GNU Automake

For version 1.17, 12 July 2024

David MacKenzie
Tom Tromey
Alexandre Duret-Lutz
Ralf Wildenhues
Stefano Lattarini
This manual is for GNU Automake (version 1.17, 12 July 2024), a program that creates
GNU standards-compliant Makefiles from template files.
Copyright c 1995–2024 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.”
 i

Short Contents
1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
2 An Introduction to the Autotools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
3 General ideas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
4 Some example packages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
5 Creating a Makefile.in: Invoking automake . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
6 Scanning configure.ac, using aclocal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
7 Directories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
8 Building Programs and Libraries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
9 Other Derived Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
10 Other GNU Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
11 Building documentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
12 What Gets Installed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
13 What Gets Cleaned . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
14 What Goes in a Distribution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
15 Support for test suites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
16 Rebuilding Makefiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
17 Changing Automake’s Behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
18 Miscellaneous Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
19 Include . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
20 Conditionals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
21 Silencing make . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
22 When Automake Isn’t Enough . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
23 Distributing Makefile.ins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
24 Automake API Versioning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
25 Upgrading a Package to a Newer Automake Version . . . . . . . . 146
26 Frequently Asked Questions about Automake . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
A Copying This Manual . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
B Indices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
 ii

Table of Contents

1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

2 An Introduction to the Autotools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

2.1 Introducing the GNU Build System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
2.2 Use Cases for the GNU Build System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
2.2.1 Basic Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
2.2.2 Standard Makefile Targets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2.2.3 Standard Directory Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2.2.4 Standard Configuration Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.2.5 Overriding Default Configuration Setting with config.site . 6
2.2.6 Parallel Build Trees (a.k.a. VPATH Builds) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2.2.7 Two-Part Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2.2.8 Cross-Compilation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2.2.9 Renaming Programs at Install Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.2.10 Building Binary Packages Using DESTDIR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2.2.11 Preparing Distributions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.2.12 Automatic Dependency Tracking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.2.13 Nested Packages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
2.3 How Autotools Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2.4 A Small Hello World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2.4.1 Creating amhello-1.0.tar.gz. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2.4.2 amhello’s configure.ac Setup Explained . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
2.4.3 amhello’s Makefile.am Setup Explained. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

3 General ideas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
3.1 General Operation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
3.2 Strictness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
3.3 The Uniform Naming Scheme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
3.4 Staying below the command line length limit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
3.5 How derived variables are named . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
3.6 Variables reserved for the user . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
3.7 Programs automake might require . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

4 Some example packages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

4.1 A simple example, start to finish. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
4.2 Building true and false . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

5 Creating a Makefile.in: Invoking automake . . . 27

 iii

6 Scanning configure.ac, using aclocal . . . . . . . . . 30

6.1 Configuration requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
6.2 Other things Automake recognizes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
6.3 Auto-generating aclocal.m4: Invoking aclocal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
6.3.1 aclocal Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
6.3.2 Macro Search Path . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
6.3.3 Writing your own aclocal macros . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
6.3.4 Handling Local Macros . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
6.3.5 Serial Numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
6.3.6 The Future of aclocal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
6.4 Autoconf macros supplied with Automake . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
6.4.1 Public Macros . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
6.4.2 Obsolete Macros . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
6.4.3 Private Macros . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

7 Directories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
7.1 Recursing subdirectories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
7.2 Conditional Subdirectories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
7.2.1 SUBDIRS vs. DIST_SUBDIRS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
7.2.2 Subdirectories with AM_CONDITIONAL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
7.2.3 Subdirectories with AC_SUBST . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
7.2.4 Unconfigured Subdirectories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
7.3 An Alternative Approach to Subdirectories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
7.4 Nesting Packages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

8 Building Programs and Libraries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

8.1 Building a program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
8.1.1 Defining program sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
8.1.2 Linking the program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
8.1.3 Conditional compilation of sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
8.1.4 Conditional compilation of programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
8.2 Building a library . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
8.3 Building a Shared Library . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
8.3.1 The Libtool Concept . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
8.3.2 Building Libtool Libraries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
8.3.3 Building Libtool Libraries Conditionally . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
8.3.4 Libtool Libraries with Conditional Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
8.3.5 Libtool Convenience Libraries. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
8.3.6 Libtool Modules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
8.3.7 _LIBADD, _LDFLAGS, and _LIBTOOLFLAGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
8.3.8 LTLIBOBJS and LTALLOCA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
8.3.9 Common Issues Related to Libtool’s Use . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
8.3.9.1 Error: ‘required file './ltmain.sh' not
found’—libtoolize needed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
 iv

8.3.9.2 Error: ‘Libtool library used but 'LIBTOOL' is

undefined’—libtoolize redux. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
8.3.9.3 Objects ‘created with both libtool and without’ . . . 66
8.4 Program and Library Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
8.5 Default _SOURCES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
8.6 Special handling for LIBOBJS and ALLOCA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
8.7 Variables used when building a program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
8.8 Yacc and Lex support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
8.8.1 Linking Multiple Yacc Parsers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
8.9 C++ Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
8.10 Objective C Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
8.11 Objective C++ Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
8.12 Unified Parallel C Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
8.13 Assembly Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
8.14 Fortran 77 Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
8.14.1 Preprocessing Fortran 77 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
8.14.2 Compiling Fortran 77 Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
8.14.3 Mixing Fortran 77 With C and C++ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
8.14.3.1 How the Linker is Chosen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
8.15 Fortran 9x Support. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
8.15.1 Compiling Fortran 9x Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
8.16 Compiling Java sources using gcj . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
8.17 Vala Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
8.18 Support for Other Languages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
8.19 Automatic dependency tracking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
8.20 Support for executable extensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

9 Other Derived Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

9.1 Executable Scripts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
9.2 Header files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
9.3 Architecture-independent data files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
9.4 Built Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
9.4.1 Built Sources Example. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88

10 Other GNU Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

10.1 Emacs Lisp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
10.2 Gettext . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
10.3 Libtool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
10.4 Java bytecode compilation (deprecated). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
10.5 Python. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
10.5.1 Supported versions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

11 Building documentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
11.1 Texinfo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
11.2 Man Pages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
 v

12 What Gets Installed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

12.1 Basics of Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
12.2 The Two Parts of Install . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
12.3 Extending Installation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
12.4 Staged Installs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
12.5 Install Rules for the User . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

13 What Gets Cleaned . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

14 What Goes in a Distribution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102

14.1 Basics of Distribution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
14.2 Fine-grained Distribution Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
14.3 The dist Hook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
14.4 Checking the Distribution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
14.4.1 DISTCHECK_CONFIGURE_FLAGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
14.4.2 distcheck-hook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
14.4.3 dvi and distcheck . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
14.4.4 distcleancheck . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
14.4.5 distuninstallcheck. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
14.4.6 Errors with distclean . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
14.5 The Types of Distributions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108

15 Support for test suites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110

15.1 Generalities about Testing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
15.2 Simple Tests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
15.2.1 Scripts-based Testsuites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
15.2.1.1 Testsuite Environment Overrides . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
15.2.2 Older (and discouraged) Serial Test Harness . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
15.2.3 Parallel Test Harness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
15.3 Custom Test Drivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
15.3.1 Overview of Custom Test Drivers Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
15.3.2 Declaring Custom Test Drivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
15.3.3 API for Custom Test Drivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
15.3.3.1 Command-line arguments for test drivers . . . . . . . . . . . 118
15.3.3.2 Log files generation and test results recording . . . . . . . 119
15.3.3.3 Testsuite progress output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
15.4 Using the TAP test protocol. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
15.4.1 Introduction to TAP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
15.4.2 Use TAP with the Automake test harness. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
15.4.3 Incompatibility with other TAP parsers and drivers . . . . . . 124
15.4.4 Links and external resources on TAP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
15.5 DejaGnu Tests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
15.6 Install Tests. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
 vi

16 Rebuilding Makefiles. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125

17 Changing Automake’s Behavior. . . . . . . . . . . . . 127

17.1 Options generalities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
17.2 List of Automake options. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127

18 Miscellaneous Rules. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131

18.1 Interfacing to etags . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
18.2 Handling new file extensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132

19 Include . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133

20 Conditionals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
20.1 Usage of Conditionals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
20.2 Limits of Conditionals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135

21 Silencing make. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136

21.1 Make is verbose by default . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
21.2 Standard and generic ways to silence Make . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
21.3 How Automake can help in silencing Make . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
21.4 Unsilencing Automake . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140

22 When Automake Isn’t Enough . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140

22.1 Extending Automake Rules. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
22.2 Third-Party Makefiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142

23 Distributing Makefile.ins. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145

24 Automake API Versioning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145

25 Upgrading a Package to a Newer Automake

Version . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
 vii

26 Frequently Asked Questions about

Automake . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
26.1 Version control and generated files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
26.2 missing and AM_MAINTAINER_MODE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
26.3 Why doesn’t Automake support wildcards? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
26.4 Limitations on File Names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
26.5 Flag Variables Ordering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
26.6 Why are object files sometimes renamed? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
26.7 Per-Object Flags Emulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
26.8 Handling Tools that Produce Many Outputs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
26.9 Installing to Hard-Coded Locations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
26.10 Debugging Make Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
26.11 Reporting Bugs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164

Appendix A Copying This Manual . . . . . . . . . . . . 165

A.1 GNU Free Documentation License . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165

Appendix B Indices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173

B.1 Macro Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
B.2 Variable Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
B.3 General Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
Chapter 2: An Introduction to the Autotools 1

1 Introduction
Automake is a tool for automatically generating Makefile.ins from files called
Makefile.am. Each Makefile.am is basically a series of make variable definitions1 , with
rules being thrown in occasionally. The generated Makefile.ins are compliant with the
GNU Makefile standards.
The GNU Makefile Standards Document (see Section “Makefile Conventions” in The
GNU Coding Standards) is long, complicated, and subject to change. The goal of Automake
is to remove the burden of Makefile maintenance from the back of the individual GNU
maintainer (and put it on the back of the Automake maintainers).
The typical Automake input file is simply a series of variable definitions. Each such file
is processed to create a Makefile.in.
Automake does constrain a project in certain ways; for instance, it assumes that the
project uses Autoconf (see Section “Introduction” in The Autoconf Manual), and enforces
certain restrictions on the configure.ac contents.
Automake requires perl in order to generate the Makefile.ins. However, the distribu-
tions created by Automake are fully GNU standards-compliant, and do not require perl in
order to be built.
For more information on bug reports, See Section 26.11 [Reporting Bugs], page 164.

2 An Introduction to the Autotools

If you are new to Automake, maybe you know that it is part of a set of tools called The
Autotools. Maybe you’ve already delved into a package full of files named configure,
configure.ac, Makefile.in, Makefile.am, aclocal.m4, . . . , some of them claiming to
be generated by Autoconf or Automake. But the exact purpose of these files and their
relations is probably fuzzy. The goal of this chapter is to introduce you to this machinery,
to show you how it works and how powerful it is. If you’ve never installed or seen such a
package, do not worry: this chapter will walk you through it.
If you need some teaching material, more illustrations, or a less automake-centered
continuation, some slides for this introduction are available in Alexandre Duret-Lutz’s
Autotools Tutorial (https://www.lrde.epita.fr/~adl/autotools.html). This chapter
is the written version of the first part of his tutorial.

2.1 Introducing the GNU Build System

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that as a developer in possession of a new package,
you must be in want of a build system.
In the Unix world, such a build system is traditionally achieved using the command
make (see Section “Overview” in The GNU Make Manual). You express the recipe to build
your package in a Makefile. This file is a set of rules to build the files in the package.
For instance the program prog may be built by running the linker on the files main.o,
1
These variables are also called make macros in Make terminology, however in this manual we reserve the
term macro for Autoconf’s macros.
Chapter 2: An Introduction to the Autotools 2

foo.o, and bar.o; the file main.o may be built by running the compiler on main.c; etc.
Each time make is run, it reads Makefile, checks the existence and modification time of
the files mentioned, decides what files need to be built (or rebuilt), and runs the associated
commands.
When a package needs to be built on a different platform than the one it was developed
on, its Makefile usually needs to be adjusted. For instance the compiler may have another
name or require more options. In 1991, David J. MacKenzie got tired of customizing
Makefile for the 20 platforms he had to deal with. Instead, he handcrafted a little shell
script called configure to automatically adjust the Makefile (see Section “Genesis” in
The Autoconf Manual). Compiling his package was now as simple as running ./configure
&& make.
Today this process has been standardized in the GNU project. The GNU Coding Stan-
dards (see Section “Managing Releases” in The GNU Coding Standards) explains how each
package of the GNU project should have a configure script, and the minimal interface it
should have. The Makefile too should follow some established conventions. The result? A
unified build system that makes all packages almost indistinguishable by the installer. In
its simplest scenario, all the installer has to do is to unpack the package, run ./configure
&& make && make install, and repeat with the next package to install.
We call this build system the GNU Build System, since it was grown out of the GNU
project. However it is used by a vast number of other packages: following any existing
convention has its advantages.
The Autotools are tools that will create a GNU Build System for your package. Autoconf
mostly focuses on configure and Automake on Makefiles. It is entirely possible to create
a GNU Build System without the help of these tools. However it is rather burdensome and
error-prone. We will discuss this again after some illustration of the GNU Build System in
action.

2.2 Use Cases for the GNU Build System

In this section we explore several use cases for the GNU Build System. You can
replay all of these examples on the amhello-1.0.tar.gz package distributed with
Automake. If Automake is installed on your system, you should find a copy of this file
in prefix/share/doc/automake/amhello-1.0.tar.gz, where prefix is the installation
prefix specified during configuration (prefix defaults to /usr/local, however if Automake
was installed by some GNU/Linux distribution it most likely has been set to /usr). If you
do not have a copy of Automake installed, you can find a copy of this file inside the doc/
directory of the Automake package.
Some of the following use cases present features that are in fact extensions to the GNU
Build System. Read: they are not specified by the GNU Coding Standards, but they are
nonetheless part of the build system created by the Autotools. To keep things simple, we
do not point out the difference. Our objective is to show you many of the features that the
build system created by the Autotools will offer to you.

2.2.1 Basic Installation

The most common installation procedure looks as follows.
~ % tar zxf amhello-1.0.tar.gz
Chapter 2: An Introduction to the Autotools 3

~ % cd amhello-1.0
~/amhello-1.0 % ./configure
...
config.status: creating Makefile
config.status: creating src/Makefile
...
~/amhello-1.0 % make
...
~/amhello-1.0 % make check
...
~/amhello-1.0 % su
Password:
/home/adl/amhello-1.0 # make install
...
/home/adl/amhello-1.0 # exit
~/amhello-1.0 % make installcheck
...
The user first unpacks the package. Here, and in the following examples, we will use the
non-portable tar zxf command for simplicity. On a system without GNU tar installed,
this command should read gunzip -c amhello-1.0.tar.gz | tar xf -.
The user then enters the newly created directory to run the configure script. This
script probes the system for various features, and finally creates the Makefiles. In this
toy example there are only two Makefiles, but in real-world projects, there may be many
more, usually one Makefile per directory.
It is now possible to run make. This will construct all the programs, libraries, and
scripts that need to be constructed for the package. In our example, this compiles the
hello program. All files are constructed in place, in the source tree; we will see later how
this can be changed.
make check causes the package’s tests to be run. This step is not mandatory, but it is
often good to make sure the programs that have been built behave as they should, before
you decide to install them. Our example does not contain any tests, so running make check
is a no-op.
After everything has been built, and maybe tested, it is time to install it on the sys-
tem. That means copying the programs, libraries, header files, scripts, and other data
files from the source directory to their final destination on the system. The command
make install will do that. However, by default everything will be installed in subdi-
rectories of /usr/local: binaries will go into /usr/local/bin, libraries will end up in
/usr/local/lib, etc. This destination is usually not writable by any user, so we assume
that we have to become root before we can run make install. In our example, run-
ning make install will copy the program hello into /usr/local/bin and README into
/usr/local/share/doc/amhello.
A last and optional step is to run make installcheck. This command may run tests on
the installed files. make check tests the files in the source tree, while make installcheck
tests their installed copies. The tests run by the latter can be different from those run by the
former. For instance, there are tests that cannot be run in the source tree. Conversely, some
Chapter 2: An Introduction to the Autotools 4

packages are set up so that make installcheck will run the very same tests as make check,
only on different files (non-installed vs. installed). It can make a difference, for instance
when the source tree’s layout is different from that of the installation. Furthermore it may
help to diagnose an incomplete installation.
Presently most packages do not have any installcheck tests because the existence of
installcheck is little known, and its usefulness is neglected. Our little toy package is no
better: make installcheck does nothing.

2.2.2 Standard Makefile Targets

So far we have come across four ways to run make in the GNU Build System: make,
make check, make install, and make installcheck. The words check, install, and
installcheck, passed as arguments to make, are called targets. make is a shorthand for
make all, all being the default target in the GNU Build System.
Here is a list of the most useful targets that the GNU Coding Standards specify.
make all Build programs, libraries, documentation, etc. (same as make).
make install
Install what needs to be installed, copying the files from the package’s tree to
system-wide directories.
make install-strip
Same as make install, then strip debugging symbols. Some users like to trade
space for useful bug reports. . .
make uninstall
The opposite of make install: erase the installed files. (This needs to be run
from the same build tree that was installed.)
make clean
Erase from the build tree the files built by make all.
make distclean
Additionally erase anything ./configure created.
make check
Run the test suite, if any.
make installcheck
Check the installed programs or libraries, if supported.
make dist Recreate package-version.tar.gz from all the source files.

2.2.3 Standard Directory Variables

The GNU Coding Standards also specify a hierarchy of variables to denote installation
directories. Some of these are:
Directory variable Default value
prefix /usr/local
exec_prefix ${prefix}
bindir ${exec_prefix}/bin
libdir ${exec_prefix}/lib
Chapter 2: An Introduction to the Autotools 5

...
includedir ${prefix}/include
datarootdir ${prefix}/share
datadir ${datarootdir}
mandir ${datarootdir}/man
infodir ${datarootdir}/info
docdir ${datarootdir}/doc/${PACKAGE}
...
Each of these directories has a role which is often obvious from its name. In a package,
any installable file will be installed in one of these directories. For instance in amhello-
1.0, the program hello is to be installed in bindir, the directory for binaries. The default
value for this directory is /usr/local/bin, but the user can supply a different value when
calling configure. Also the file README will be installed into docdir, which defaults to
/usr/local/share/doc/amhello.
As a user, if you wish to install a package on your own account, you could proceed as
follows:
~/amhello-1.0 % ./configure --prefix ~/usr
...
~/amhello-1.0 % make
...
~/amhello-1.0 % make install
...
This would install ~/usr/bin/hello and ~/usr/share/doc/amhello/README.
The list of all such directory options is shown by ./configure --help.

