘make’
instance to build the directory’s contents.

   Because this approach is very widespread, Automake offers built-in
support for it.  However, it is worth nothing that the use of make
recursion has its own serious issues and drawbacks, and that it’s well
possible to have packages with a multi directory layout that make little
or no use of such recursion (examples of such packages are GNU Bison and
GNU Automake itself); see also the Note: Alternative section below.

Subdirectories

Building subdirectories recursively

Conditional Subdirectories

Conditionally not building directories

Alternative

Subdirectories without recursion

Subpackages

Nesting packages