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In order to produce config.h.in, autoheader needs to
build or to find templates for each symbol. Modern releases of Autoconf
use AH_VERBATIM
and AH_TEMPLATE
(see Autoheader Macros), but in older releases a file, acconfig.h, contained the
list of needed templates. autoheader copied comments and
#define
and #undef
statements from acconfig.h in
the current directory, if present. This file used to be mandatory if
you AC_DEFINE
any additional symbols.
Modern releases of Autoconf also provide AH_TOP
and
AH_BOTTOM
if you need to prepend/append some information to
config.h.in. Ancient versions of Autoconf had a similar feature:
if ./acconfig.h contains the string `@TOP@',
autoheader copies the lines before the line containing
`@TOP@' into the top of the file that it generates. Similarly,
if ./acconfig.h contains the string `@BOTTOM@',
autoheader copies the lines after that line to the end of the
file it generates. Either or both of those strings may be omitted. An
even older alternate way to produce the same effect in ancient versions
of Autoconf is to create the files file.top (typically
config.h.top) and/or file.bot in the current
directory. If they exist, autoheader copies them to the
beginning and end, respectively, of its output.
In former versions of Autoconf, the files used in preparing a software package for distribution were:
configure.ac --. .------> autoconf* -----> configure +---+ [aclocal.m4] --+ `---. [acsite.m4] ---' | +--> [autoheader*] -> [config.h.in] [acconfig.h] ----. | +-----' [config.h.top] --+ [config.h.bot] --'
Using only the AH_
macros, configure.ac should be
self-contained, and should not depend upon acconfig.h etc.