2.2.4 Standard Configuration Variables

The GNU Coding Standards also define a set of standard configuration variables used during
the build. Here are some:
CC C compiler command
CFLAGS C compiler flags
CXX C++ compiler command
CXXFLAGS C++ compiler flags
LDFLAGS linker flags
CPPFLAGS C/C++ preprocessor flags
...
configure usually does a good job at setting appropriate values for these variables, but
there are cases where you may want to override them. For instance you may have several
versions of a compiler installed and would like to use another one, you may have header
files installed outside the default search path of the compiler, or even libraries out of the
way of the linker.
Here is how one would call configure to force it to use gcc-3 as C compiler, use header
files from ~/usr/include when compiling, and libraries from ~/usr/lib when linking.
~/amhello-1.0 % ./configure --prefix ~/usr CC=gcc-3 \
Chapter 2: An Introduction to the Autotools 6

CPPFLAGS=-I$HOME/usr/include LDFLAGS=-L$HOME/usr/lib
Again, a full list of these variables appears in the output of ./configure --help.

2.2.5 Overriding Default Configuration Setting with config.site

When installing several packages using the same setup, it can be convenient to create a file
to capture common settings. If a file named prefix/share/config.site exists, configure
will source it at the beginning of its execution.
Recall the command from the previous section:
~/amhello-1.0 % ./configure --prefix ~/usr CC=gcc-3 \
CPPFLAGS=-I$HOME/usr/include LDFLAGS=-L$HOME/usr/lib
Assuming we are installing many package in ~/usr, and will always want to use these
definitions of CC, CPPFLAGS, and LDFLAGS, we can automate this by creating the following
~/usr/share/config.site file:
test -z "$CC" && CC=gcc-3
test -z "$CPPFLAGS" && CPPFLAGS=-I$HOME/usr/include
test -z "$LDFLAGS" && LDFLAGS=-L$HOME/usr/lib
Now, any time a configure script is using the ~/usr prefix, it will execute the above
config.site and define these three variables.
~/amhello-1.0 % ./configure --prefix ~/usr
configure: loading site script /home/adl/usr/share/config.site
...
See Section “Setting Site Defaults” in The Autoconf Manual, for more information about
this feature.

2.2.6 Parallel Build Trees (a.k.a. VPATH Builds)

The GNU Build System distinguishes two trees: the source tree, and the build tree. These
are two directories that may be the same, or different.
The source tree is rooted in the directory containing the configure script. It con-
tains all the source files (those that are distributed), and may be arranged using several
subdirectories.
The build tree is rooted in the current directory at the time configure was run, and
is populated with all object files, programs, libraries, and other derived files built from
the sources (and hence not distributed). The build tree usually has the same subdirectory
layout as the source tree; its subdirectories are created automatically by the build system.
If configure is executed in its own directory, the source and build trees are combined:
derived files are constructed in the same directories as their sources. This was the case in
our first installation example (see Section 2.2.1 [Basic Installation], page 2).
A common request from users is that they want to confine all derived files to a single
directory, to keep their source directories uncluttered. Here is how we could run configure
to create everything in a build tree (that is, subdirectory) called build/.
~ % tar zxf ~/amhello-1.0.tar.gz
~ % cd amhello-1.0
~/amhello-1.0 % mkdir build && cd build
~/amhello-1.0/build % ../configure
Chapter 2: An Introduction to the Autotools 7

...
~/amhello-1.0/build % make
...
These setups, where source and build trees are different, are often called parallel builds or
VPATH builds. The expression parallel build is misleading: the word parallel is a reference
to the way the build tree shadows the source tree, it is not about some concurrency in
the way build commands are run. For this reason we refer to such setups using the name
VPATH builds in the following. VPATH is the name of the make feature used by the
Makefiles to allow these builds (see Section “VPATH Search Path for All Prerequisites” in
The GNU Make Manual).
VPATH builds have other interesting uses. One is to build the same sources with multiple
configurations. For instance:
~ % tar zxf ~/amhello-1.0.tar.gz
~ % cd amhello-1.0
~/amhello-1.0 % mkdir debug optim && cd debug
~/amhello-1.0/debug % ../configure CFLAGS='-g -O0'
...
~/amhello-1.0/debug % make
...
~/amhello-1.0/debug % cd ../optim
~/amhello-1.0/optim % ../configure CFLAGS='-O3 -fomit-frame-pointer'
...
~/amhello-1.0/optim % make
...
With network file systems, a similar approach can be used to build the same sources
on different machines. For instance, suppose that the sources are installed on a directory
shared by two hosts: HOST1 and HOST2, which may be different platforms.
~ % cd /nfs/src
/nfs/src % tar zxf ~/amhello-1.0.tar.gz
On the first host, you could create a local build directory:
[HOST1] ~ % mkdir /tmp/amh && cd /tmp/amh
[HOST1] /tmp/amh % /nfs/src/amhello-1.0/configure
...
[HOST1] /tmp/amh % make && sudo make install
...
(Here we assume that the installer has configured sudo so it can execute make install with
root privileges; it is more convenient than using su like in Section 2.2.1 [Basic Installation],
page 2).
On the second host, you would do exactly the same, possibly at the same time:
[HOST2] ~ % mkdir /tmp/amh && cd /tmp/amh
[HOST2] /tmp/amh % /nfs/src/amhello-1.0/configure
...
[HOST2] /tmp/amh % make && sudo make install
...
Chapter 2: An Introduction to the Autotools 8

In this scenario, nothing forbids the /nfs/src/amhello-1.0 directory from being read-
only. In fact VPATH builds are also a means of building packages from a read-only medium
such as a CD-ROM. (The FSF used to sell CD-ROMs with unpacked source code, before
the GNU project grew so big.)

2.2.7 Two-Part Installation

In our last example (see Section 2.2.6 [VPATH Builds], page 6), a source tree was shared
by two hosts, but compilation and installation were done separately on each host.
The GNU Build System also supports networked setups where part of the installed files
should be shared among multiple hosts. It does so by distinguishing architecture-dependent
files from architecture-independent files, and providing two Makefile targets to install each
of these classes of files.
These targets are install-exec for architecture-dependent files and install-data for
architecture-independent files. The command we used up to now, make install, can be
thought of as a shorthand for make install-exec install-data.
From the GNU Build System point of view, the distinction between architecture-
dependent files and architecture-independent files is based exclusively on the directory
variable used to specify their installation destination. In the list of directory variables
we provided earlier (see Section 2.2.3 [Standard Directory Variables], page 4), all the
variables based on exec-prefix designate architecture-dependent directories whose files
will be installed by make install-exec. The others designate architecture-independent
directories and will serve files installed by make install-data. See Section 12.2 [The Two
Parts of Install], page 100, for more details.
Here is how we could revisit our two-host installation example, assuming that (1) we
want to install the package directly in /usr, and (2) the directory /usr/share is shared by
the two hosts.
On the first host we would run
[HOST1] ~ % mkdir /tmp/amh && cd /tmp/amh
[HOST1] /tmp/amh % /nfs/src/amhello-1.0/configure --prefix /usr
...
[HOST1] /tmp/amh % make && sudo make install
...
On the second host, however, we need only install the architecture-specific files.
[HOST2] ~ % mkdir /tmp/amh && cd /tmp/amh
[HOST2] /tmp/amh % /nfs/src/amhello-1.0/configure --prefix /usr
...
[HOST2] /tmp/amh % make && sudo make install-exec
...
In packages that have installation checks, it would make sense to run make installcheck
(see Section 2.2.1 [Basic Installation], page 2) to verify that the package works correctly
despite the apparent partial installation.

2.2.8 Cross-Compilation
To cross-compile is to build on one platform a binary that will run on another platform.
When speaking of cross-compilation, it is important to distinguish between the build plat-
Chapter 2: An Introduction to the Autotools 9

form on which the compilation is performed, and the host platform on which the resulting
executable is expected to run. The following configure options are used to specify each of
them:
--build=build
The system on which the package is built.
--host=host
The system where built programs and libraries will run.
When the --host is used, configure will search for the cross-compiling suite for this
platform. Cross-compilation tools commonly have their target architecture as prefix of
their name. For instance my cross-compiler for MinGW32 has its binaries called i586-
mingw32msvc-gcc, i586-mingw32msvc-ld, i586-mingw32msvc-as, etc.
Here is how we could build amhello-1.0 for i586-mingw32msvc on a GNU/Linux PC.
~/amhello-1.0 % ./configure --build i686-pc-linux-gnu --host i586-mingw32msvc
checking for a BSD-compatible install... /usr/bin/install -c
checking whether build environment is sane... yes
checking for gawk... gawk
checking whether make sets $(MAKE)... yes
checking for i586-mingw32msvc-strip... i586-mingw32msvc-strip
checking for i586-mingw32msvc-gcc... i586-mingw32msvc-gcc
checking for C compiler default output file name... a.exe
checking whether the C compiler works... yes
checking whether we are cross compiling... yes
checking for suffix of executables... .exe
checking for suffix of object files... o
checking whether we are using the GNU C compiler... yes
checking whether i586-mingw32msvc-gcc accepts -g... yes
checking for i586-mingw32msvc-gcc option to accept ANSI C...
...
~/amhello-1.0 % make
...
~/amhello-1.0 % cd src; file hello.exe
hello.exe: MS Windows PE 32-bit Intel 80386 console executable not relocatable
The --host and --build options are usually all we need for cross-compiling. The only
exception is if the package being built is itself a cross-compiler: we need a third option to
specify its target architecture.
--target=target
When building compiler tools: the system for which the tools will create output.
For instance when installing GCC, the GNU Compiler Collection, we can use --target=
target to specify that we want to build GCC as a cross-compiler for target. Mixing --build
and --target, we can cross-compile a cross-compiler; such a three-way cross-compilation
is known as a Canadian cross.
See Section “Specifying the System Type” in The Autoconf Manual, for more information
about these configure options.

2.2.9 Renaming Programs at Install Time

The GNU Build System provides means to automatically rename executables and man-
pages before they are installed (see Section 11.2 [Man Pages], page 98). This is especially
Chapter 2: An Introduction to the Autotools 10

convenient when installing a GNU package on a system that already has a proprietary im-
plementation you do not want to overwrite. For instance, you may want to install GNU
tar as gtar so you can distinguish it from your vendor’s tar.
This can be done using one of these three configure options.
--program-prefix=prefix
Prepend prefix to installed program names.
--program-suffix=suffix
Append suffix to installed program names.
--program-transform-name=program
Run sed program on installed program names.
The following commands would install hello as /usr/local/bin/test-hello, for in-
stance.
~/amhello-1.0 % ./configure --program-prefix test-
...
~/amhello-1.0 % make
...
~/amhello-1.0 % sudo make install
...

2.2.10 Building Binary Packages Using DESTDIR

The GNU Build System’s make install and make uninstall interface does not exactly fit
the needs of a system administrator who has to deploy and upgrade packages on lots of
hosts. In other words, the GNU Build System does not replace a package manager.
Such package managers usually need to know which files have been installed by a package,
so a mere make install is inappropriate.
The DESTDIR variable can be used to perform a staged installation. The package should
be configured as if it was going to be installed in its final location (e.g., --prefix /usr), but
when running make install, the DESTDIR should be set to the absolute name of a directory
into which the installation will be diverted. From this directory it is easy to review which
files are being installed where, and finally copy them to their final location by some means.
For instance here is how we could create a binary package containing a snapshot of all
the files to be installed.
~/amhello-1.0 % ./configure --prefix /usr
...
~/amhello-1.0 % make
...
~/amhello-1.0 % make DESTDIR=$HOME/inst install
...
~/amhello-1.0 % cd ~/inst
~/inst % find . -type f -print > ../files.lst
~/inst % tar zcvf ~/amhello-1.0-i686.tar.gz `cat ../files.lst`
./usr/bin/hello
./usr/share/doc/amhello/README
Chapter 2: An Introduction to the Autotools 11

After this example, amhello-1.0-i686.tar.gz is ready to be decompressed in / on

many hosts. (Using `cat ../files.lst` instead of ‘.’ as argument for tar avoids entries
for each subdirectory in the archive: we would not like tar to restore the modification time
of /, /usr/, etc.)
Note that when building packages for several architectures, it might be convenient to use
make install-data and make install-exec (see Section 2.2.7 [Two-Part Install], page 8)
to gather architecture-independent files in a single package.
See Chapter 12 [Install], page 99, for more information.

2.2.11 Preparing Distributions

We have already mentioned make dist. This target collects all your source files and the
necessary parts of the build system to create a tarball named package-version.tar.gz.
Another, more useful command is make distcheck. The distcheck target constructs
package-version.tar.gz just as well as dist, but it additionally ensures most of the use
cases presented so far work:
• It attempts a full compilation of the package (see Section 2.2.1 [Basic Installation],
page 2): unpacking the newly constructed tarball, running make, make dvi, make check,
make install, as well as make installcheck, and even make dist,
• it tests VPATH builds with read-only source tree (see Section 2.2.6 [VPATH Builds],
page 6),
• it makes sure make clean, make distclean, and make uninstall do not omit any file
(see Section 2.2.2 [Standard Targets], page 4),
• and it checks that DESTDIR installations work (see Section 2.2.10 [DESTDIR], page 10).
All of these actions are performed in a temporary directory, so that no root privileges
are required. The exact location and the exact structure of such a subdirectory (where the
extracted sources are placed, how the temporary build and install directories are named
and how deeply they are nested, etc.) is to be considered an implementation detail, which
can change at any time; so do not rely on it.
Releasing a package that fails make distcheck means that one of the scenarios we pre-
sented will not work and some users will be disappointed. Therefore it is a good practice
to release a package only after a successful make distcheck. This of course does not imply
that the package will be flawless, but at least it will prevent some of the embarrassing errors
you may find in packages released by people who have never heard about distcheck (like
DESTDIR not working because of a typo, or a distributed file being erased by make clean,
or even VPATH builds not working).
See Section 2.4.1 [Creating amhello], page 13, to recreate amhello-1.0.tar.gz using
make distcheck. See Section 14.4 [Checking the Distribution], page 104, for more informa-
tion about distcheck.

2.2.12 Automatic Dependency Tracking

Dependency tracking is performed as a side-effect of compilation. Each time the build
system compiles a source file, it computes its list of dependencies (in C these are the header
files included by the source being compiled). Later, any time make is run and a dependency
appears to have changed, the dependent files will be rebuilt.
Chapter 2: An Introduction to the Autotools 12

Automake generates code for automatic dependency tracking by default, unless the devel-
oper chooses to override it; for more information, see Section 8.19 [Dependencies], page 83.
When configure is executed, you can see it probing each compiler for the dependency
mechanism it supports (several mechanisms can be used):
~/amhello-1.0 % ./configure --prefix /usr
...
checking dependency style of gcc... gcc3
...
Because dependencies are only computed as a side-effect of the compilation, no depen-
dency information exists the first time a package is built. This is OK because all the files
need to be built anyway: make does not have to decide which files need to be rebuilt. In
fact, dependency tracking is completely useless for one-time builds and there is a configure
option to disable this:
--disable-dependency-tracking
Speed up one-time builds.
Some compilers do not offer any practical way to derive the list of dependencies as a side-
effect of the compilation, requiring a separate run (maybe of another tool) to compute these
dependencies. The performance penalty implied by these methods is important enough to
disable them by default. The option --enable-dependency-tracking must be passed to
configure to activate them.
--enable-dependency-tracking
Do not reject slow dependency extractors.
See Section “Dependency Tracking Evolution” in Brief History of Automake, for some
discussion about the different dependency tracking schemes used by Automake over the
years.

2.2.13 Nested Packages

Although nesting packages isn’t something we would recommend to someone who is dis-
covering the Autotools, it is a nice feature worthy of mention in this small advertising
tour.
Autoconfiscated packages (that means packages whose build system have been created
by Autoconf and friends) can be nested to arbitrary depth.
A typical setup is that package A will distribute one of the libraries it needs in a sub-
directory. This library B is a complete package with its own GNU Build System. The
configure script of A will run the configure script of B as part of its execution; build-
ing and installing A will also build and install B. Generating a distribution for A will also
include B.
It is possible to gather several packages like this. GCC is a heavy user of this feature.
This gives installers a single package to configure, build and install, while it allows developers
to work on subpackages independently.
When configuring nested packages, the configure options given to the top-level
configure are passed recursively to nested configures. A package that does not
understand an option will ignore it, assuming it is meaningful to some other package.
Chapter 2: An Introduction to the Autotools 13

The command configure --help=recursive can be used to display the options sup-
ported by all the included packages.
See Section 7.4 [Subpackages], page 53, for an example setup.

2.3 How Autotools Help

There are several reasons why you may not want to implement the GNU Build System
yourself (read: write a configure script and Makefiles yourself).
• As we have seen, the GNU Build System has a lot of features (see Section 2.2 [Use
Cases], page 2). Some users may expect features you have not implemented because
you did not need them.
• Implementing these features portably is difficult and exhausting. Think of writing
portable shell scripts, and portable Makefiles, for systems you may not have handy.
See Section “Portable Shell Programming” in The Autoconf Manual, to convince your-
self.
• You will have to upgrade your setup to follow changes to the GNU Coding Standards.
The GNU Autotools take all this burden off your back and provide:
• Tools to create a portable, complete, and self-contained GNU Build System, from simple
instructions. Self-contained meaning the resulting build system does not require the
GNU Autotools.
• A central place where fixes and improvements are made: a bug-fix for a portability
issue will benefit every package.
Yet there also exist reasons why you may want NOT to use the Autotools. . . For instance
you may be already using (or used to) another incompatible build system. Autotools will
only be useful if you do accept the concepts of the GNU Build System. People who have
their own idea of how a build system should work will feel frustrated by the Autotools.

2.4 A Small Hello World

In this section we recreate the amhello-1.0 package from scratch. The first subsection
shows how to call the Autotools to instantiate the GNU Build System, while the second
explains the meaning of the configure.ac and Makefile.am files read by the Autotools.

