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GNU Automake
************

This manual is for GNU Automake (version 1.16.5, 18 March 2022), a
program that creates GNU standards-compliant Makefiles from template
files.

   Copyright © 1995–2021 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

     Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this
     document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License,
     Version 1.3 or any later version published by the Free Software
     Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, with no Front-Cover texts,
     and with no Back-Cover Texts.  A copy of the license is included in
     the section entitled “GNU Free Documentation License.”

Introduction: Automake’s purpose
Autotools Introduction: An Introduction to the Autotools
Generalities: General ideas
Examples: Some example packages
automake Invocation: Creating a Makefile.in
configure: Scanning configure.ac, using aclocal
Directories: Declaring subdirectories
Programs: Building programs and libraries
Other Objects: Other derived objects
Other GNU Tools: Other GNU Tools
Documentation: Building documentation
Install: What gets installed
Clean: What gets cleaned
Dist: What goes in a distribution
Tests: Support for test suites
Rebuilding: Automatic rebuilding of Makefile
Options: Changing Automake’s behavior
Miscellaneous: Miscellaneous rules
Include: Including extra files in an Automake template
Conditionals: Conditionals
Silencing Make: Obtain less verbose output from ‘make’
Not Enough: When Automake is not Enough
Distributing: Distributing the Makefile.in
API Versioning: About compatibility between Automake versions
Upgrading: Upgrading to a Newer Automake Version
FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions
Copying This Manual: How to make copies of this manual
Indices: Indices of variables, macros, and concepts

— The Detailed Node Listing — An Introduction to the Autotools

GNU Build System: Introducing the GNU Build System
Use Cases: Use Cases for the GNU Build System
Why Autotools: How Autotools Help
Hello World: A Small Hello World Package

Use Cases for the GNU Build System

Basic Installation: Common installation procedure
Standard Targets: A list of standard Makefile targets
Standard Directory Variables: A list of standard directory variables
Standard Configuration Variables: Using configuration variables
config.site: Using a config.site file
VPATH Builds: Parallel build trees
Two-Part Install: Installing data and programs separately
Cross-Compilation: Building for other architectures
Renaming: Renaming programs at install time
DESTDIR: Building binary packages with DESTDIR
Preparing Distributions: Rolling out tarballs
Dependency Tracking: Automatic dependency tracking
Nested Packages: The GNU Build Systems can be nested

A Small Hello World

Creating amhello: Create ‘amhello-1.0.tar.gz’ from scratch
amhello's configure.ac Setup Explained
amhello's Makefile.am Setup Explained

General ideas

General Operation: General operation of Automake
Strictness: Standards conformance checking
Uniform: The Uniform Naming Scheme
Length Limitations: Staying below the command line length limit
Canonicalization: How derived variables are named
User Variables: Variables reserved for the user
Auxiliary Programs: Programs automake might require

Some example packages

Complete: A simple example, start to finish
true: Building true and false

Scanning ‘configure.ac’, using ‘aclocal’

Requirements: Configuration requirements
Optional: Other things Automake recognizes
aclocal Invocation: Auto-generating aclocal.m4
Macros: Autoconf macros supplied with Automake

Auto-generating aclocal.m4

aclocal Options: Options supported by aclocal
Macro Search Path: How aclocal finds .m4 files
Extending aclocal: Writing your own aclocal macros
Local Macros: Organizing local macros
Serials: Serial lines in Autoconf macros
Future of aclocal: aclocal’s scheduled death

Autoconf macros supplied with Automake

Public Macros: Macros that you can use.
Obsolete Macros: Macros that will soon be removed.
Private Macros: Macros that you should not use.

