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3.3 The Uniform Naming Scheme
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Automake variables generally follow a “uniform naming scheme” that makes
it easy to decide how programs (and other derived objects) are built,
and how they are installed.  This scheme also supports ‘configure’ time
determination of what should be built.

   At ‘make’ time, certain variables are used to determine which objects
are to be built.  The variable names are made of several pieces that are
concatenated together.

   The piece that tells ‘automake’ what is being built is commonly
called the “primary”.  For instance, the primary ‘PROGRAMS’ holds a list
of programs that are to be compiled and linked.

   A different set of names is used to decide where the built objects
should be installed.  These names are prefixes to the primary, and they
indicate which standard directory should be used as the installation
directory.  The standard directory names are given in the GNU standards
(Note: (standards)Directory Variables).  Automake extends this list
with ‘pkgdatadir’, ‘pkgincludedir’, ‘pkglibdir’, and ‘pkglibexecdir’;
these are the same as the non-‘pkg’ versions, but with ‘$(PACKAGE)’
appended.  For instance, ‘pkglibdir’ is defined as
‘$(libdir)/$(PACKAGE)’.

   For each primary, there is one additional variable named by
prepending ‘EXTRA_’ to the primary name.  This variable is used to list
objects that may or may not be built, depending on what ‘configure’
decides.  This variable is required because Automake must statically
know the entire list of objects that may be built in order to generate a
‘Makefile.in’ that will work in all cases.

   For instance, ‘cpio’ decides at configure time which programs should
be built.  Some of the programs are installed in ‘bindir’, and some are
installed in ‘sbindir’:

     EXTRA_PROGRAMS = mt rmt
     bin_PROGRAMS = cpio pax
     sbin_PROGRAMS = $(MORE_PROGRAMS)

   Defining a primary without a prefix as a variable, e.g., ‘PROGRAMS’,
is an error.

   Note that the common ‘dir’ suffix is left off when constructing the
variable names; thus one writes ‘bin_PROGRAMS’ and not
‘bindir_PROGRAMS’.

   Not every sort of object can be installed in every directory.
Automake will flag those attempts it finds in error (but see below how
to override the check if you really need to).  Automake will also
diagnose obvious misspellings in directory names.

   Sometimes the standard directories—even as augmented by Automake—are
not enough.  In particular it is sometimes useful, for clarity, to
install objects in a subdirectory of some predefined directory.  To this
end, Automake allows you to extend the list of possible installation
directories.  A given prefix (e.g., ‘zar’) is valid if a variable of the
same name with ‘dir’ appended is defined (e.g., ‘zardir’).

   For instance, the following snippet will install ‘file.xml’ into
‘$(datadir)/xml’.

     xmldir = $(datadir)/xml
     xml_DATA = file.xml

   This feature can also be used to override the sanity checks Automake
performs to diagnose suspicious directory/primary couples (in the
unlikely case these checks are undesirable, and you really know what
you’re doing).  For example, Automake would error out on this input:

     # Forbidden directory combinations, automake will error out on this.
     pkglib_PROGRAMS = foo
     doc_LIBRARIES = libquux.a

but it will succeed with this:

     # Work around forbidden directory combinations.  Do not use this
     # without a very good reason!
     my_execbindir = $(pkglibdir)
     my_doclibdir = $(docdir)
     my_execbin_PROGRAMS = foo
     my_doclib_LIBRARIES = libquux.a

   The ‘exec’ substring of the ‘my_execbindir’ variable lets the files
be installed at the right time (Note: The Two Parts of Install).

   The special prefix ‘noinst_’ indicates that the objects in question
should be built but not installed at all.  This is usually used for
objects required to build the rest of your package, for instance static
libraries (Note: A Library), or helper scripts.

   The special prefix ‘check_’ indicates that the objects in question
should not be built until the ‘make check’ command is run.  Those
objects are not installed either.

   The current primary names are ‘PROGRAMS’, ‘LIBRARIES’, ‘LTLIBRARIES’,
‘LISP’, ‘PYTHON’, ‘JAVA’, ‘SCRIPTS’, ‘DATA’, ‘HEADERS’, ‘MANS’, and
‘TEXINFOS’.

   Some primaries also allow additional prefixes that control other
aspects of ‘automake’’s behavior.  The currently defined prefixes are
‘dist_’, ‘nodist_’, ‘nobase_’, and ‘notrans_’.  These prefixes are
explained later (Note: Program and Library Variables) (Note: Man
Pages).