2.4.1 Creating amhello-1.0.tar.gz

Here is how we can recreate amhello-1.0.tar.gz from scratch. The package is simple
enough so that we will only need to write 5 files. (You may copy them from the final
amhello-1.0.tar.gz that is distributed with Automake if you do not want to write them.)
Create the following files in an empty directory.
• src/main.c is the source file for the hello program. We store it in the src/ subdi-
rectory, because later, when the package evolves, it will ease the addition of a man/
directory for man pages, a data/ directory for data files, etc.
~/amhello % cat src/main.c
#include <config.h>
#include <stdio.h>
Chapter 2: An Introduction to the Autotools 14

int
main (void)
{
puts ("Hello World!");
puts ("This is " PACKAGE_STRING ".");
return 0;
}
• README contains some very limited documentation for our little package.
~/amhello % cat README
This is a demonstration package for GNU Automake.
Type 'info Automake' to read the Automake manual.
• Makefile.am and src/Makefile.am contain Automake instructions for these two di-
rectories.
~/amhello % cat src/Makefile.am
bin_PROGRAMS = hello
hello_SOURCES = main.c
~/amhello % cat Makefile.am
SUBDIRS = src
dist_doc_DATA = README
• Finally, configure.ac contains Autoconf instructions to create the configure script.
~/amhello % cat configure.ac
AC_INIT([amhello], [1.0], [[email protected]])
AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE([-Wall -Werror foreign])
AC_PROG_CC
AC_CONFIG_HEADERS([config.h])
AC_CONFIG_FILES([
Makefile
src/Makefile
])
AC_OUTPUT
Once you have these five files, it is time to run the Autotools to instantiate the build
system. Do this using the autoreconf command as follows:
~/amhello % autoreconf --install
configure.ac: installing './install-sh'
configure.ac: installing './missing'
configure.ac: installing './compile'
src/Makefile.am: installing './depcomp'
At this point the build system is complete.
In addition to the three scripts mentioned in its output, you can see that autoreconf
created four other files: configure, config.h.in, Makefile.in, and src/Makefile.in.
The latter three files are templates that will be adapted to the system by configure under
the names config.h, Makefile, and src/Makefile. Let’s do this:
~/amhello % ./configure
checking for a BSD-compatible install... /usr/bin/install -c
Chapter 2: An Introduction to the Autotools 15

checking whether build environment is sane... yes

checking for gawk... no
checking for mawk... mawk
checking whether make sets $(MAKE)... yes
checking for gcc... gcc
checking for C compiler default output file name... a.out
checking whether the C compiler works... yes
checking whether we are cross compiling... no
checking for suffix of executables...
checking for suffix of object files... o
checking whether we are using the GNU C compiler... yes
checking whether gcc accepts -g... yes
checking for gcc option to accept ISO C89... none needed
checking for style of include used by make... GNU
checking dependency style of gcc... gcc3
configure: creating ./config.status
config.status: creating Makefile
config.status: creating src/Makefile
config.status: creating config.h
config.status: executing depfiles commands
You can see Makefile, src/Makefile, and config.h being created at the end after
configure has probed the system. It is now possible to run all the targets we wish (see
Section 2.2.2 [Standard Targets], page 4). For instance:
~/amhello % make
...
~/amhello % src/hello
Hello World!
This is amhello 1.0.
~/amhello % make distcheck
...
=============================================
amhello-1.0 archives ready for distribution:
amhello-1.0.tar.gz
=============================================
Running autoreconf is only needed initially, when the GNU Build System does not
exist. When you later change some instructions in a Makefile.am or configure.ac, the
relevant part of the build system will be regenerated automatically when you execute make.
autoreconf is a script that calls autoconf, automake, and related commands in the
right order. If you are beginning with these tools, it is not important to figure out in which
order all of these tools should be invoked and why. (But for the curious: the basic idea is
to run:
1. aclocal (see Section 6.3 [aclocal Invocation], page 36),
2. autoconf (see The Autoconf Manual),
3. (if needed) autoheader (part of the Autoconf distribution), and
4. automake (see Chapter 5 [automake Invocation], page 27).
Chapter 2: An Introduction to the Autotools 16

If needed, tools related to Gettext (see GNU gettext utilities) and Libtool (see The Libtool
Manual) are also invoked at different points. Thus, as you can see, using autoreconf is
quite a bit more convenient.
Nevertheless, because Autoconf and Automake have separate manuals, an essential idea
to understand is that Autoconf is in charge of creating configure from configure.ac, while
Automake is in charge of creating Makefile.ins from Makefile.ams and configure.ac.
This should at least direct you to the right manual when seeking answers.

2.4.2 amhello’s configure.ac Setup Explained

Let us begin with the contents of configure.ac.
AC_INIT([amhello], [1.0], [[email protected]])
AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE([-Wall -Werror foreign])
AC_PROG_CC
AC_CONFIG_HEADERS([config.h])
AC_CONFIG_FILES([
Makefile
src/Makefile
])
AC_OUTPUT
This file is read by both autoconf (to create configure) and automake (to create the
various Makefile.ins). It contains a series of M4 macros that will be expanded as shell code
to finally form the configure script. We will not elaborate on the syntax of this file, because
the Autoconf manual has a whole section about it (see Section “Writing configure.ac” in
The Autoconf Manual).
The macros prefixed with AC_ are Autoconf macros, documented in the Autoconf manual
(see Section “Autoconf Macro Index” in The Autoconf Manual). The macros that start with
AM_ are Automake macros, documented later in this manual (see Section B.1 [Macro Index],
page 173).
The first two lines of configure.ac initialize Autoconf and Automake. AC_INIT takes
in as parameters the name of the package, its version number, and a contact address for
bug-reports about the package (this address is output at the end of ./configure --help,
for instance). When adapting this setup to your own package, by all means please do not
blindly copy Automake’s address: use the mailing list of your package, or your own mail
address.
The argument to AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE is a list of options for automake (see Chapter 17
[Options], page 127). -Wall and -Werror ask automake to turn on all warnings and report
them as errors. We are speaking of Automake warnings here, such as dubious instructions in
Makefile.am. This has absolutely nothing to do with how the compiler will be called, even
though it may support options with similar names. Using -Wall -Werror is a safe setting
when starting to work on a package: you do not want to miss any issues. Later you may
decide to relax things a bit. The foreign option tells Automake that this package will not
follow the GNU Standards. GNU packages should always distribute additional files such as
ChangeLog, AUTHORS, etc. We do not want automake to complain about these missing files
in our small example.
Chapter 2: An Introduction to the Autotools 17

The AC_PROG_CC line causes the configure script to search for a C compiler and
define the variable CC with its name. The src/Makefile.in file generated by Automake
uses the variable CC to build hello, so when configure creates src/Makefile from
src/Makefile.in, it will define CC with the value it has found. If Automake is asked to
create a Makefile.in that uses CC but configure.ac does not define it, it will suggest
you add a call to AC_PROG_CC.
The AC_CONFIG_HEADERS([config.h]) invocation causes the configure script to create
a config.h file gathering ‘#define’s defined by other macros in configure.ac. In our case,
the AC_INIT macro already defined a few of them. Here is an excerpt of config.h after
configure has run:
...
/* Define to the address where bug reports for this package should be sent. */
#define PACKAGE_BUGREPORT "[email protected]"

/* Define to the full name and version of this package. */

#define PACKAGE_STRING "amhello 1.0"
...
As you probably noticed, src/main.c includes config.h so it can use PACKAGE_STRING.
In a real-world project, config.h can grow quite large, with one ‘#define’ per feature
probed on the system.
The AC_CONFIG_FILES macro declares the list of files that configure should create from
their *.in templates. Automake also scans this list to find the Makefile.am files it must
process. (This is important to remember: when adding a new directory to your project,
you should add its Makefile to this list, otherwise Automake will never process the new
Makefile.am you wrote in that directory.)
Finally, the AC_OUTPUT line is a closing command that actually produces the part of the
script in charge of creating the files registered with AC_CONFIG_HEADERS and AC_CONFIG_
FILES.
When starting a new project, we suggest you start with such a simple configure.ac, and
gradually add the other tests it requires. The command autoscan can also suggest a few of
the tests your package may need (see Section “Using autoscan to Create configure.ac”
in The Autoconf Manual).

2.4.3 amhello’s Makefile.am Setup Explained

We now turn to src/Makefile.am. This file contains Automake instructions to build and
install hello.
bin_PROGRAMS = hello
hello_SOURCES = main.c
A Makefile.am has the same syntax as an ordinary Makefile. When automake processes
a Makefile.am it copies the entire file into the output Makefile.in (that will be later turned
into Makefile by configure) but will react to certain variable definitions by generating
some build rules and other variables. Often Makefile.ams contain only a list of variable
definitions as above, but they can also contain other variable and rule definitions that
automake will pass along without interpretation.
Variables that end with _PROGRAMS are special variables that list programs that the
resulting Makefile should build. In Automake speak, this _PROGRAMS suffix is called a
Chapter 3: General ideas 18

primary; Automake recognizes other primaries such as _SCRIPTS, _DATA, _LIBRARIES, etc.
corresponding to different types of files.
The ‘bin’ part of the bin_PROGRAMS tells automake that the resulting programs should
be installed in bindir. Recall that the GNU Build System uses a set of variables to denote
destination directories and allow users to customize these locations (see Section 2.2.3 [Stan-
dard Directory Variables], page 4). Any such directory variable can be put in front of a
primary (omitting the dir suffix) to tell automake where to install the listed files.
Programs need to be built from source files, so for each program prog listed in a
_PROGRAMS variable, automake will look for another variable named prog_SOURCES list-
ing its source files. There may be more than one source file: they will all be compiled and
linked together.
Automake also knows that source files need to be distributed when creating a tarball
(unlike built programs). So a side-effect of this hello_SOURCES declaration is that main.c
will be part of the tarball created by make dist.
Finally here are some explanations regarding the top-level Makefile.am.
SUBDIRS = src
dist_doc_DATA = README
SUBDIRS is a special variable listing all directories that make should recurse into before
processing the current directory. So this line is responsible for make building src/hello
even though we run it from the top-level. This line also causes make install to install
src/hello before installing README (not that this order matters).
The line dist_doc_DATA = README causes README to be distributed and installed in
docdir. Files listed with the _DATA primary are not automatically part of the tarball built
with make dist, so we add the dist_ prefix so they get distributed. However, for README it
would not have been necessary: automake automatically distributes any README file it en-
counters (the list of other files automatically distributed is presented by automake --help).
The only important effect of this second line is therefore to install README during make
install.
One thing not covered in this example is accessing the installation directory values (see
Section 2.2.3 [Standard Directory Variables], page 4) from your program code, that is,
converting them into defined macros. For this, see Section “Defining Directories” in The
Autoconf Manual.

3 General ideas
The following sections cover a few basic ideas that will help you understand how Automake
works.

3.1 General Operation

Automake works by reading a Makefile.am and generating a Makefile.in. Certain vari-
ables and rules defined in the Makefile.am instruct Automake to generate more specialized
code; for instance, a bin_PROGRAMS variable definition will cause rules for compiling and
linking programs to be generated.
Chapter 3: General ideas 19

The variable definitions and rules in the Makefile.am are copied mostly verbatim into
the generated file, with all variable definitions preceding all rules. This allows you to
add almost arbitrary code into the generated Makefile.in. For instance, the Automake
distribution includes a non-standard rule for the git-dist target, which the Automake
maintainer uses to make distributions from the source control system.
Note that most GNU Make extensions are not recognized by Automake. Using such
extensions in a Makefile.am will lead to errors or confusing behavior.
A special exception is that the GNU Make append operator, ‘+=’, is supported. This
operator appends its right hand argument to the variable specified on the left. Automake
will translate the operator into an ordinary ‘=’ operator; ‘+=’ will thus work with any make
program.
Automake tries to keep comments grouped with any adjoining rules or variable defini-
tions.
Generally, Automake is not particularly smart in the parsing of unusual Makefile con-
structs, so you’re advised to avoid fancy constructs or “creative” use of whitespace. For
example, TAB characters cannot be used between a target name and the following “:” char-
acter, and variable assignments shouldn’t be indented with TAB characters. Also, using
more complex macros in target names can cause trouble:
% cat Makefile.am
$(FOO:=x): bar
% automake
Makefile.am:1: bad characters in variable name '$(FOO'
Makefile.am:1: ':='-style assignments are not portable
A rule defined in Makefile.am generally overrides any such rule of a similar name that
would be automatically generated by automake. Although this is a supported feature,
it is generally best to avoid making use of it, as sometimes the generated rules are very
particular.
Similarly, a variable defined in Makefile.am or AC_SUBSTed from configure.ac will
override any definition of the variable that automake would ordinarily create. This feature
is often more useful than the ability to override a rule. Be warned that many of the variables
generated by automake are considered to be for internal use only, and their names might
change in future releases.
When examining a variable definition, Automake will recursively examine variables refer-
enced in the definition. For example, if Automake is looking at the content of foo_SOURCES
in this snippet
xs = a.c b.c
foo_SOURCES = c.c $(xs)
it would use the files a.c, b.c, and c.c as the contents of foo_SOURCES.
Automake also allows a form of comment that is not copied into the output; all lines
beginning with ‘##’ (leading spaces allowed) are completely ignored by Automake.
It is customary to make the first line of Makefile.am read:
## Process this file with automake to produce Makefile.in
Chapter 3: General ideas 20

3.2 Strictness
While Automake is intended to be used by maintainers of GNU packages, it does make
some effort to accommodate those who wish to use it, but do not want to use all the GNU
conventions.
To this end, Automake supports three levels of strictness—how stringently Automake
should enforce conformance with GNU conventions. Each strictness level can be selected
using an option of the same name; see Chapter 17 [Options], page 127.
The strictness levels are:
gnu This is the default level of strictness. Automake will check for basic compli-
ance with the GNU standards for software packaging. See The GNU Coding
Standards, for full details of these standards. Currently the following checks
are made:
• The files INSTALL, NEWS, README, AUTHORS, and ChangeLog, plus one of
COPYING.LIB, COPYING.LESSER or COPYING, are required at the topmost
directory of the package.
If the --add-missing option is given, automake will add a generic version
of the INSTALL file as well as the COPYING file containing the text of the
current version of the GNU General Public License existing at the time
of this Automake release (version 3 as this is written, https://www.gnu.
org/copyleft/gpl.html). However, an existing COPYING file will never be
overwritten by automake.
• The options no-installman and no-installinfo are prohibited.
Future versions of Automake will add more checks at this level of strictness; it
is advisable to be familiar with the precise requirements of the GNU standards.
Future versions of Automake may, at this level of strictness, require certain
non-standard GNU tools to be available to maintainer-only Makefile rules.
For instance, in the future pathchk (see Section “pathchk invocation” in GNU
Coreutils) may be required to run ‘make dist’.
foreign Automake will check for only those things that are absolutely required for proper
operation. For instance, whereas GNU standards dictate the existence of a NEWS
file, it will not be required in this mode. This strictness will also turn off some
warnings by default (among them, portability warnings).
gnits Automake will check for compliance to the as-yet-unwritten Gnits standards.
These are based on the GNU standards, but are even more detailed. Unless
you are a Gnits standards contributor, it is recommended that you avoid this
option until such time as the Gnits standard is published (which is unlikely to
ever happen).
Currently, --gnits does all the checks that --gnu does, and checks the following
as well:
• ‘make installcheck’ will check to make sure that the --help and
--version print a usage message and a version string, respectively. This
is the std-options option (see Chapter 17 [Options], page 127).
Chapter 3: General ideas 21

• ‘make dist’ will check to make sure the NEWS file has been updated to the
current version.
• VERSION is checked to make sure its format complies with Gnits standards.
• If VERSION indicates that this is an alpha release, and the file README-
alpha appears in the topmost directory of a package, then it is included
in the distribution. This is done in --gnits mode, and no other, because
this mode is the only one where version number formats are constrained,
and hence the only mode where Automake can automatically determine
whether README-alpha should be included.
• The file THANKS is required.

3.3 The Uniform Naming Scheme

Automake variables generally follow a uniform naming scheme that makes it easy to decide
how programs (and other derived objects) are built, and how they are installed. This scheme
also supports configure time determination of what should be built.
At make time, certain variables are used to determine which objects are to be built. The
variable names are made of several pieces that are concatenated together.
The piece that tells automake what is being built is commonly called the primary. For
instance, the primary PROGRAMS holds a list of programs that are to be compiled and linked.

A different set of names is used to decide where the built objects should be installed.
These names are prefixes to the primary, and they indicate which standard directory should
be used as the installation directory. The standard directory names are given in the GNU
standards (see Section “Directory Variables” in The GNU Coding Standards). Automake
extends this list with pkgdatadir, pkgincludedir, pkglibdir, and pkglibexecdir; these
are the same as the non-‘pkg’ versions, but with ‘$(PACKAGE)’ appended. For instance,
pkglibdir is defined as ‘$(libdir)/$(PACKAGE)’.
For each primary, there is one additional variable named by prepending ‘EXTRA_’ to the
primary name. This variable is used to list objects that may or may not be built, depending
on what configure decides. This variable is required because Automake must statically
know the entire list of objects that may be built in order to generate a Makefile.in that
will work in all cases.
For instance, cpio decides at configure time which programs should be built. Some of
the programs are installed in bindir, and some are installed in sbindir:
EXTRA_PROGRAMS = mt rmt
bin_PROGRAMS = cpio pax
sbin_PROGRAMS = $(MORE_PROGRAMS)
Defining a primary without a prefix as a variable, e.g., ‘PROGRAMS’, is an error.
Note that the common ‘dir’ suffix is left off when constructing the variable names; thus
one writes ‘bin_PROGRAMS’ and not ‘bindir_PROGRAMS’.
Not every sort of object can be installed in every directory. Automake will flag those
attempts it finds in error (but see below how to override the check if you need to). Automake
will also diagnose obvious misspellings in directory names.
Chapter 3: General ideas 22

Sometimes the standard directories—even as augmented by Automake—are not enough.

In particular it is sometimes useful, for clarity, to install objects in a subdirectory of some
predefined directory. To this end, Automake allows you to extend the list of possible
installation directories. A given prefix (e.g., ‘zar’) is valid if a variable of the same name
with ‘dir’ appended is defined (e.g., ‘zardir’).
For instance, the following snippet will install file.xml into ‘$(datadir)/xml’.
xmldir = $(datadir)/xml
xml_DATA = file.xml
This feature can also be used to override the sanity checks Automake performs to diag-
nose suspicious directory/primary couples (in the unlikely case that you need to omit these
checks). For example, Automake would error out on this input:
# Forbidden directory combinations, automake will error out on this.
pkglib_PROGRAMS = foo
doc_LIBRARIES = libquux.a
but it will succeed with this:
# Work around forbidden directory combinations. Do not use this
# without a very good reason!
my_execbindir = $(pkglibdir)
my_doclibdir = $(docdir)
my_execbin_PROGRAMS = foo
my_doclib_LIBRARIES = libquux.a
The ‘exec’ substring of the ‘my_execbindir’ variable lets the files be installed at the
right time (see Section 12.2 [The Two Parts of Install], page 100).
The special prefix ‘noinst_’ indicates that the objects in question should be built but not
installed at all. This is usually used for objects required to build the rest of your package,
for instance static libraries (see Section 8.2 [A Library], page 59), or helper scripts.
The special prefix ‘check_’ indicates that the objects in question should not be built
until the ‘make check’ command is run. Those objects are not installed either.
The current primary names are ‘PROGRAMS’, ‘LIBRARIES’, ‘LTLIBRARIES’, ‘LISP’,
‘PYTHON’, ‘JAVA’, ‘SCRIPTS’, ‘DATA’, ‘HEADERS’, ‘MANS’, and ‘TEXINFOS’.
Some primaries also allow additional prefixes that control other aspects of automake’s
behavior. The currently defined prefixes are ‘dist_’, ‘nodist_’, ‘nobase_’, and ‘notrans_’.
These prefixes are explained later (see Section 8.4 [Program and Library Variables], page 67)
(see Section 11.2 [Man Pages], page 98).

