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2.4 Pointers

Developers who are used to the simplicity of make for small projects on a single system might be daunted at the prospect of learning to use Automake and Autoconf. As your software is distributed to more and more users, however, you otherwise quickly find yourself putting lots of effort into reinventing the services that the GNU build tools provide, and making the same mistakes that they once made and overcame. (Besides, since you’re already learning Autoconf, Automake is a piece of cake.)

There are a number of places that you can go to for more information on the GNU build tools.

• - Web

  The project home pages for Autoconf, Automake, Gnulib, and Libtool.

• - Automake Manual

  See Automake in GNU Automake, for more information on Automake.

• - Books

  The book GNU Autoconf, Automake and Libtool¹ describes the complete GNU build environment. You can also find the entire book on-line.