Directories

Subdirectories: Building subdirectories recursively
Conditional Subdirectories: Conditionally not building directories
Alternative: Subdirectories without recursion
Subpackages: Nesting packages

Conditional Subdirectories

SUBDIRS vs DIST_SUBDIRS: Two sets of directories
Subdirectories with AM_CONDITIONAL: Specifying conditional subdirectories
Subdirectories with AC_SUBST: Another way for conditional recursion
Unconfigured Subdirectories: Not even creating a ‘Makefile’

Building Programs and Libraries

A Program: Building a program
A Library: Building a library
A Shared Library: Building a Libtool library
Program and Library Variables: Variables controlling program and
Default _SOURCES: Default source files
LIBOBJS: Special handling for LIBOBJS and ALLOCA
Program Variables: Variables used when building a program
Yacc and Lex: Yacc and Lex support
C++ Support: Compiling C++ sources
Objective C Support: Compiling Objective C sources
Objective C++ Support: Compiling Objective C++ sources
Unified Parallel C Support: Compiling Unified Parallel C sources
Assembly Support: Compiling assembly sources
Fortran 77 Support: Compiling Fortran 77 sources
Fortran 9x Support: Compiling Fortran 9x sources
Java Support with gcj: Compiling Java sources using gcj
Vala Support: Compiling Vala sources
Support for Other Languages: Compiling other languages
Dependencies: Automatic dependency tracking
EXEEXT: Support for executable extensions

Building a program

Program Sources: Defining program sources
Linking: Linking with libraries or extra objects
Conditional Sources: Handling conditional sources
Conditional Programs: Building a program conditionally

Building a Shared Library

Libtool Concept: Introducing Libtool
Libtool Libraries: Declaring Libtool Libraries
Conditional Libtool Libraries: Building Libtool Libraries Conditionally
Conditional Libtool Sources: Choosing Library Sources Conditionally
Libtool Convenience Libraries: Building Convenience Libtool Libraries
Libtool Modules: Building Libtool Modules
Libtool Flags: Using _LIBADD, _LDFLAGS, and _LIBTOOLFLAGS
LTLIBOBJS: Using $(LTLIBOBJS) and $(LTALLOCA)
Libtool Issues: Common Issues Related to Libtool’s Use

Common Issues Related to Libtool’s Use

Error required file ltmain.sh not found: The need to run libtoolize
Objects created both with libtool and without: Avoid a specific build race

Yacc and Lex support

Linking Multiple Yacc Parsers

Fortran 77 Support

Preprocessing Fortran 77: Preprocessing Fortran 77 sources
Compiling Fortran 77 Files: Compiling Fortran 77 sources
Mixing Fortran 77 With C and C++: Mixing Fortran 77 With C and C++

Mixing Fortran 77 With C and C++

How the Linker is Chosen: Automatic linker selection

Fortran 9x Support

Compiling Fortran 9x Files: Compiling Fortran 9x sources

Other Derived Objects

Scripts: Executable scripts
Headers: Header files
Data: Architecture-independent data files
Sources: Derived sources

Built Sources

Built Sources Example: Several ways to handle built sources.

Other GNU Tools

Emacs Lisp: Emacs Lisp
gettext: Gettext
Libtool: Libtool
Java: Java bytecode compilation (deprecated)
Python: Python

Building documentation

Texinfo: Texinfo
Man Pages: Man pages

What Gets Installed

Basics of Installation: What gets installed where
The Two Parts of Install: Installing data and programs separately
Extending Installation: Adding your own rules for installation
Staged Installs: Installation in a temporary location
Install Rules for the User: Useful additional rules

What Goes in a Distribution

Basics of Distribution: Files distributed by default
Fine-grained Distribution Control: ‘dist_’ and ‘nodist_’ prefixes
The dist Hook: A target for last-minute distribution changes
Checking the Distribution: ‘make distcheck’ explained
The Types of Distributions: A variety of formats and compression methods

Support for test suites

Generalities about Testing: Concepts and terminology about testing
Simple Tests: Listing test scripts in ‘TESTS’
Custom Test Drivers: Writing and using custom test drivers
Using the TAP test protocol: Integrating test scripts that use the TAP protocol
DejaGnu Tests: Interfacing with the ‘dejagnu’ testing framework
Install Tests: Running tests on installed packages