3.4 Staying below the command line length limit

Traditionally, most unix-like systems have a length limitation for the command line argu-
ments and environment contents when creating new processes (see for example https://
www.in-ulm.de/~mascheck/various/argmax/ for an overview on this issue), which of
course also applies to commands spawned by make. POSIX requires this limit to be at
least 4096 bytes, and most modern systems have quite high limits (or are unlimited).
In order to create portable Makefiles that do not trip over these limits, it is necessary
to keep the length of file lists bounded. Unfortunately, it is not possible to do so fully
Chapter 3: General ideas 23

transparently within Automake, so your help may be needed. Typically, you can split long
file lists manually and use different installation directory names for each list. For example,
data_DATA = file1 ... fileN fileN+1 ... file2N
may also be written as
data_DATA = file1 ... fileN
data2dir = $(datadir)
data2_DATA = fileN+1 ... file2N
and will cause Automake to treat the two lists separately during make install. See Sec-
tion 12.2 [The Two Parts of Install], page 100, for choosing directory names that will keep
the ordering of the two parts of installation Note that make dist may still only work on a
host with a higher length limit in this example.
Automake itself employs a couple of strategies to avoid long command lines. For example,
when ‘${srcdir}/’ is prepended to file names, as can happen with above $(data_DATA)
lists, it limits the amount of arguments passed to external commands.
Unfortunately, some systems’ make commands may prepend VPATH prefixes like
‘${srcdir}/’ to file names from the source tree automatically (see Section “Automatic
Rule Rewriting” in The Autoconf Manual). In this case, the user may have to switch to
use GNU Make, or refrain from using VPATH builds, in order to stay below the length
limit.
For libraries and programs built from many sources, convenience archives may be used as
intermediates in order to limit the object list length (see Section 8.3.5 [Libtool Convenience
Libraries], page 62).

3.5 How derived variables are named

Sometimes a Makefile variable name is derived from some text the maintainer supplies. For
instance, a program name listed in ‘_PROGRAMS’ is rewritten into the name of a ‘_SOURCES’
variable. In cases like this, Automake canonicalizes the text, so that program names and
the like do not have to follow Makefile variable naming rules. All characters in the name
except for letters, numbers, the strudel (@), and the underscore are turned into underscores
when making variable references.
For example, if your program is named sniff-glue, the derived variable name would
be ‘sniff_glue_SOURCES’, not ‘sniff-glue_SOURCES’. Similarly the sources for a library
named libmumble++.a should be listed in the ‘libmumble___a_SOURCES’ variable.
The strudel is an addition, to make the use of Autoconf substitutions in variable names
less obfuscating.

3.6 Variables reserved for the user

Some Makefile variables are reserved by the GNU Coding Standards for the use of the
“user”—the person building the package. For instance, CFLAGS is one such variable.
Sometimes package developers are tempted to set user variables such as CFLAGS because
it appears to make their job easier. However, the package itself should never set a user
variable, particularly not to include switches that are required for proper compilation of
the package. Since these variables are documented as being for the package builder, that
person rightfully expects to be able to override any of these variables at build time.
Chapter 3: General ideas 24

To get around this problem, Automake introduces an automake-specific shadow variable

for each user flag variable. (Shadow variables are not introduced for variables like CC, where
they would make no sense.) The shadow variable is named by prepending ‘AM_’ to the user
variable’s name. For instance, the shadow variable for YFLAGS is AM_YFLAGS. The package
maintainer—that is, the author(s) of the Makefile.am and configure.ac files—may adjust
these shadow variables however necessary.
See Section 26.5 [Flag Variables Ordering], page 152, for more discussion about these
variables and how they interact with per-target variables.

3.7 Programs automake might require

Automake sometimes requires helper programs so that the generated Makefile can do its
work properly. There are a fairly large number of them, and we list them here.
Although all of these files are distributed and installed with Automake, a couple of them
are maintained separately. The Automake copies are updated before each release, but we
mention the original source in case you need more recent versions.
ar-lib This is a wrapper primarily for the Microsoft lib archiver, to make it more
POSIX-like.
compile This is a wrapper for compilers that do not accept options -c and -o at the same
time. It is only used when absolutely required. Such compilers are rare, with
the Microsoft C/C++ Compiler as the most notable exception. This wrapper
also makes the following common options available for that compiler, while
performing file name translation where needed: -I, -L, -l, -Wl, and -Xlinker.
config.guess
config.sub
These two programs compute the canonical triplets for the given build, host,
or target architecture. These programs are updated regularly to support new
architectures and fix probes broken by changes in new kernel versions. Each
new release of Automake comes with up-to-date copies of these programs. If
your copy of Automake is getting old, you are encouraged to fetch the latest
versions of these files from https://savannah.gnu.org/git/?group=config
before making a release.
depcomp This program understands how to run a compiler so that it will generate not
only the desired output but also dependency information that is then used by
the automatic dependency tracking feature (see Section 8.19 [Dependencies],
page 83).
install-sh
This is a replacement for the install program that works on platforms where
install is unavailable or unusable.
mdate-sh This script is used to generate a version.texi file. It examines a file and prints
some date information about it.
missing This wraps a number of programs that are typically only required by maintain-
ers. If the program in question doesn’t exist, or seems too old, missing will
Chapter 4: Some example packages 25

print an informative warning before failing out, to provide the user with more
context and information.
mkinstalldirs
This script used to be a wrapper around ‘mkdir -p’, which is not portable. Now
we prefer to use ‘install-sh -d’ when configure finds that ‘mkdir -p’ does
not work, this makes one less script to distribute.
For backward compatibility mkinstalldirs is still used and distributed when
automake finds it in a package. But it is no longer installed automatically, and
it should be safe to remove it.
py-compile
This is used to byte-compile Python scripts.
test-driver
This implements the default test driver offered by the parallel testsuite harness.
texinfo.tex
When Texinfo sources are in the package, this file is required for ‘make dvi’,
‘make ps’ and ‘make pdf’. The latest version can be downloaded from https://
www.gnu.org/software/texinfo/. A working TEX distribution, or at least a
tex program, is also required. Furthermore, ‘make dist’ invokes ‘make dvi’, so
these become requirements for making a distribution with Texinfo sources.
ylwrap This program wraps lex and yacc to rename their output files. It also ensures
that, for instance, multiple yacc instances can be invoked in a single directory
in parallel.

4 Some example packages

This section contains two small examples.
The first example (see Section 4.1 [Complete], page 25) assumes you have an existing
project already using Autoconf, with handcrafted Makefiles, and that you want to convert
it to using Automake. If you are discovering both tools, it is probably better that you look
at the Hello World example presented earlier (see Section 2.4 [Hello World], page 13).
The second example (see Section 4.2 [true], page 26) shows how two programs can be
built from the same file, using different compilation parameters. It contains some technical
digressions that are probably best skipped on first read.

4.1 A simple example, start to finish

Let’s suppose you just finished writing zardoz, a program to make your head float from
vortex to vortex. You’ve been using Autoconf to provide a portability framework, but
your Makefile.ins have been ad-hoc. You want to make them bulletproof, so you turn to
Automake.
The first step is to update your configure.ac to include the commands that automake
needs. The way to do this is to add an AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE call just after AC_INIT:
AC_INIT([zardoz], [1.0])
Chapter 4: Some example packages 26

AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE
...
Since your program doesn’t have any complicating factors (e.g., it doesn’t use gettext,
it doesn’t want to build a shared library), you’re done with this part. That was easy!
Now you must regenerate configure. But to do that, you’ll need to tell autoconf how
to find the new macro you’ve used. The easiest way to do this is to use the aclocal program
to generate your aclocal.m4 for you. But wait. . . maybe you already have an aclocal.m4,
because you had to write some hairy macros for your program. The aclocal program lets
you put your own macros into acinclude.m4, so simply rename and then run:
mv aclocal.m4 acinclude.m4
aclocal
autoconf
Now it is time to write your Makefile.am for zardoz. Since zardoz is a user program,
you want to install it where the rest of the user programs go: bindir. Additionally, zardoz
has some Texinfo documentation. Your configure.ac script uses AC_REPLACE_FUNCS, so
you need to link against ‘$(LIBOBJS)’. So here’s what you’d write:
bin_PROGRAMS = zardoz
zardoz_SOURCES = main.c head.c float.c vortex9.c gun.c
zardoz_LDADD = $(LIBOBJS)

info_TEXINFOS = zardoz.texi
Now you can run ‘automake --add-missing’ to generate your Makefile.in and grab
any auxiliary files you might need, and you’re done!

4.2 Building true and false

Here is another, trickier example. It shows how to generate two programs (true and false)
from the same source file (true.c). The difficult part is that each compilation of true.c
requires different cpp flags.
bin_PROGRAMS = true false
false_SOURCES =
false_LDADD = false.o

true.o: true.c
$(COMPILE) -DEXIT_CODE=0 -c true.c

false.o: true.c
$(COMPILE) -DEXIT_CODE=1 -o false.o -c true.c
Note that there is no true_SOURCES definition. Automake will implicitly assume that
there is a source file named true.c (see Section 8.5 [Default SOURCES], page 71), and
define rules to compile true.o and link true. The ‘true.o: true.c’ rule supplied by the
above Makefile.am, will override the Automake generated rule to build true.o.
false_SOURCES is defined to be empty—that way no implicit value is substituted. Be-
cause we have not listed the source of false, we have to tell Automake how to link the
program. This is the purpose of the false_LDADD line. A false_DEPENDENCIES variable,
Chapter 5: Creating a Makefile.in: Invoking automake 27

holding the dependencies of the false target will be automatically generated by Automake
from the content of false_LDADD.
The above rules won’t work if your compiler doesn’t accept both -c and -o. The simplest
fix for this is to introduce a bogus dependency (to avoid problems with a parallel make):
true.o: true.c false.o
$(COMPILE) -DEXIT_CODE=0 -c true.c

false.o: true.c
$(COMPILE) -DEXIT_CODE=1 -c true.c && mv true.o false.o
As it turns out, there is also a much easier way to do this same task. Some of the above
technique is useful enough that we’ve kept the example in the manual. However if you were
to build true and false in real life, you would probably use per-program compilation flags,
like so:
bin_PROGRAMS = false true

false_SOURCES = true.c
false_CPPFLAGS = -DEXIT_CODE=1

true_SOURCES = true.c
true_CPPFLAGS = -DEXIT_CODE=0
In this case Automake will cause true.c to be compiled twice, with different flags. In
this instance, the names of the object files would be chosen by automake; they would be
false-true.o and true-true.o. (The name of the object files rarely matters.)

5 Creating a Makefile.in: Invoking automake

To create all the Makefile.ins for a package, run the automake program in the top
level directory, with no arguments. automake will automatically find each appropriate
Makefile.am (by scanning configure.ac; see Chapter 6 [configure], page 30) and generate
the corresponding Makefile.in. Note that automake has a rather simplistic view of what
constitutes a package; it assumes that a package has only one configure.ac, at the top. If
your package has multiple configure.acs, then you must run automake in each directory
holding a configure.ac. (Alternatively, you may rely on Autoconf’s autoreconf, which
is able to recurse your package tree and run automake where appropriate.)
You can optionally give automake an argument; .am is appended to the argument and
the result is used as the name of the input file. This feature is generally only used to
automatically rebuild an out-of-date Makefile.in. Note that automake must always be run
from the topmost directory of a project, even if being used to regenerate the Makefile.in
in some subdirectory. This is necessary because automake must scan configure.ac, and
because automake uses the knowledge that a Makefile.in is in a subdirectory to change
its behavior in some cases.
Automake will run autoconf to scan configure.ac and its dependencies (i.e.,
aclocal.m4 and any included file), therefore autoconf must be in your PATH. If there
is an AUTOCONF variable in your environment it will be used instead of autoconf; this
allows you to select a particular version of Autoconf. By the way, don’t misunderstand
Chapter 5: Creating a Makefile.in: Invoking automake 28

this paragraph: automake runs autoconf to scan your configure.ac; this won’t build
configure and you still have to run autoconf yourself for this purpose.
automake accepts the following options:
-a
--add-missing
Automake requires certain common files to exist in certain situations; for
instance, config.guess is required if configure.ac invokes AC_CANONICAL_
HOST. Automake is distributed with several of these files (see Section 3.7
[Auxiliary Programs], page 24); this option will cause the missing ones to be
automatically added to the package, whenever possible. In general if Automake
tells you a file is missing, try using this option. By default Automake tries to
make a symbolic link pointing to its own copy of the missing file; this can be
changed with --copy.
Many of the potentially-missing files are common scripts whose location may be
specified via the AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR macro. Therefore, AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR’s
setting affects whether a file is considered missing, and where the missing file
is added (see Section 6.2 [Optional], page 32).
In some strictness modes, additional files are installed, see [Gnits], page 20, for
more information.
--libdir=dir
Look for Automake data files in directory dir instead of in the installation
directory. This is typically used for debugging.
The environment variable AUTOMAKE_LIBDIR provides another way to set the di-
rectory containing Automake data files. The --libdir option takes precedence
over it.
--print-libdir
Print the path of the installation directory containing Automake-provided
scripts and data files (e.g., texinfo.texi and install-sh).
-c
--copy When used with --add-missing, causes installed files to be copied. The default
is to make a symbolic link.
-f
--force-missing
When used with --add-missing, causes standard files to be reinstalled even if
they already exist in the source tree. This involves removing the file from the
source tree before creating the new symlink (or, with --copy, copying the new
file).
--foreign
Set the global strictness to foreign. For more information, see Section 3.2
[Strictness], page 20.
--gnits Set the global strictness to gnits. For more information, see Section 3.2 [Strict-
ness], page 20.
Chapter 5: Creating a Makefile.in: Invoking automake 29

--gnu Set the global strictness to gnu. For more information, see Section 3.2 [Strict-
ness], page 20. This is the default strictness.
--help Print a summary of the command line options and exit.
-i
--ignore-deps
This disables the dependency tracking feature in generated Makefiles; see Sec-
tion 8.19 [Dependencies], page 83.
--include-deps
This enables the dependency tracking feature. This feature is enabled by de-
fault. This option is provided for historical reasons only and probably should
not be used.
--no-force
Ordinarily automake creates all Makefile.ins mentioned in configure.ac.
This option causes it to only update those Makefile.ins that are out of date
with respect to one of their dependents.
-o dir
--output-dir=dir
Put the generated Makefile.in in the directory dir. Ordinarily each
Makefile.in is created in the directory of the corresponding Makefile.am.
This option is deprecated and will be removed in a future release.
-v
--verbose
Cause Automake to print information about which files are being read or cre-
ated.
--version
Print the version number of Automake and exit.
-W category[,category...]
--warnings=category[,category...]
Output warnings about a category of potential problems with the package.
category can be any of:
cross Constructs compromising the ability to cross-compile the package.
gnu Minor deviations from the GNU Coding Standards (see The GNU
Coding Standards).
obsolete Obsolete features or constructions.
override Redefinitions of Automake rules or variables.
portability
Portability issues (e.g., use of make features that are known to be
not portable).
portability-recursive
Recursive, or nested, Make variable expansions ($(foo$(x))).
These are not universally supported, but are more portable than
Chapter 6: Scanning configure.ac, using aclocal 30

the other non-portable constructs diagnosed by -Wportability.

These warnings are turned on by -Wportability but can then be
turned off specifically by -Wno-portability-recursive.
extra-portability
Extra portability issues, related to rarely-used tools such as the
Microsoft lib archiver.
syntax Questionable syntax, unused variables, typos, etc.
unsupported
Unsupported or incomplete features.
all Turn on all the above categories of warnings.
none Turn off all the above categories of warnings.
error Treat warnings as errors.
A category can be turned off by prefixing its name with ‘no-’. For instance,
-Wno-syntax will hide the warnings about unused variables.
Warnings in the ‘gnu’, ‘obsolete’, ‘portability’, ‘syntax’, and ‘unsupported’
categories are turned on by default. The ‘gnu’ and ‘portability’ categories
are turned off in --foreign strictness.
Turning off ‘portability’ will also turn off ‘extra-portability’, and similarly
turning on ‘extra-portability’ will also turn on ‘portability’. However,
turning on ‘portability’ or turning off ‘extra-portability’ will not affect
the other category.
Unknown warning categories supplied as an argument to -W will themselves pro-
duce a warning, in the ‘unsupported’ category. This warning is never treated
as an error.
The environment variable WARNINGS can contain a comma separated list of
categories to enable. -W settings on the command line take precedence; for
instance, -Wnone also turns off any warning categories enabled by WARNINGS.
Unknown warning categories named in WARNINGS are silently ignored.
If the environment variable AUTOMAKE_JOBS contains a positive number, it is taken as the
maximum number of Perl threads to use in automake for generating multiple Makefile.in
files concurrently. This is an experimental feature.

