If you expect to work with the configuration files and/or the Makefile files, you will need to install a number of other GNU tools. In general, you should be using the latest versions of the tools, or least the same ones that the maintainer himself uses. This helps minimize the differences that the maintainer has to resolve when merging changes, and in general avoids confusion and hassle. Similarly, you should install the latest GNU documentation tools as well. The tools are described in the following list:
autoconfGNU Autoconf processes the configure.ac files in order to generate the configure shell script and config.h.in input file. See the Autoconf home page for more information.
automakeGNU Automake processes the configure.ac and Makefile.am files to produce Makefile.in files. See the Automake home page for more information.
gettextGNU Gettext processes the gawk source code to produce the
original po/gawk.pot message template file. Normally you
should not need need to do this; the maintainer usually
manages this task. See the Gettext home page for more information.
libtoolGNU Libtool works with Autoconf and Automake to produce portable
shared libraries. It is used for the extensions that ship with gawk,
whose code is in the extensions directory.
See the Libtool home page
for more information.
makeinfoThe makeinfo command is used to build the Info versions of
the documentation. You need to have the same version as the maintainer
uses, so that when you make a change to the documentation, the corresponding
change to the generated Info file will be minimal. makeinfo is
part of GNU Texinfo. See the Texinfo home page for more information.