Autoconf

Autoconf is a tool being used to produce scripts Shell which automatically configure the Source code of a Logiciel to adapt it to various systems of the type Unix. The scripts produced by Autoconf are independent of this tool when they are carried out, so that the users of these scripts do not need to have Autoconf.

With Automake and Libtool, Autoconf forms the system of compilation of GNU.

Autoconf uses the Préprocesseur GNU m4 to transform a file “  configure.ac  ” (or “  configure.in  ” in the past) in a portable Shell script named “  configure  ”. Script “  configure  ” carries out in a noninteractive way and generates headings adapted and makefiles derived from preestablished models. One can consider that Autoconf compiles a program m4 towards a Shell script.

Approaches

Autoconf is similar to the system Metaconfig used by Perl. The system Imake used by the X Window System is connected to him, but is based on a different philosophy.

The approach employed by Autoconf to aim at the Portabilité is to test Fonctionnalité S rather than to determine the version software present on a system. For example, the compiler C under SunOS   4 did not support the standard of the ISO for this language. However, it is possible that the administrator of the system installed a compiler supporting this standard. An approach purely based on the versions of software would not have made use of this ISO compiler, but an approach based on the functionalities would be able to discover that the specified compiler supports the ISO standard. The justifications of this approach are the following ones:

  • the script of configuration can obtain reasonable results on recent or unknown systems;
  • the administrators can adapt their system and see script configuration to benefit from these adaptations;
  • it is not necessary to keep the trace of many details concerning the versions, the corrective measures, etc, to determine if a particular functionality is available or not.

References

  • Gary V. Vaughan, Ben Elliston, Thomas Tromey: Gnu Autoconf, Automake, and Libtool , Sams, ISBN 1-57870-190-2

External bonds

The following sites are in English:

  • Official site

  • File of macros for GNU Autoconf
  • Version Web of the book '' Gnu Autoconf, Automake, and Libtool ''
  • Tutoriel " Learning Autoconf and Automake" by Eleftherios Gkioulekas
  • Other tutoriel
  • Article " Using Automake and Autoconf with C++" by Murray Cumming
  • Site of Autotoolset

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