6 Scanning configure.ac, using aclocal

Automake scans the package’s configure.ac to determine certain information about the
package. Some autoconf macros are required and some variables must be defined in
configure.ac. Automake will also use information from configure.ac to further tailor
its output.
Automake also supplies some Autoconf macros to make the maintenance easier. These
macros can automatically be put into your aclocal.m4 using the aclocal program.
Chapter 6: Scanning configure.ac, using aclocal 31

6.1 Configuration requirements

The one real requirement of Automake is that your configure.ac call AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE.
This macro does several things that are required for proper Automake operation (see Sec-
tion 6.4 [Macros], page 45).
Here are the other macros that Automake requires but which are not run by AM_INIT_
AUTOMAKE:
AC_CONFIG_FILES
AC_OUTPUT
These two macros are usually invoked as follows near the end of configure.ac.
...
AC_CONFIG_FILES([
Makefile
doc/Makefile
src/Makefile
src/lib/Makefile
...
])
AC_OUTPUT
Automake uses these to determine which files to create (see Section “Creating
Output Files” in The Autoconf Manual). A listed file is considered to be an
Automake generated Makefile if there exists a file with the same name and
the .am extension appended. Typically, ‘AC_CONFIG_FILES([foo/Makefile])’
will cause Automake to generate foo/Makefile.in if foo/Makefile.am exists.
When using AC_CONFIG_FILES with multiple input files, as in
AC_CONFIG_FILES([Makefile:top.in:Makefile.in:bot.in])
automake will generate the first .in input file for which a .am file exists. If no
such file exists the output file is not considered to be generated by Automake.
Files created by AC_CONFIG_FILES, be they Automake Makefiles or not, are all
removed by ‘make distclean’. Their inputs are automatically distributed, un-
less they are the output of prior AC_CONFIG_FILES commands. Finally, rebuild
rules are generated in the Automake Makefile existing in the subdirectory of
the output file, if there is one, or in the top-level Makefile otherwise.
The above machinery (cleaning, distributing, and rebuilding) works fine if the
AC_CONFIG_FILES specifications contain only literals. If part of the specification
uses shell variables, automake will not be able to fulfill this setup, and you will
have to complete the missing bits by hand. For instance, on
file=input
...
AC_CONFIG_FILES([output:$file],, [file=$file])
automake will output rules to clean output, and rebuild it. However the rebuild
rule will not depend on input, and this file will not be distributed either. (You
must add ‘EXTRA_DIST = input’ to your Makefile.am if input is a source file.)
Similarly
file=output
Chapter 6: Scanning configure.ac, using aclocal 32

file2=out:in
...
AC_CONFIG_FILES([$file:input],, [file=$file])
AC_CONFIG_FILES([$file2],, [file2=$file2])
will only cause input to be distributed. No file will be cleaned automatically
(add ‘DISTCLEANFILES = output out’ yourself), and no rebuild rule will be out-
put.
Obviously automake cannot guess what value ‘$file’ is going to hold later when
configure is run, and it cannot use the shell variable ‘$file’ in a Makefile.
However, if you make reference to ‘$file’ as ‘${file}’ (i.e., in a way that
is compatible with make’s syntax) and furthermore use AC_SUBST to ensure
that ‘${file}’ is meaningful in a Makefile, then automake will be able to use
‘${file}’ to generate all of these rules. For instance, here is how the Automake
package itself generates versioned scripts for its test suite:
AC_SUBST([APIVERSION], ...)
...
AC_CONFIG_FILES(
[tests/aclocal-${APIVERSION}:tests/aclocal.in],
[chmod +x tests/aclocal-${APIVERSION}],
[APIVERSION=$APIVERSION])
AC_CONFIG_FILES(
[tests/automake-${APIVERSION}:tests/automake.in],
[chmod +x tests/automake-${APIVERSION}])
Here cleaning, distributing, and rebuilding are done automatically, because
‘${APIVERSION}’ is known at make-time.
Note that you should not use shell variables to declare Makefile files for which
automake must create Makefile.in. Even AC_SUBST does not help here, be-
cause automake needs to know the file name when it runs in order to check
whether Makefile.am exists. (In the very hairy case that your setup requires
such use of variables, you will have to tell Automake which Makefile.ins to
generate on the command-line.)
It is possible to let automake emit conditional rules for AC_CONFIG_FILES with
the help of AM_COND_IF (see Section 6.2 [Optional], page 32).
To summarize:
• Use literals for Makefiles, and for other files whenever possible.
• Use ‘$file’ (or ‘${file}’ without ‘AC_SUBST([file])’) for files that
automake should ignore.
• Use ‘${file}’ and ‘AC_SUBST([file])’ for files that automake should not
ignore.

6.2 Other things Automake recognizes

Every time Automake is run it calls Autoconf to trace configure.ac. This way it can
recognize the use of certain macros and tailor the generated Makefile.in appropriately.
Currently recognized macros and their effects are:
Chapter 6: Scanning configure.ac, using aclocal 33

AC_CANONICAL_BUILD
AC_CANONICAL_HOST
AC_CANONICAL_TARGET
Automake will ensure that config.guess and config.sub exist. Also, the
Makefile variables build_triplet, host_triplet and target_triplet are
introduced. See Section “Getting the Canonical System Type” in The Autoconf
Manual.
AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR
Automake will look for various helper scripts, such as install-sh, in
the directory named in this macro invocation. (The full list of scripts
is: ar-lib, config.guess, config.sub, depcomp, compile, install-sh,
ltmain.sh, mdate-sh, missing, mkinstalldirs, py-compile, test-driver,
texinfo.tex, ylwrap.) Not all scripts are always searched for; some scripts
will only be sought if the generated Makefile.in requires them.
If AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR is used, it must be given before the call to AM_INIT_
AUTOMAKE; Automake will warn about this if it is not so. All other AC_CONFIG_
... macros are conventionally called after AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE, though they
may or may not work in other locations, with or without warnings.
If AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR is not given, the scripts are looked for in their standard
locations. For mdate-sh, texinfo.tex, and ylwrap, the standard location
is the source directory corresponding to the current Makefile.am. For the
rest, the standard location is the first one of ., .., or ../.. (relative to the
top source directory) that provides any one of the helper scripts. See Section
“Finding ‘configure’ Input” in The Autoconf Manual.
Required files from AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR are automatically distributed, even if
there is no Makefile.am in this directory.
AC_CONFIG_LIBOBJ_DIR
Automake will require the sources file declared with AC_LIBSOURCE (see below)
in the directory specified by this macro.
AC_CONFIG_HEADERS
Automake will generate rules to rebuild these headers from the corresponding
templates (usually, the template for a foo.h header being foo.h.in).
As with AC_CONFIG_FILES (see Section 6.1 [Requirements], page 31), parts of
the specification using shell variables will be ignored as far as cleaning, dis-
tributing, and rebuilding is concerned.
Older versions of Automake required the use of AM_CONFIG_HEADER; this is no
longer the case, and that macro has indeed been removed.
AC_CONFIG_LINKS
Automake will generate rules to remove configure generated links on ‘make
distclean’ and to distribute named source files as part of ‘make dist’.
As with AC_CONFIG_FILES (see Section 6.1 [Requirements], page 31), parts of
the specification using shell variables will be ignored as far as cleaning and
distributing is concerned. (There are no rebuild rules for links.)
Chapter 6: Scanning configure.ac, using aclocal 34

AC_LIBOBJ
AC_LIBSOURCE
AC_LIBSOURCES
Automake will automatically distribute any file listed in AC_LIBSOURCE or AC_
LIBSOURCES.
Note that the AC_LIBOBJ macro calls AC_LIBSOURCE. So if an Autoconf macro
is documented to call ‘AC_LIBOBJ([file])’, then file.c will be distributed
automatically by Automake. This encompasses many macros like AC_FUNC_
ALLOCA, AC_FUNC_MEMCMP, AC_REPLACE_FUNCS, and others.
By the way, direct assignments to LIBOBJS are no longer supported. You should
always use AC_LIBOBJ for this purpose. See Section “AC_LIBOBJ vs. LIBOBJS”
in The Autoconf Manual.
AC_PROG_RANLIB
This is required if any libraries are built in the package. See Section “Particular
Program Checks” in The Autoconf Manual.
AC_PROG_CXX
This is required if any C++ source is included. See Section “Particular Program
Checks” in The Autoconf Manual.
AC_PROG_OBJC
This is required if any Objective C source is included. See Section “Particular
Program Checks” in The Autoconf Manual.
AC_PROG_OBJCXX
This is required if any Objective C++ source is included. See Section “Particular
Program Checks” in The Autoconf Manual.
AC_PROG_F77
This is required if any Fortran 77 source is included. See Section “Particular
Program Checks” in The Autoconf Manual.
AC_F77_LIBRARY_LDFLAGS
This is required for programs and shared libraries that are a mixture of lan-
guages that include Fortran 77 (see Section 8.14.3 [Mixing Fortran 77 With C
and C++], page 80). See Section 6.4 [Autoconf macros supplied with Automake],
page 45.
AC_FC_SRCEXT
Automake will add the flags computed by AC_FC_SRCEXT to compilation of files
with the respective source extension (see Section “Fortran Compiler Character-
istics” in The Autoconf Manual).
AC_PROG_FC
This is required if any Fortran 90/95 source is included. This macro is dis-
tributed with Autoconf version 2.58 and later. See Section “Particular Program
Checks” in The Autoconf Manual.
AC_PROG_LIBTOOL
LT_INIT Automake will turn on processing for libtool (see Section “Introduction” in
The Libtool Manual).
Chapter 6: Scanning configure.ac, using aclocal 35

AC_PROG_YACC
If a Yacc source file is seen, then you must either use this macro or define the
variable YACC in configure.ac. The former is preferred (see Section “Particular
Program Checks” in The Autoconf Manual).
AC_PROG_LEX
If a Lex source file is seen, then this macro must be used. See Section “Particular
Program Checks” in The Autoconf Manual.
AC_REQUIRE_AUX_FILE
For each AC_REQUIRE_AUX_FILE([file]), automake will ensure that file ex-
ists in the aux directory, and will complain otherwise. It will also automati-
cally distribute the file. This macro should be used by third-party Autoconf
macros that require some supporting files in the aux directory specified with
AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR above. See Section “Finding configure Input” in The
Autoconf Manual.
AC_SUBST The first argument is automatically defined as a variable in each generated
Makefile.in, unless AM_SUBST_NOTMAKE is also used for this variable. See Sec-
tion “Setting Output Variables” in The Autoconf Manual.
For every substituted variable var, automake will add a line var = value to
each Makefile.in file. Many Autoconf macros invoke AC_SUBST to set output
variables this way, e.g., AC_PATH_XTRA defines X_CFLAGS and X_LIBS. Thus, you
can access these variables as $(X_CFLAGS) and $(X_LIBS) in any Makefile.am
if AC_PATH_XTRA is called.
AM_CONDITIONAL
This introduces an Automake conditional (see Chapter 20 [Conditionals],
page 134).
AM_COND_IF
This macro allows automake to detect subsequent access within configure.ac
to a conditional previously introduced with AM_CONDITIONAL, thus enabling con-
ditional AC_CONFIG_FILES (see Section 20.1 [Usage of Conditionals], page 134).
AM_GNU_GETTEXT
This macro is required for packages that use GNU gettext (see Section 10.2
[gettext], page 91). It is distributed with gettext. If Automake sees this macro
it ensures that the package meets some of gettext’s requirements.
AM_GNU_GETTEXT_INTL_SUBDIR
This macro specifies that the intl/ subdirectory is to be built, even if the
AM_GNU_GETTEXT macro was invoked with a first argument of ‘external’.
AM_MAINTAINER_MODE([default-mode])
This macro adds an --enable-maintainer-mode option to configure. If this
is used, automake will cause “maintainer-only” rules to be turned off by de-
fault in the generated Makefile.ins, unless default-mode is ‘enable’. This
macro defines the MAINTAINER_MODE conditional, which you can use in your
own Makefile.am. See Section 26.2 [maintainer-mode], page 149.
Chapter 6: Scanning configure.ac, using aclocal 36

AM_SUBST_NOTMAKE(var)
Prevent Automake from defining a variable var, even if it is substituted
by config.status. Normally, Automake defines a make variable for each
configure substitution, i.e., for each AC_SUBST([var]). This macro
prevents that definition from Automake. If AC_SUBST has not been called
for this variable, then AM_SUBST_NOTMAKE has no effects. Preventing variable
definitions may be useful for substitution of multi-line values, where var =
@value@ might yield unintended results.
m4_include
Files included by configure.ac using this macro will be detected by Au-
tomake and automatically distributed. They will also appear as dependencies
in Makefile rules.
m4_include is seldom used by configure.ac authors, but can appear in
aclocal.m4 when aclocal detects that some required macros come from
files local to your package (as opposed to macros installed in a system-wide
directory; see Section 6.3 [aclocal Invocation], page 36).

6.3 Auto-generating aclocal.m4: Invoking aclocal

Automake includes a number of Autoconf macros that can be used in your package (see
Section 6.4 [Macros], page 45); some of them are required by Automake in certain situations.
These macros must be defined in your aclocal.m4; otherwise they will not be seen by
autoconf.
The aclocal program will automatically generate aclocal.m4 files based on the con-
tents of configure.ac. This provides a convenient way to get Automake-provided macros,
without having to search around. The aclocal mechanism allows other packages to supply
their own macros (see Section 6.3.3 [Extending aclocal], page 41). You can also use it to
maintain your own set of custom macros (see Section 6.3.4 [Local Macros], page 42).
At startup, aclocal scans all the .m4 files it can find, looking for macro definitions (see
Section 6.3.2 [Macro Search Path], page 39). Then it scans configure.ac. Any mention
of one of the macros found in the first step causes that macro, and any macros it in turn
requires, to be put into aclocal.m4.
Putting the file that contains the macro definition into aclocal.m4 is usually done by
copying the entire text of this file, including unused macro definitions as well as both ‘#’
and ‘dnl’ comments. If you want to make a comment that will be completely ignored by
aclocal, use ‘##’ as the comment leader.
When a file selected by aclocal is located in a subdirectory specified as a relative search
path with aclocal’s -I argument, aclocal assumes the file belongs to the package and uses
m4_include instead of copying it into aclocal.m4. This makes the package smaller, eases
dependency tracking, and causes the file to be distributed automatically. (See Section 6.3.4
[Local Macros], page 42, for an example.) Any macro that is found in a system-wide
directory or via an absolute search path will be copied. So use ‘-I `pwd`/reldir’ instead
of ‘-I reldir’ whenever a relative directory should be considered to be outside the package.
The contents of acinclude.m4, if this file exists, are also automatically included in
aclocal.m4. We mostly recommend against using acinclude.m4 in new packages (see
Section 6.3.4 [Local Macros], page 42).
Chapter 6: Scanning configure.ac, using aclocal 37

While computing aclocal.m4, aclocal runs autom4te (see Section “Using Autom4te”
in The Autoconf Manual) in order to trace the macros that are used, and omit from
aclocal.m4 all macros that are mentioned but otherwise unexpanded (this can happen
when a macro is called conditionally). autom4te is expected to be in the PATH, just like
autoconf. Its location can be overridden using the AUTOM4TE environment variable.
In practice it is usually simpler to run autoreconf instead of worrying about the required
order of the various tools (see Section “Using autoreconf” in The Autoconf Manual).
This section explains the details of aclocal.

6.3.1 aclocal Options

aclocal accepts the following options:
--automake-acdir=dir
Look for Automake-provided macro files in dir instead of in the installation
directory. This is typically used for debugging.
If this option is not specified, the value of the environment variable ACLOCAL_
AUTOMAKE_DIR, if set, is used to set the directory containing Automake-provided
macro files. Otherwise an install-time default is used.
--aclocal-path=path
Look for local third-party macro files (and the special dirlist file, see [dirlist],
page 39) along path (a colon-separated list of directories) instead of in the
installation directory. (This can be used for building against alternative system
roots (“sysroots”) for finding headers and libraries.)
If this option is not specified, the value of the environment variable ACLOCAL_
PATH, if set, is used to set the search path containing local third-party macro
files. Otherwise an install-time default is used.
--system-acdir=dir
Look for the system-wide third-party macro files (and the special dirlist file)
in dir instead of in the installation directory. This is typically used for debug-
ging.
--diff[=command]
Run command on the M4 file that would be installed or overwritten by
--install. The default command is ‘diff -u’. This option implies --install
and --dry-run.
--dry-run
Do not overwrite (or create) aclocal.m4 and M4 files installed by --install.
--help Print a summary of the command line options and exit successfully.
-I dir Add the directory dir to the list of directories searched for .m4 files.
--install
Install system-wide third-party macros into the first directory specified with ‘-I
dir’ instead of copying them into the output file. This is also done if dir is an
absolute path.
When this option is used, and only when this option is used, aclocal will also
honor ‘#serial number’ lines that appear in macros: an M4 file is ignored if
Chapter 6: Scanning configure.ac, using aclocal 38

there exists another M4 file with the same basename and a greater serial number
in the search path (see Section 6.3.5 [Serials], page 43).

--force Always overwrite the output file. The default is to overwrite the output file
only when needed, i.e., when its contents change or if one of its dependencies
is younger.
This option forces the update of aclocal.m4 (or the file specified with --output
below) and only this file; it has no influence on files that may need to be installed
by --install.

--output=file
Cause the output to be put into file instead of aclocal.m4.

--print-ac-dir
Print the name of the directory that aclocal will search to find third-party .m4
files. When this option is given, normal processing is suppressed. This option
was used in the past by third-party packages to determine where to install .m4
macro files, but this usage is today discouraged, since it causes ‘$(prefix)’ not
to be thoroughly honored (violating the GNU Coding Standards). And similar
semantics can be better obtained with the ACLOCAL_PATH environment variable
(see Section 6.3.3 [Extending aclocal], page 41).

--verbose
Print the names of files examined.

--version
Print the version number of Automake and exit successfully.

-W CATEGORY
--warnings=category
Output warnings falling in category, one of:

syntax dubious syntactic constructs, underquoted macros, unused macros,

etc.

unsupported
unknown macros.

all all the warnings; this is the default.

none turn off all the warnings.

no-category
turn off warnings in category.

error treat warnings as errors.

All warnings are output by default.

The environment variable WARNINGS is honored in the same way as it is for
automake (see Chapter 5 [automake Invocation], page 27).
Chapter 6: Scanning configure.ac, using aclocal 39

6.3.2 Macro Search Path

By default, aclocal searches for .m4 files in the following directories, in this order:
acdir-APIVERSION
This is where the .m4 macros distributed with Automake itself are stored.
APIVERSION depends on the Automake release used; for example, for Au-
tomake 1.11.x, APIVERSION = 1.11.
acdir This directory is intended for third party .m4 files, and is configured when
automake itself is built. It is @datadir@/aclocal/, which typically expands to
${prefix}/share/aclocal/. To find the compiled-in value of acdir, use the
--print-ac-dir option (see Section 6.3.1 [aclocal Options], page 37).
For example, suppose that Automake 1.11.2 was configured with --prefix=/usr/local.
Then, the search path would be:
1. /usr/local/share/aclocal-1.11.2/
2. /usr/local/share/aclocal/
The paths for the acdir and acdir-APIVERSION directories can be changed respectively
through the aclocal options --system-acdir and --automake-acdir (see Section 6.3.1
[aclocal Options], page 37). These options are not ordinarily needed by end-users; they’re
mainly intended for use by the Automake test suite, or for debugging.
As also listed in (see Section 6.3.1 [aclocal Options], page 37), several other options can
be used to change or extend the macro search path.

