GNU Automake

This manual is for GNU Automake (version 1.9, 28 July 2004), a program which creates GNU standards-compliant Makefiles from template files.

Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, with the Front-Cover texts being “A GNU Manual,” and with the Back-Cover Texts as in (a) below. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled “GNU Free Documentation License.”

(a) The FSF’s Back-Cover Text is: “You have freedom to copy and modify this GNU Manual, like GNU software. Copies published by the Free Software Foundation raise funds for GNU development.”

1 Introduction
2 General ideas
- 2.1 General Operation
- 2.2 Strictness
- 2.3 The Uniform Naming Scheme
- 2.4 How derived variables are named
- 2.5 Variables reserved for the user
- 2.6 Programs automake might require
3 Some example packages
- 3.1 A simple example, start to finish
- 3.2 A classic program
- 3.3 Building true and false
4 Creating a Makefile.in
5 Scanning configure.ac
- 5.1 Configuration requirements
- 5.2 Other things Automake recognizes
- 5.3 Auto-generating aclocal.m4
- 5.4 aclocal options
- 5.5 Macro search path
- 5.6 Autoconf macros supplied with Automake
  - 5.6.1 Public macros
  - 5.6.2 Private macros
- 5.7 Writing your own aclocal macros
- 5.8 Handling Local Macros
- 5.9 The Future of aclocal
6 Directories
- 6.1 Recursing subdirectories
- 6.2 Conditional Subdirectories
- 6.3 An Alternative Approach to Subdirectories
- 6.4 Nesting Packages
7 Building Programs and Libraries
- 7.1 Building a program
- 7.2 Building a library
- 7.3 Building a Shared Library
- 7.4 Program and Library Variables
- 7.5 Default _SOURCES
- 7.6 Special handling for LIBOBJS and ALLOCA
- 7.7 Variables used when building a program
- 7.8 Yacc and Lex support
- 7.9 C++ Support
- 7.10 Assembly Support
- 7.11 Fortran 77 Support
- 7.12 Fortran 9x Support
  - 7.12.1 Compiling Fortran 9x Files
- 7.13 Java Support
- 7.14 Support for Other Languages
- 7.15 Automatic de-ANSI-fication
- 7.16 Automatic dependency tracking
- 7.17 Support for executable extensions
8 Other Derived Objects
- 8.1 Executable Scripts
- 8.2 Header files
- 8.3 Architecture-independent data files
- 8.4 Built sources
9 Other GNU Tools
- 9.1 Emacs Lisp
- 9.2 Gettext
- 9.3 Libtool
- 9.4 Java
- 9.5 Python
10 Building documentation
- 10.1 Texinfo
- 10.2 Man pages
11 What Gets Installed
- 11.1 Basics of installation
- 11.2 The two parts of install
- 11.3 Extending installation
- 11.4 Staged installs
- 11.5 Rules for the user
12 What Gets Cleaned
13 What Goes in a Distribution
- 13.1 Basics of distribution
- 13.2 Fine-grained distribution control
- 13.3 The dist hook
- 13.4 Checking the distribution
- 13.5 The types of distributions
14 Support for test suites
- 14.1 Simple Tests
- 14.2 DejaGnu Tests
- 14.3 Install Tests
15 Rebuilding Makefiles
16 Changing Automake’s Behavior
17 Miscellaneous Rules
- 17.1 Interfacing to etags
- 17.2 Handling new file extensions
- 17.3 Support for Multilibs
18 Include
19 Conditionals
20 The effect of --gnu and --gnits
21 The effect of --cygnus
22 When Automake Isn’t Enough
- 22.1 Extending Automake Rules
- 22.2 Third-Party Makefiles
23 Distributing Makefile.ins
24 Automake API versioning
25 Upgrading a Package to a Newer Automake Version
26 Frequently Asked Questions about Automake
- 26.1 CVS and generated files
- 26.2 missing and AM_MAINTAINER_MODE
  - 26.2.1 missing
  - 26.2.2 AM_MAINTAINER_MODE
- 26.3 Why doesn’t Automake support wildcards?
- 26.4 Files left in build directory after distclean
- 26.5 Why are object files sometimes renamed?
- 26.6 Handling Tools that Produce Many Outputs
Appendix A Copying This Manual
- A.1 GNU Free Documentation License
  - A.1.1 ADDENDUM: How to use this License for your documents
Appendix B Indices
- B.1 Macro and Variable Index
- B.2 General Index

automake

GNU Automake

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