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The configure script creates a file named config.status, which actually configures, instantiates, the template files. It also records the configuration options that were specified when the package was last configured in case reconfiguring is needed.
Synopsis:
./config.status option... [file...]
It configures the files; if none are specified, all the templates are instantiated. The files must be specified without their dependencies, as in
./config.status foobar
not
./config.status foobar:foo.in:bar.in
The supported options are:
This option and the following ones provide one way for separately
distributed packages to share the values computed by configure.
Doing so can be useful if some of the packages need a superset of the
features that one of them, perhaps a common library, does. These
options allow a config.status file to create files other than the
ones that its configure.ac specifies, so it can be used for a
different package.
config.status checks several optional environment variables that can alter its behavior:
The shell with which to run configure for the --recheck option. It must be Bourne-compatible. The default is a shell that supports
LINENO
if available, and /bin/sh otherwise. Invoking configure by hand bypasses this setting, so you may need to use a command like `CONFIG_SHELL=/bin/bash /bin/bash ./configure' to insure that the same shell is used everywhere. The absolute name of the shell should be passed.
The file name to use for the shell script that records the configuration. The default is ./config.status. This variable is useful when one package uses parts of another and the configure scripts shouldn't be merged because they are maintained separately.
You can use ./config.status in your makefiles. For example, in the dependencies given above (see Automatic Remaking), config.status is run twice when configure.ac has changed. If that bothers you, you can make each run only regenerate the files for that rule:
config.h: stamp-h stamp-h: config.h.in config.status ./config.status config.h echo > stamp-h Makefile: Makefile.in config.status ./config.status Makefile
The calling convention of config.status has changed; see Obsolete config.status Use, for details.