Modifying the Macro Search Path: ‘-I dir’

Any directories specified using -I options (see Section 6.3.1 [aclocal Options], page 37)
are prepended to this search list. Thus, ‘aclocal -I /foo -I /bar’ results in the following
search path:
1. /foo
2. /bar
3. acdir-APIVERSION
4. acdir

Modifying the Macro Search Path: dirlist

There is a third mechanism for customizing the search path: if a dirlist file exists in
acdir, then that file is assumed to contain a list of directory patterns, one per line. aclocal
expands these patterns to directory names, and adds them to the search list after all other
directories. dirlist entries may use shell wildcards such as ‘*’, ‘?’, or [...].
For example, suppose acdir/dirlist contains the following:
/test1
/test2
/test3*
and that aclocal was called with the ‘-I /foo -I /bar’ options. Then, the search path
would be
1. /foo
Chapter 6: Scanning configure.ac, using aclocal 40

2. /bar
3. acdir-APIVERSION
4. acdir
5. /test1
6. /test2
7. all directories with path names starting with /test3.
If the --system-acdir=dir option is used, then aclocal will search for the dirlist
file in that dir.
dirlist is useful in the following situation: suppose that Automake 1.11.2 is installed
with ‘--prefix=/usr’ by the system vendor. Thus, the default search directories are
1. /usr/share/aclocal-1.11/
2. /usr/share/aclocal/
However, suppose further that many packages have been manually installed on
the system, with $prefix=/usr/local, as is typical. In that case, many of these
“extra” .m4 files are in /usr/local/share/aclocal. Without dirlist, the only way
to force /usr/bin/aclocal to find these “extra” .m4 files is to always call ‘aclocal -I
/usr/local/share/aclocal’. This is inconvenient. With dirlist, one can create a file
/usr/share/aclocal/dirlist containing the single line
/usr/local/share/aclocal
Now, the “default” search path on the affected system is
1. /usr/share/aclocal-1.11/
2. /usr/share/aclocal/
3. /usr/local/share/aclocal/
This way, -I options can be reserved for project-specific needs (my-source-dir/m4/), rather
than using them to work around local system-dependent tool installation directories.
Similarly, dirlist can be handy if you have installed a local copy of Automake in your
account and want aclocal to look for macros installed at other places on the system.

Modifying the Macro Search Path: --aclocal-path/ACLOCAL_PATH

The fourth and last mechanism to customize the macro search path: any directory in-
cluded in the colon-separated path given to the --aclocal-path command-line option,
or (if the option is not specified) in the ACLOCAL_PATH environment variable, is added to
the search path. These directories take precedence over system directories, including those
found via dirlist, with the exception of the versioned directory acdir-APIVERSION (see
Section 6.3.2 [Macro Search Path], page 39). However, directories passed via -I will take
precedence over directories in --aclocal-path/ACLOCAL_PATH.
If the --install option is used, any .m4 file containing a required macro that is found in
a directory listed in --aclocal-path/ACLOCAL_PATH will be installed locally. In this case,
serial numbers in .m4 are honored too (see Section 6.3.5 [Serials], page 43).
--aclocal-path/ACLOCAL_PATH is useful if you are using a global copy of Automake
and want aclocal to look for macros somewhere under your home directory. This is more
or less the opposite of dirlist.
Chapter 6: Scanning configure.ac, using aclocal 41

Possible future incompatibility in aclocal

The order in which the directories in the macro search path are currently looked up is
confusing and/or suboptimal in various aspects. In particular, directories in --aclocal-
path/ACLOCAL_PATH and acdir might end up taking precedence over acdir-APIVERSION,
and directories in acdir/dirlist might end up taking precedence over acdir. There are
no definite plans to change the current behavior, but if bug reports show the need (so please
report issues), the default might need to be changed, and the current behavior retained as
an option.

6.3.3 Writing your own aclocal macros

The aclocal program doesn’t have built-in knowledge of any macros. You can extend it
with your own macros.
Libraries, for example, usually want to supply their own Autoconf macros for use by
other programs. For instance, the gettext library supplies a macro AM_GNU_GETTEXT that
should be used by any package using gettext. When the library is installed, it installs this
macro so that aclocal will find it.
A macro file’s name should end in .m4. Such files should be installed in
$(datadir)/aclocal. This can be done with:
aclocaldir = $(datadir)/aclocal
aclocal_DATA = mymacro.m4 myothermacro.m4
Please do use $(datadir)/aclocal, and not something based on the result of ‘aclocal
--print-ac-dir’ (see Section 26.9 [Hard-Coded Install Paths], page 161, for arguments).
It might also be helpful to suggest to the user to add the $(datadir)/aclocal directory to
their ACLOCAL_PATH variable (see [ACLOCAL PATH], page 40) so that aclocal will find
the .m4 files installed by your package automatically.
A file of macros should be a series of properly quoted AC_DEFUN’s (see Section “Macro
Definitions” in The Autoconf Manual). The aclocal program also understands AC_REQUIRE
(see Section “Prerequisite Macros” in The Autoconf Manual), so it is safe to put each macro
in a separate file. Each file should have no side effects except for defining the macro(s).
In particular, any call to AC_PREREQ should be done inside the defined macro, not at the
beginning of the file.
Starting with Automake 1.8, aclocal warns about all underquoted calls to AC_DEFUN.
We realize this annoys some people, because aclocal was not so strict in the past and
many third party macros are underquoted; and we have to apologize for this temporary
inconvenience. The reason we have to be stricter is that a possible future implementation
of aclocal (see Section 6.3.6 [Future of aclocal], page 45) will have to temporarily include
all of these third party .m4 files, maybe several times, even including files that end up not
being needed. Doing so should alleviate many problems of the current implementation;
however, it requires a stricter style from macro authors. Hopefully it is easy to revise the
existing macros. For instance,
# bad style
AC_PREREQ(2.68)
AC_DEFUN(AX_FOOBAR,
[AC_REQUIRE([AX_SOMETHING])dnl
AX_FOO
Chapter 6: Scanning configure.ac, using aclocal 42

AX_BAR
])
should be rewritten as
AC_DEFUN([AX_FOOBAR],
[AC_PREREQ([2.68])dnl
AC_REQUIRE([AX_SOMETHING])dnl
AX_FOO
AX_BAR
])
Wrapping the AC_PREREQ([2.68]) call inside the macro ensures that the Autoconf 2.68
will not be a prerequisite if AX_FOOBAR is not used. Most importantly, quoting the first
argument of AC_DEFUN allows the macro to be redefined or included twice (otherwise this
first argument would be expanded during the second definition). For consistency we like to
quote even arguments such as 2.68 that do not require it.
If you have been directed here by the aclocal diagnostic but are not the maintainer of
the implicated macro, you will want to contact the maintainer of that macro. Please try
to make sure you have the latest version of the macro and that the problem hasn’t already
been reported before doing so.
Another situation where aclocal is commonly used is to manage macros that are used
locally by the package; Section 6.3.4 [Local Macros], page 42.

6.3.4 Handling Local Macros

Feature tests offered by Autoconf do not cover all needs. People often have to supplement
existing tests with their own macros, or with third-party macros.
There are two ways to organize custom macros in a package.
The first possibility (the historical practice) is to list all your macros in acinclude.m4.
This file will be included in aclocal.m4 when you run aclocal, and its macro(s) will
henceforth be visible to autoconf. However, if it contains numerous macros, it will rapidly
become difficult to maintain, and it will be almost impossible to share macros between
packages.
The second possibility, which we recommend, is to write each macro in its own file and
gather all these files in a directory. This directory is usually called m4/. Then you can
update configure.ac by adding a proper call to AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIRS:
AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIRS([m4])
aclocal will then take care of automatically adding m4/ to its search path for M4 files.
When aclocal is run, it will build an aclocal.m4 that m4_includes any file from m4/
that defines a required macro. Macros not found locally will still be searched in system-wide
directories, as explained in Section 6.3.2 [Macro Search Path], page 39.
Custom macros should be distributed for the same reason that configure.ac is: so that
other people have all the sources of your package if they want to work on it. In fact, this
distribution happens automatically because all m4_included files are distributed.
There is no consensus on the distribution of third-party macros that your package may
use. Many libraries install their own macro in the system-wide aclocal directory (see
Section 6.3.3 [Extending aclocal], page 41). For instance, Guile ships with a file called
Chapter 6: Scanning configure.ac, using aclocal 43

guile.m4 that contains the macro GUILE_FLAGS that can be used to define compiler and
linker flags appropriate for using Guile. Using GUILE_FLAGS in configure.ac will cause
aclocal to copy guile.m4 into aclocal.m4, but as guile.m4 is not part of the project, it
will not be distributed. Technically, that means a user who needs to rebuild aclocal.m4 will
have to install Guile first. This is probably OK, if Guile already is a requirement to build
the package. However, if Guile is only an optional feature, or if your package might run
on architectures where Guile cannot be installed, this requirement will hinder development.
An easy solution is to copy such third-party macros in your local m4/ directory so they get
distributed.
Since Automake 1.10, aclocal offers the option --install to copy these system-wide
third-party macros in your local macro directory, helping to solve the above problem.
With this setup, system-wide macros will be copied to m4/ the first time you run aclocal.
Then the locally installed macros will have precedence over the system-wide installed macros
each time aclocal is run again.
One reason why you should keep --install in the flags even after the first run is that
when you later edit configure.ac and depend on a new macro, this macro will be installed
in your m4/ automatically. Another one is that serial numbers (see Section 6.3.5 [Serials],
page 43) can be used to update the macros in your source tree automatically when new
system-wide versions are installed. It is good practice to maintain a serial number for each
macro you distribute, even if you do not use the --install option of aclocal: this allows
other people to use it.

6.3.5 Serial Numbers

Because third-party macros defined in *.m4 files are naturally shared between multiple
projects, people like to version them. This makes it easier to tell which of two M4 files is
newer. Since at least 1996, the convention is to use a ‘#serial’ line for this.
Such a serial number should be a single line of the form
# serial version
where version is a version number containing only digits and dots. Usually people use a
single integer, and they increment it each time they change the macro (hence the name of
“serial”). Such a line should appear in the M4 file before any macro definition.
The ‘#’ must be the first character on the line, and it is OK to have extra words after
the version, as in
#serial version garbage
Normally these serial numbers are completely ignored by aclocal and autoconf, like any
genuine comment. However when using aclocal’s --install feature, these serial numbers
will modify the way aclocal selects the macros to install in the package: if two files with
the same basename exist in your search path, and if at least one of them uses a ‘#serial’
line, aclocal will ignore the file that has the older ‘#serial’ line (or the file that has none).
A serial number applies to a whole M4 file, not to any macro it contains. A file can
contain multiple macros, but only one serial number.

Serial Number Example

Here is a use case that illustrates the use of --install and its interaction with
serial numbers. Let’s assume we maintain a package called MyPackage, the
Chapter 6: Scanning configure.ac, using aclocal 44

configure.ac of which requires a third-party macro AX_THIRD_PARTY defined in

/usr/share/aclocal/thirdparty.m4 as follows:
# serial 1
AC_DEFUN([AX_THIRD_PARTY], [...])
MyPackage uses an m4/ directory to store local macros as explained in Section 6.3.4
[Local Macros], page 42, and has
AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIRS([m4])
in its configure.ac.
Initially the m4/ directory is empty. The first time we run aclocal --install, it will
notice that
• configure.ac uses AX_THIRD_PARTY
• No local macros define AX_THIRD_PARTY
• /usr/share/aclocal/thirdparty.m4 defines AX_THIRD_PARTY with serial number 1.
Because /usr/share/aclocal/thirdparty.m4 is a system-wide macro and aclocal was
given the --install option, it will copy this file in m4/thirdparty.m4, and output an
aclocal.m4 that contains ‘m4_include([m4/thirdparty.m4])’.
The next time ‘aclocal --install’ is run, something different happens. aclocal no-
tices that
• configure.ac uses AX_THIRD_PARTY
• m4/thirdparty.m4 defines AX_THIRD_PARTY with serial number 1.
• /usr/share/aclocal/thirdparty.m4 defines AX_THIRD_PARTY with serial number 1.
Because both files have the same serial number, aclocal uses the first it found in its
search path order (see Section 6.3.2 [Macro Search Path], page 39). aclocal therefore
ignores /usr/share/aclocal/thirdparty.m4 and outputs an aclocal.m4 that contains
‘m4_include([m4/thirdparty.m4])’.
Local directories specified with -I are always searched before system-wide directories, so
a local file will always be preferred to the system-wide file in case of equal serial numbers.
Now suppose the system-wide third-party macro is changed. This can happen if the
package installing this macro is updated. Let’s suppose the new macro has serial number 2.
The next time ‘aclocal --install’ is run the situation is the following:
• configure.ac uses AX_THIRD_PARTY
• m4/thirdparty.m4 defines AX_THIRD_PARTY with serial number 1.
• /usr/share/aclocal/thirdparty.m4 defines AX_THIRD_PARTY with serial 2.
When aclocal sees a greater serial number, it immediately forgets anything it knows from
files that have the same basename and a smaller serial number. So after it has found
/usr/share/aclocal/thirdparty.m4 with serial 2, aclocal will proceed as if it had never
seen m4/thirdparty.m4. This brings us back to a situation similar to that at the beginning
of our example, where no local file defined the macro. aclocal will install the new version
of the macro in m4/thirdparty.m4, in this case overriding the old version. MyPackage just
had its macro updated as a side effect of running aclocal.
If you are leery of letting aclocal update your local macro, you can run ‘aclocal
--diff’ to review the changes ‘aclocal --install’ would perform on these macros.
Chapter 6: Scanning configure.ac, using aclocal 45

Finally, note that the --force option of aclocal has no effect on the files installed by
--install. For instance, if you have modified your local macros, do not expect --install
--force to replace the local macros by their system-wide versions. If you want to do so,
simply erase the local macros you want to revert, and run ‘aclocal --install’.

6.3.6 The Future of aclocal

Ideally, aclocal should not be part of Automake. Automake should focus on generating
Makefiles; dealing with M4 macros is more Autoconf’s job. The fact that some people
install Automake just to use aclocal, but do not use Automake otherwise, is an indication
of how that feature is misplaced.
A new implementation would probably be done slightly differently. For instance, it could
enforce the m4/-style layout discussed in Section 6.3.4 [Local Macros], page 42.
We do not know when or whether this will happen. It has been discussed several times,
but someone still has to commit to executing this non-trivial task.
From the user’s point of view, aclocal’s removal might turn out to be painful. There is a
simple precaution that you may take to make that switch more seamless: never call aclocal
yourself. Keep its invocation under the exclusive control of autoreconf and Automake’s
rebuild rules. Hopefully you won’t need to worry about things breaking; when aclocal
disappears, because everything will have been taken care of. If otherwise you used to call
aclocal directly yourself or from some script, you will quickly notice the change.
Many packages come with a script called bootstrap or autogen.sh that calls aclocal,
libtoolize, gettextize or autopoint, autoconf, autoheader, and automake in the right
order. In fact, this is precisely what autoreconf can do for you. If your package has such
a bootstrap or autogen.sh script, consider using autoreconf. That should simplify its
logic (all to the good), and more to the point you will not call aclocal directly anymore.
For the time being, third-party packages should continue to install public macros into
/usr/share/aclocal/. If aclocal is replaced by another tool it might make sense to
rename the directory, but supporting /usr/share/aclocal/ for backward compatibility
should be feasible, provided all macros are properly written (see Section 6.3.3 [Extending
aclocal], page 41).

6.4 Autoconf macros supplied with Automake

Automake ships with several Autoconf macros that you can use from your configure.ac.
When you use one of them it will be included by aclocal in aclocal.m4.

6.4.1 Public Macros

AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE([options])
Runs many macros required for proper operation of the generated Makefiles.
Today, AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE is called with a single argument: a space-separated
list of Automake options that should be applied to every Makefile.am in the
tree. The effect is as if each option were listed in AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS (see
Chapter 17 [Options], page 127).
This macro can also be called in another, deprecated form: AM_INIT_
AUTOMAKE(PACKAGE, VERSION, [NO-DEFINE]). In this form, there are two
Chapter 6: Scanning configure.ac, using aclocal 46

required arguments: the package and the version number. This usage is mostly
obsolete because the package and version can be obtained from Autoconf’s
AC_INIT macro. However, differently from what happens for AC_INIT
invocations, this AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE invocation supports shell variables’
expansions in the PACKAGE and VERSION arguments (which otherwise defaults,
respectively, to the PACKAGE_TARNAME and PACKAGE_VERSION defined via the
AC_INIT invocation; see Section “The AC_INIT macro” in The Autoconf
Manual); and this can still be useful in some selected situations. Our hope is
that future Autoconf versions will improve their support for package versions
defined dynamically at configure runtime; when (and if) this happens, support
for the two-args AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE invocation will likely be removed from
Automake.
If your configure.ac has:
AC_INIT([src/foo.c])
AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE([mumble], [1.5])
you should modernize it as follows:
AC_INIT([mumble], [1.5])
AC_CONFIG_SRCDIR([src/foo.c])
AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE
Note that if you’re upgrading your configure.ac from an earlier version of
Automake, it is not always correct to simply move the package and version
arguments from AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE directly to AC_INIT, as in the example
above. The first argument to AC_INIT should be the name of your package
(e.g., ‘GNU Automake’), not the tarball name (e.g., ‘automake’) that you used
to pass to AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE. Autoconf tries to derive a tarball name from
the package name, which should work for most but not all package names. (If
it doesn’t work for yours, you can use the four-argument form of AC_INIT to
provide the tarball name explicitly).
By default this macro AC_DEFINE’s PACKAGE and VERSION. This can be avoided
by passing the no-define option (see Section 17.2 [List of Automake options],
page 127):
AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE([no-define ...])

AM_PATH_LISPDIR
Searches for the program emacs, and, if found, sets the output variable lispdir
to the full path to Emacs’ site-lisp directory.
Note that this test assumes the emacs found to be a version that supports
Emacs Lisp (such as GNU Emacs or XEmacs). Other emacsen can cause this
test to hang (some, like old versions of MicroEmacs, start up in interactive
mode, requiring C-x C-c to exit, which is hardly obvious for a non-emacs user).
In most cases, however, you should be able to use C-c to kill the test. In
order to avoid problems, you can set EMACS to “no” in the environment, or use
the --with-lispdir option to configure to explicitly set the correct path (if
you’re sure you have an emacs that supports Emacs Lisp).
Chapter 6: Scanning configure.ac, using aclocal 47

AM_PROG_AR([act-if-fail])
You must use this macro when you use the archiver in your project, if you
want support for unusual archivers such as Microsoft lib. The content of the
optional argument is executed if the archiver interface is not recognized; the
default action is to abort configure with an error message.
AM_PROG_AS
Use this macro when you have assembly code in your project. This will choose
the assembler for you (by default the C compiler) and set CCAS, and will also
set CCASFLAGS if required.
AM_PROG_CC_C_O
This is an obsolescent macro that checks that the C compiler supports the -c
and -o options together. Note that, since Automake 1.14, the AC_PROG_CC is
rewritten to implement such checks itself, and thus the explicit use of AM_PROG_
CC_C_O should no longer be required.
AM_PROG_LEX([options])
Like AC_PROG_LEX (see Section “Particular Program Checks” in The Autoconf
Manual), but uses the missing script on systems that do not have lex. HP-UX
10 is one such system. options are passed directly to AC_PROG_LEX.
AM_PROG_GCJ
This macro finds the gcj program or causes an error. It sets GCJ and GCJFLAGS.
gcj is the Java front-end to the GNU Compiler Collection.
AM_PROG_UPC([compiler-search-list])
Find a compiler for Unified Parallel C and define the UPC variable. The de-
fault compiler-search-list is ‘upcc upc’. This macro will abort configure if no
Unified Parallel C compiler is found.
AM_MISSING_PROG(name, program)
Find a maintainer tool program and define the name environment variable
with its location. If program is not detected, then name will instead invoke
the missing script, in order to give useful advice to the user about the miss-
ing maintainer tool. See Section 26.2 [maintainer-mode], page 149, for more
information on when the missing script is appropriate.
AM_SILENT_RULES
Control the machinery for less verbose build output (see Section 21.3 [Automake
Silent Rules], page 137).
AM_WITH_DMALLOC
Add support for the Dmalloc package (https://dmalloc.com/). If the user
runs configure with --with-dmalloc, then define WITH_DMALLOC and add
-ldmalloc to LIBS.

6.4.2 Obsolete Macros

Although using some of the following macros was required in past releases, you should
not use any of them in new code. All these macros will be removed in the next major
Automake version; if you are still using them, running autoupdate should adjust your
Chapter 7: Directories 48

configure.ac automatically (see Section “Using autoupdate to Modernize configure.ac”

in The Autoconf Manual). Do it NOW!
AM_PROG_MKDIR_P
From Automake 1.8 to 1.9.6 this macro used to define the output variable
mkdir_p to one of mkdir -p, install-sh -d, or mkinstalldirs.
Nowadays Autoconf provides a similar functionality with AC_PROG_MKDIR_P (see
Section “Particular Program Checks” in The Autoconf Manual), however this
defines the output variable MKDIR_P instead. In case you are still using the AM_
PROG_MKDIR_P macro in your configure.ac, or its provided variable $(mkdir_
p) in your Makefile.am, you are advised to switch ASAP to the more modern
Autoconf-provided interface instead; both the macro and the variable might be
removed in a future major Automake release.

6.4.3 Private Macros

The following macros are private macros you should not call directly. They are called by
the other public macros when appropriate. Do not rely on them, as they might be changed
in a future version. Consider them as implementation details; or better, do not consider
them at all: skip this section!
_AM_DEPENDENCIES
AM_SET_DEPDIR
AM_DEP_TRACK
AM_OUTPUT_DEPENDENCY_COMMANDS
These macros are used to implement Automake’s automatic dependency track-
ing scheme. They are called automatically by Automake when required, and
there should be no need to invoke them manually.
AM_MAKE_INCLUDE
This macro is used to discover how the user’s make handles include statements.
This macro is automatically invoked when needed; there should be no need to
invoke it manually.
AM_PROG_INSTALL_STRIP
This is used to find a version of install that can be used to strip a program
at installation time. This macro is automatically included when required.
AM_SANITY_CHECK
This checks to make sure that a file created in the build directory is newer than
a file in the source directory. This can fail on systems where the clock is set
incorrectly. This macro is automatically run from AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE.

7 Directories
For simple projects that distribute all files in the same directory it is enough to have a
single Makefile.am that builds everything in place.
In larger projects, it is common to organize files in different directories, in a tree. For
example, there could be a directory for the program’s source, one for the testsuite, and one
Chapter 7: Directories 49

for the documentation; or, for very large projects, there could be one directory per program,
per library or per module.
The traditional approach is to build these subdirectories recursively, employing make
recursion: each directory contains its own Makefile, and when make is run from the top-
level directory, it enters each subdirectory in turn, and invokes there a new make instance
to build the directory’s contents.
Because this approach is very widespread, Automake offers built-in support for it. How-
ever, it is worth noting that the use of make recursion has its own serious issues and
drawbacks, and that it’s well possible to have packages with a multi directory layout that
make little or no use of such recursion (examples of such packages are GNU Bison and GNU
Automake itself); see also the Section 7.3 [Alternative], page 53, section below.

7.1 Recursing subdirectories

In packages using make recursion, the top level Makefile.am must tell Automake which
subdirectories are to be built. This is done via the SUBDIRS variable.
The SUBDIRS variable holds a list of subdirectories in which building of various sorts can
occur. The rules for many targets (e.g., all) in the generated Makefile will run commands
both locally and in all specified subdirectories. Note that the directories listed in SUBDIRS
are not required to contain Makefile.ams; only Makefiles (after configuration). This allows
inclusion of libraries from packages that do not use Automake (such as gettext; see also
Section 22.2 [Third-Party Makefiles], page 142).
In packages that use subdirectories, the top-level Makefile.am is often very short. For
instance, here is the Makefile.am from the GNU Hello distribution:
EXTRA_DIST = BUGS ChangeLog.O README-alpha
SUBDIRS = doc intl po src tests
When Automake invokes make in a subdirectory, it uses the value of the MAKE variable.
It passes the value of the variable AM_MAKEFLAGS to the make invocation; this can be set in
Makefile.am if there are flags you must always pass to make.
The directories mentioned in SUBDIRS are usually direct children of the current direc-
tory, each subdirectory containing its own Makefile.am with a SUBDIRS pointing to deeper
subdirectories. Automake can be used to construct packages of arbitrary depth this way.
By default, Automake generates Makefiles that work depth-first in postfix order: the
subdirectories are built before the current directory. However, it is possible to change this
ordering. You can do this by putting ‘.’ into SUBDIRS. For instance, putting ‘.’ first will
cause a prefix ordering of directories.
Using
SUBDIRS = lib src . test
will cause lib/ to be built before src/, then the current directory will be built, finally the
test/ directory will be built. It is customary to arrange test directories to be built after
everything else since they are meant to test what has been constructed.
In addition to the built-in recursive targets defined by Automake (all, check, etc.),
the developer can also define his own recursive targets. That is done by passing the
names of such targets as arguments to the M4 macro AM_EXTRA_RECURSIVE_TARGETS in
Chapter 7: Directories 50

configure.ac. Automake generates rules to handle the recursion for such targets; and the
developer can define real actions for them by defining corresponding -local targets.
% cat configure.ac
AC_INIT([pkg-name], [1.0])
AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE
AM_EXTRA_RECURSIVE_TARGETS([foo])
AC_CONFIG_FILES([Makefile sub/Makefile sub/src/Makefile])
AC_OUTPUT
% cat Makefile.am
SUBDIRS = sub
foo-local:
@echo This will be run by "make foo".
% cat sub/Makefile.am
SUBDIRS = src
% cat sub/src/Makefile.am
foo-local:
@echo This too will be run by a "make foo" issued either in
@echo the 'sub/src/' directory, the 'sub/' directory, or the
@echo top-level directory.

7.2 Conditional Subdirectories

It is possible to define the SUBDIRS variable conditionally if, like in the case of GNU Inetutils,
you want to only build a subset of the entire package.
To illustrate how this works, let’s assume we have two directories, src/ and opt/. src/
should always be built, but we want to decide in configure whether opt/ will be built
or not. (For this example we will assume that opt/ should be built when the variable
‘$want_opt’ was set to ‘yes’.)
Running make should thus recurse into src/ always, and then maybe in opt/.
However ‘make dist’ should always recurse into both src/ and opt/, because opt/
should be distributed even if it is not needed in the current configuration. This means
opt/Makefile should be created unconditionally.
There are two ways to set up a project like this. You can use Automake conditionals
(see Chapter 20 [Conditionals], page 134) or use Autoconf AC_SUBST variables (see Section
“Setting Output Variables” in The Autoconf Manual). Using Automake conditionals is the
preferred solution. Before we illustrate these two possibilities, let’s introduce DIST_SUBDIRS.

7.2.1 SUBDIRS vs. DIST_SUBDIRS

Automake considers two sets of directories, defined by the variables SUBDIRS and DIST_
SUBDIRS.
SUBDIRS contains the subdirectories of the current directory that must be built (see
Section 7.1 [Subdirectories], page 49). It must be defined manually; Automake will never
guess a directory is to be built. As we will see in the next two sections, it is possible to
define it conditionally so that some directory will be omitted from the build.
DIST_SUBDIRS is used in rules that need to recurse in all directories, even those that
have been conditionally left out of the build. Recall our example where we may not want
Chapter 7: Directories 51

to build subdirectory opt/, but yet we want to distribute it? This is where DIST_SUBDIRS
comes into play: ‘opt’ may not appear in SUBDIRS, but it must appear in DIST_SUBDIRS.
Precisely, DIST_SUBDIRS is used by ‘make maintainer-clean’, ‘make distclean’ and
‘make dist’. All other recursive rules use SUBDIRS.
If SUBDIRS is defined conditionally using Automake conditionals, Automake will define
DIST_SUBDIRS automatically from the possible values of SUBDIRS in all conditions.
If SUBDIRS contains AC_SUBST variables, DIST_SUBDIRS will not be defined correctly
because Automake does not know the possible values of these variables. In this case DIST_
SUBDIRS needs to be defined manually.

7.2.2 Subdirectories with AM_CONDITIONAL

configure should output the Makefile for each directory and define a condition into which
opt/ should be built.
...
AM_CONDITIONAL([COND_OPT], [test "$want_opt" = yes])
AC_CONFIG_FILES([Makefile src/Makefile opt/Makefile])
...
Then SUBDIRS can be defined in the top-level Makefile.am as follows.
if COND_OPT
MAYBE_OPT = opt
endif
SUBDIRS = src $(MAYBE_OPT)
As you can see, running make will rightly recurse into src/ and maybe opt/.
As you can’t see, running ‘make dist’ will recurse into both src/ and opt/ directories
because ‘make dist’, unlike ‘make all’, doesn’t use the SUBDIRS variable. It uses the DIST_
SUBDIRS variable.
In this case Automake will define ‘DIST_SUBDIRS = src opt’ automatically because it
knows that MAYBE_OPT can contain ‘opt’ in some condition.

7.2.3 Subdirectories with AC_SUBST

Another possibility is to define MAYBE_OPT from ./configure using AC_SUBST:
...
if test "$want_opt" = yes; then
MAYBE_OPT=opt
else
MAYBE_OPT=
fi
AC_SUBST([MAYBE_OPT])
AC_CONFIG_FILES([Makefile src/Makefile opt/Makefile])
...
In this case the top-level Makefile.am should look as follows.
SUBDIRS = src $(MAYBE_OPT)
DIST_SUBDIRS = src opt
The drawback is that since Automake cannot guess what the possible values of MAYBE_
OPT are, it is necessary to define DIST_SUBDIRS.
Chapter 7: Directories 52

7.2.4 Unconfigured Subdirectories

The semantics of DIST_SUBDIRS are often misunderstood by some users that try to configure
and build subdirectories conditionally. Here by configuring we mean creating the Makefile
(it might also involve running a nested configure script: this is a costly operation that
explains why people want to do it conditionally, but only the Makefile is relevant to the
discussion).
The above examples all assume that every Makefile is created, even in directories that
are not going to be built. The simple reason is that we want ‘make dist’ to distribute even
the directories that are not being built (e.g., platform-dependent code), hence make dist
must recurse into the subdirectory, hence this directory must be configured and appear in
DIST_SUBDIRS.
Building packages that do not configure every subdirectory is a tricky business, and we
do not recommend it to the novice as it is easy to produce an incomplete tarball by mistake.
We will not discuss this topic in depth here, yet for the adventurous here are a few rules to
remember.

• SUBDIRS should always be a subset of DIST_SUBDIRS.
It makes little sense to have a directory in SUBDIRS that is not in DIST_SUBDIRS.
Think of the former as a way to tell which directories listed in the latter should be
built.
• Any directory listed in DIST_SUBDIRS and SUBDIRS must be configured.
That is, the Makefile must exist or the recursive make rules will not be able to process
the directory.
• Any configured directory must be listed in DIST_SUBDIRS.
This is so the cleaning rules remove the generated Makefiles. It would be correct to
see DIST_SUBDIRS as a variable that lists all the directories that have been configured.

In order to prevent recursion in some unconfigured directory you must therefore ensure
that this directory does not appear in DIST_SUBDIRS (and SUBDIRS). For instance, if you
define SUBDIRS conditionally using AC_SUBST and do not define DIST_SUBDIRS explicitly, it
will be default to ‘$(SUBDIRS)’; another possibility is to force DIST_SUBDIRS = $(SUBDIRS).
Of course, directories that are omitted from DIST_SUBDIRS will not be distributed unless
you make other arrangements for this to happen (for instance, always running ‘make dist’
in a configuration where all directories are known to appear in DIST_SUBDIRS; or writing a
dist-hook target to distribute these directories).
In a few packages, unconfigured directories are not even expected to be distributed.
Although these packages do not require the aforementioned extra arrangements, there is
another pitfall. If the name of a directory appears in SUBDIRS or DIST_SUBDIRS, automake
will make sure the directory exists. Consequently automake cannot be run on such a
distribution when one directory has been omitted. One way to avoid this check is to use
the AC_SUBST method to declare conditional directories; since automake does not know the
values of AC_SUBST variables it cannot ensure the corresponding directory exists.
Chapter 7: Directories 53

7.3 An Alternative Approach to Subdirectories

If you’ve ever read Peter Miller’s excellent paper, Recursive Make Considered Harmful, the
preceding sections on the use of make recursion will probably come as unwelcome advice.
For those who haven’t read the paper, Miller’s main thesis is that recursive make invocations
are both slow and error-prone.
Automake is intended to have sufficient cross-directory support to enable you to write a
single Makefile.am for a complex multi-directory package. (If it seems to be lacking, please
report the issue as usual.)
By default an installable file specified in a subdirectory will have its directory name
stripped before installation. For instance, in this example, the header file will be installed
as $(includedir)/stdio.h:
include_HEADERS = inc/stdio.h
However, the ‘nobase_’ prefix can be used to circumvent this path stripping. In this
example, the header file will be installed as $(includedir)/sys/types.h:
nobase_include_HEADERS = sys/types.h
‘nobase_’ should be specified first when used in conjunction with either ‘dist_’ or
‘nodist_’ (see Section 14.2 [Fine-grained Distribution Control], page 103). For instance:
nobase_dist_pkgdata_DATA = images/vortex.pgm sounds/whirl.ogg
Finally, note that a variable using the ‘nobase_’ prefix can often be replaced by several
variables, one for each destination directory (see Section 3.3 [Uniform], page 21). For
instance, the last example could be rewritten as follows:
imagesdir = $(pkgdatadir)/images
soundsdir = $(pkgdatadir)/sounds
dist_images_DATA = images/vortex.pgm
dist_sounds_DATA = sounds/whirl.ogg
This latter syntax makes it possible to change one destination directory without changing
the layout of the source tree.
Currently, ‘nobase_*_LTLIBRARIES’ are the only exception to this rule, in that there
is no particular installation order guarantee for an otherwise equivalent set of variables
without ‘nobase_’ prefix.

7.4 Nesting Packages

In the GNU Build System, packages can be nested to arbitrary depth. This means that a
package can embed other packages with their own configure, Makefiles, etc.
These other packages should just appear as subdirectories of their parent package.
They must be listed in SUBDIRS like other ordinary directories. However the subpackage’s
Makefiles should be output by its own configure script, not by the parent’s configure.
This is achieved using the AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS Autoconf macro (see Section “Configuring
Other Packages in Subdirectories” in The Autoconf Manual).
Here is an example package for an arm program that links with a hand library that is a
nested package in subdirectory hand/.
arm’s configure.ac:
AC_INIT([arm], [1.0])
Chapter 7: Directories 54

AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR([.])
AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE
AC_PROG_CC
AC_CONFIG_FILES([Makefile])
# Call hand's ./configure script recursively.
AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS([hand])
AC_OUTPUT
arm’s Makefile.am:
# Build the library in the hand subdirectory first.
SUBDIRS = hand

# Include hand's header when compiling this directory.

AM_CPPFLAGS = -I$(srcdir)/hand

bin_PROGRAMS = arm
arm_SOURCES = arm.c
# link with the hand library.
arm_LDADD = hand/libhand.a
Now here is hand’s hand/configure.ac:
AC_INIT([hand], [1.2])
AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR([.])
AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE
AC_PROG_CC
AM_PROG_AR
AC_PROG_RANLIB
AC_CONFIG_FILES([Makefile])
AC_OUTPUT
and its hand/Makefile.am:
lib_LIBRARIES = libhand.a
libhand_a_SOURCES = hand.c
When ‘make dist’ is run from the top-level directory it will create an archive arm-
1.0.tar.gz that contains the arm code as well as the hand subdirectory. This package can
be built and installed like any ordinary package, with the usual ‘./configure && make &&
make install’ sequence (the hand subpackage will be built and installed by the process).
When ‘make dist’ is run from the hand directory, it will create a self-contained hand-
1.2.tar.gz archive. So although it appears to be embedded in another package, it can still
be used separately.
The purpose of the ‘AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR([.])’ instruction is to force Automake and
Autoconf to search for auxiliary scripts in the current directory. For instance, this means
that there will be two copies of install-sh: one in the top-level of the arm package, and
another one in the hand/ subdirectory for the hand package.
The historical default is to search for these auxiliary scripts in the parent directory
and the grandparent directory. So if the ‘AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR([.])’ line was removed
from hand/configure.ac, that subpackage would share the auxiliary script of the arm
package. This may look like a gain in size (a few kilobytes), but more importantly, it is a
Chapter 8: Building Programs and Libraries 55

loss of modularity as the hand subpackage is no longer self-contained (‘make dist’ in the
subdirectory will not work anymore).
Packages that do not use Automake need more work to be integrated this way. See
Section 22.2 [Third-Party Makefiles], page 142.

8 Building Programs and Libraries

A large part of Automake’s functionality is dedicated to making it easy to build programs
and libraries.

8.1 Building a program

In order to build a program, you need to tell Automake which sources are part of it, and
which libraries it should be linked with.
This section also covers conditional compilation of sources or programs. Most of the
comments about these also apply to libraries (see Section 8.2 [A Library], page 59) and
libtool libraries (see Section 8.3 [A Shared Library], page 59).

8.1.1 Defining program sources

In a directory containing source that gets built into a program (as opposed to a library or
a script), the PROGRAMS primary is used. Programs can be installed in bindir, sbindir,
libexecdir, pkglibexecdir, or not at all (noinst_). They can also be built only for ‘make
check’, in which case the prefix is ‘check_’.
For instance:
bin_PROGRAMS = hello
In this simple case, the resulting Makefile.in will contain code to generate a program
named hello.
Associated with each program are several assisting variables that are named after the
program. These variables are all optional, and have reasonable defaults. Each variable, its
use, and default is spelled out below; we use the “hello” example throughout.
The variable hello_SOURCES is used to specify which source files get built into an exe-
cutable:
hello_SOURCES = hello.c version.c getopt.c getopt1.c getopt.h system.h
This causes each mentioned .c file to be compiled into the corresponding .o. Then all
are linked to produce hello.
If hello_SOURCES is not specified, then it defaults to the single file hello.c (see Sec-
tion 8.5 [Default SOURCES], page 71).
Multiple programs can be built in a single directory. Multiple programs can share a
single source file, which must be listed in each _SOURCES definition.
Header files listed in a _SOURCES definition will be included in the distribution but
otherwise ignored. In case it isn’t obvious, you should not include the header file generated
by configure in a _SOURCES variable; this file should not be distributed. Lex (.l) and
Yacc (.y) files can also be listed; see Section 8.8 [Yacc and Lex], page 74.
Chapter 8: Building Programs and Libraries 56

8.1.2 Linking the program

If you need to link against libraries that are not found by configure, you can use LDADD
to do so. This variable is used to specify additional objects or libraries to link with; it is
inappropriate for specifying specific linker flags; you should use AM_LDFLAGS for this purpose.

Sometimes, multiple programs are built in one directory but do not share the same
link-time requirements. In this case, you can use the prog_LDADD variable (where prog is
the name of the program as it appears in some _PROGRAMS variable, and usually written in
lowercase) to override LDADD. If this variable exists for a given program, then that program
is not linked using LDADD.
For instance, in GNU cpio, pax, cpio and mt are linked against the library libcpio.a.
However, rmt is built in the same directory, and has no such link requirement. Also, mt and
rmt are only built on certain architectures. Here is what cpio’s src/Makefile.am looks like
(abridged):
bin_PROGRAMS = cpio pax $(MT)
libexec_PROGRAMS = $(RMT)
EXTRA_PROGRAMS = mt rmt

LDADD = ../lib/libcpio.a $(INTLLIBS)

rmt_LDADD =

cpio_SOURCES = ...
pax_SOURCES = ...
mt_SOURCES = ...
rmt_SOURCES = ...
prog_LDADD is inappropriate for passing program-specific linker flags (except for -l, -L,
-dlopen and -dlpreopen). So, use the prog_LDFLAGS variable for this purpose.
It is also occasionally useful to have a program depend on some other target that is
not in fact part of that program. This can be done using either the prog_DEPENDENCIES
or the EXTRA_prog_DEPENDENCIES variable. Each program depends on the contents both
variables, but no further interpretation is done.
Since these dependencies are associated to the link rule used to create the programs they
should normally list files used by the link command. That is *.$(OBJEXT), *.a, or *.la
files. In rare cases you may need to add other kinds of files such as linker scripts, but listing
a source file in _DEPENDENCIES is wrong. If some source file needs to be built before all the
components of a program are built, consider using the BUILT_SOURCES variable instead (see
Section 9.4 [Sources], page 87).
If prog_DEPENDENCIES is not supplied, it is computed by Automake. The automatically-
assigned value is the contents of prog_LDADD, with most configure substitutions, -l, -L,
-dlopen and -dlpreopen options removed. The configure substitutions that are left in are
only ‘$(LIBOBJS)’ and ‘$(ALLOCA)’; these are left because it is known that they will not
cause an invalid value for prog_DEPENDENCIES to be generated.
Section 8.1.3 [Conditional Sources], page 57, shows a situation where _DEPENDENCIES
may be used.
Chapter 8: Building Programs and Libraries 57

The EXTRA_prog_DEPENDENCIES may be useful for cases where you merely want to aug-
ment the automake-generated prog_DEPENDENCIES rather than replacing it.
We recommend that you avoid using -l options in LDADD or prog_LDADD when referring
to libraries built by your package. Instead, write the file name of the library explicitly as
in the above cpio example. Use -l only to list third-party libraries. If you follow this rule,
the default value of prog_DEPENDENCIES will list all your local libraries and omit the other
ones.

8.1.3 Conditional compilation of sources

You can’t put a configure substitution (e.g., ‘@FOO@’ or ‘$(FOO)’ where FOO is defined via
AC_SUBST) into a _SOURCES variable. The reason for this is a bit hard to explain, but suffice
to say that it simply won’t work. Automake will give an error if you try to do this.
Fortunately there are two other ways to achieve the same result. One is to use configure
substitutions in _LDADD variables, the other is to use an Automake conditional.

Conditional Compilation using _LDADD Substitutions

Automake must know all the source files that could possibly go into a program, even if
not all the files are built in every circumstance. Any files that are only conditionally built
should be listed in the appropriate EXTRA_ variable. For instance, if hello-linux.c or
hello-generic.c were conditionally included in hello, the Makefile.am would contain:
bin_PROGRAMS = hello
hello_SOURCES = hello-common.c
EXTRA_hello_SOURCES = hello-linux.c hello-generic.c
hello_LDADD = $(HELLO_SYSTEM)
hello_DEPENDENCIES = $(HELLO_SYSTEM)
You can then set up the ‘$(HELLO_SYSTEM)’ substitution from configure.ac:
...
case $host in
*linux*) HELLO_SYSTEM='hello-linux.$(OBJEXT)' ;;
*) HELLO_SYSTEM='hello-generic.$(OBJEXT)' ;;
esac
AC_SUBST([HELLO_SYSTEM])
...
In this case, the variable HELLO_SYSTEM should be replaced by either hello-linux.o or
hello-generic.o, and added to both hello_DEPENDENCIES and hello_LDADD in order to
be built and linked in.

Conditional Compilation using Automake Conditionals

An often simpler way to compile source files conditionally is to use Automake conditionals.
For instance, you could use this Makefile.am construct to build the same hello example:
bin_PROGRAMS = hello
if LINUX
hello_SOURCES = hello-linux.c hello-common.c
else
hello_SOURCES = hello-generic.c hello-common.c
Chapter 8: Building Programs and Libraries 58

endif
In this case, configure.ac should set up the LINUX conditional using AM_CONDITIONAL
(see Chapter 20 [Conditionals], page 134).
When using conditionals like this you don’t need to use the EXTRA_ variable, because
Automake will examine the contents of each variable to construct the complete list of source
files.
If your program uses a lot of files, you will probably prefer a conditional ‘+=’.
bin_PROGRAMS = hello
hello_SOURCES = hello-common.c
if LINUX
hello_SOURCES += hello-linux.c
else
hello_SOURCES += hello-generic.c
endif

8.1.4 Conditional compilation of programs

Sometimes it is useful to determine the programs that are to be built at configure time.
For instance, GNU cpio only builds mt and rmt under special circumstances. The means
to achieve conditional compilation of programs are the same you can use to compile source
files conditionally: substitutions or conditionals.

Conditional Programs using configure Substitutions

In this case, you must notify Automake of all the programs that can possibly be built,
but at the same time cause the generated Makefile.in to use the programs specified by
configure. This is done by having configure substitute values into each _PROGRAMS
definition, while listing all optionally built programs in EXTRA_PROGRAMS.
bin_PROGRAMS = cpio pax $(MT)
libexec_PROGRAMS = $(RMT)
EXTRA_PROGRAMS = mt rmt
As explained in Section 8.20 [EXEEXT], page 84, Automake will rewrite bin_PROGRAMS,
libexec_PROGRAMS, and EXTRA_PROGRAMS, appending ‘$(EXEEXT)’ to each binary. Ob-
viously it cannot rewrite values obtained at run-time through configure substitutions,
therefore you should take care of appending ‘$(EXEEXT)’ yourself, as in ‘AC_SUBST([MT],
['mt${EXEEXT}'])’.

Conditional Programs using Automake Conditionals

You can also use Automake conditionals (see Chapter 20 [Conditionals], page 134) to select
programs to be built. In this case you don’t have to worry about ‘$(EXEEXT)’ or EXTRA_
PROGRAMS.
bin_PROGRAMS = cpio pax
if WANT_MT
bin_PROGRAMS += mt
endif
if WANT_RMT
libexec_PROGRAMS = rmt
Chapter 8: Building Programs and Libraries 59

endif

8.2 Building a library

Building a library is much like building a program. In this case, the name of the primary
is LIBRARIES. Libraries can be installed in libdir or pkglibdir.
See Section 8.3 [A Shared Library], page 59, for information on how to build shared
libraries using Libtool and the LTLIBRARIES primary.
Each _LIBRARIES variable is a list of the libraries to be built. For instance, to create a
library named libcpio.a, but not install it, you would write:
noinst_LIBRARIES = libcpio.a
libcpio_a_SOURCES = ...
The sources that go into a library are determined exactly as they are for programs,
via the _SOURCES variables. Note that the library name is canonicalized (see Section 3.5
[Canonicalization], page 23), so the _SOURCES variable corresponding to libcpio.a is
‘libcpio_a_SOURCES’, not ‘libcpio.a_SOURCES’.
Extra objects can be added to a library using the library_LIBADD variable. This should
be used for objects determined by configure. Again from cpio:
libcpio_a_LIBADD = $(LIBOBJS) $(ALLOCA)
In addition, sources for extra objects that will not exist until configure-time must be
added to the BUILT_SOURCES variable (see Section 9.4 [Sources], page 87).
Building a static library is done by compiling all object files, then by invoking ‘$(AR)
$(ARFLAGS)’ followed by the name of the library and the list of objects, and finally by calling
‘$(RANLIB)’ on that library. You should call AC_PROG_RANLIB from your configure.ac to
define RANLIB (Automake will complain otherwise). You should also call AM_PROG_AR to
define AR, in order to support unusual archivers such as Microsoft lib. ARFLAGS will default
to cr; you can override this variable by setting it in your Makefile.am or by AC_SUBSTing
it from your configure.ac. You can override the AR variable by defining a per-library
maude_AR variable (see Section 8.4 [Program and Library Variables], page 67).
Be careful when selecting library components conditionally. Because building an empty
library is not portable, you should ensure that any library always contains at least one
object.
To use a static library when building a program, add it to LDADD for this program. In
the following example, the program cpio is statically linked with the library libcpio.a.
noinst_LIBRARIES = libcpio.a
libcpio_a_SOURCES = ...

bin_PROGRAMS = cpio
cpio_SOURCES = cpio.c ...
cpio_LDADD = libcpio.a

8.3 Building a Shared Library

Building shared libraries portably is a relatively complex matter. For this reason, GNU
Libtool (see Section “Introduction” in The Libtool Manual) was created to help build shared
libraries in a platform-independent way.
Chapter 8: Building Programs and Libraries 60

8.3.1 The Libtool Concept

Libtool abstracts shared and static libraries into a unified concept henceforth called libtool
libraries. Libtool libraries are files using the .la suffix, and can designate a static library, a
shared library, or maybe both. Their exact nature cannot be determined until ./configure
is run: not all platforms support all kinds of libraries, and users can explicitly select which
libraries should be built. (However the package’s maintainers can tune the default; see
Section “The LT_INIT macro” in The Libtool Manual.)
Because object files for shared and static libraries must be compiled differently, Libtool
is also used during compilation. Object files built by Libtool are called libtool objects:
these are files using the .lo suffix. Libtool libraries are built from these libtool objects.
You should not assume anything about the structure of .la or .lo files and how Libtool
constructs them; this is Libtool’s concern. However, the existence of these files matters,
because they are used as targets and dependencies in Makefile rules when building Libtool
libraries. There are situations where you may have to refer to these, for instance when
expressing dependencies for building source files conditionally (see Section 8.3.4 [Conditional
Libtool Sources], page 62).
People considering writing a plug-in system, with dynamically loaded modules, should
look into libltdl: Libtool’s dlopening library (see Section “Using libltdl” in The Libtool
Manual). This offers a portable dlopening facility to load Libtool libraries dynamically, and
can also achieve static linking where unavoidable.
Before we discuss how to use Libtool with Automake in detail, it should be noted that
the Libtool manual also has a section about how to use Automake with Libtool (see Section
“Using Automake with Libtool” in The Libtool Manual).

8.3.2 Building Libtool Libraries

Automake uses Libtool to build libraries declared with the LTLIBRARIES primary. Each
_LTLIBRARIES variable is a list of Libtool libraries to build. For instance, to create a libtool
library named libgettext.la, and install it in libdir, write:
lib_LTLIBRARIES = libgettext.la
libgettext_la_SOURCES = gettext.c gettext.h ...
Automake predefines the variable pkglibdir, so you can use pkglib_LTLIBRARIES to
install libraries in ‘$(libdir)/@PACKAGE@/’.
If gettext.h is a public header file that needs to be installed in order for people to
use the library, it should be declared using a _HEADERS variable, not in libgettext_la_
SOURCES. Headers listed in the latter should be internal headers that are not part of the
public interface.
lib_LTLIBRARIES = libgettext.la
libgettext_la_SOURCES = gettext.c ...
include_HEADERS = gettext.h ...
A package can build and install such a library along with other programs that use it.
This dependency should be specified using LDADD. The following example builds a program
named hello that is linked with libgettext.la.
lib_LTLIBRARIES = libgettext.la
libgettext_la_SOURCES = gettext.c ...
Chapter 8: Building Programs and Libraries 61

bin_PROGRAMS = hello
hello_SOURCES = hello.c ...
hello_LDADD = libgettext.la
Whether hello is statically or dynamically linked with libgettext.la is not yet known:
this will depend on the configuration of Libtool and the capabilities of the host.

8.3.3 Building Libtool Libraries Conditionally

Like conditional programs (see Section 8.1.4 [Conditional Programs], page 58), there are two
main ways to build conditional libraries: using Automake conditionals or using Autoconf
AC_SUBSTitutions.
The important implementation detail you have to be aware of is that the place where a
library will be installed matters to Libtool: it needs to be indicated at link-time using the
-rpath option.
For libraries whose destination directory is known when Automake runs, Automake
will automatically supply the appropriate -rpath option to libtool. This is the
case for libraries listed explicitly in some installable _LTLIBRARIES variables such as
lib_LTLIBRARIES.
However, for libraries determined at configure time (and thus mentioned in EXTRA_
LTLIBRARIES), Automake does not know the final installation directory. For such libraries
you must add the -rpath option to the appropriate _LDFLAGS variable by hand.
The examples below illustrate the differences between these two methods.
Here is an example where WANTEDLIBS is an AC_SUBSTed variable set at ./configure-
time to either libfoo.la, libbar.la, both, or none. Although ‘$(WANTEDLIBS)’ appears
in the lib_LTLIBRARIES, Automake cannot guess it relates to libfoo.la or libbar.la at
the time it creates the link rule for these two libraries. Therefore the -rpath argument
must be explicitly supplied.
EXTRA_LTLIBRARIES = libfoo.la libbar.la
lib_LTLIBRARIES = $(WANTEDLIBS)
libfoo_la_SOURCES = foo.c ...
libfoo_la_LDFLAGS = -rpath '$(libdir)'
libbar_la_SOURCES = bar.c ...
libbar_la_LDFLAGS = -rpath '$(libdir)'
Here is how the same Makefile.am would look using Automake conditionals named
WANT_LIBFOO and WANT_LIBBAR. Now Automake is able to compute the -rpath setting
itself, because it’s clear that both libraries will end up in ‘$(libdir)’ if they are installed.
lib_LTLIBRARIES =
if WANT_LIBFOO
lib_LTLIBRARIES += libfoo.la
endif
if WANT_LIBBAR
lib_LTLIBRARIES += libbar.la
endif
libfoo_la_SOURCES = foo.c ...
libbar_la_SOURCES = bar.c ...
Chapter 8: Building Programs and Libraries 62

8.3.4 Libtool Libraries with Conditional Sources

Conditional compilation of sources in a library can be achieved in the same way as condi-
tional compilation of sources in a program (see Section 8.1.3 [Conditional Sources], page 57).
The only difference is that _LIBADD should be used instead of _LDADD and that it should
mention libtool objects (.lo files).
So, to mimic the hello example from Section 8.1.3 [Conditional Sources], page 57, we
could build a libhello.la library using either hello-linux.c or hello-generic.c with
the following Makefile.am.
lib_LTLIBRARIES = libhello.la
libhello_la_SOURCES = hello-common.c
EXTRA_libhello_la_SOURCES = hello-linux.c hello-generic.c
libhello_la_LIBADD = $(HELLO_SYSTEM)
libhello_la_DEPENDENCIES = $(HELLO_SYSTEM)
And make sure configure defines HELLO_SYSTEM as either hello-linux.lo or hello--
generic.lo.
Or we could simply use an Automake conditional as follows.
lib_LTLIBRARIES = libhello.la
libhello_la_SOURCES = hello-common.c
if LINUX
libhello_la_SOURCES += hello-linux.c
else
libhello_la_SOURCES += hello-generic.c
endif

8.3.5 Libtool Convenience Libraries

Sometimes you want to build Libtool libraries that should not be installed. These are called
libtool convenience libraries and are typically used to encapsulate many sublibraries, later
gathered into one big installed library.
Libtool convenience libraries are declared by directory-less variables such as noinst_
LTLIBRARIES, check_LTLIBRARIES, or even EXTRA_LTLIBRARIES. Unlike installed Libtool
libraries they do not need an -rpath flag at link time (this is in fact the only difference).
Convenience libraries listed in noinst_LTLIBRARIES are always built. Those listed in
check_LTLIBRARIES are built only upon ‘make check’. Finally, libraries listed in EXTRA_
LTLIBRARIES are never built explicitly: Automake outputs rules to build them, but if the
library does not appear as a Makefile dependency anywhere it won’t be built (this is why
EXTRA_LTLIBRARIES is used for conditional compilation).
Here is a sample setup merging Libtool convenience libraries from subdirectories into
one main libtop.la library.
# -- Top-level Makefile.am --
SUBDIRS = sub1 sub2 ...
lib_LTLIBRARIES = libtop.la
libtop_la_SOURCES =
libtop_la_LIBADD = \
sub1/libsub1.la \
Chapter 8: Building Programs and Libraries 63

sub2/libsub2.la \
...

# -- sub1/Makefile.am --
noinst_LTLIBRARIES = libsub1.la
libsub1_la_SOURCES = ...

# -- sub2/Makefile.am --
# showing nested convenience libraries
SUBDIRS = sub2.1 sub2.2 ...
noinst_LTLIBRARIES = libsub2.la
libsub2_la_SOURCES =
libsub2_la_LIBADD = \
sub21/libsub21.la \
sub22/libsub22.la \
...
When using such a setup, beware that automake will assume libtop.la is to be linked
with the C linker. This is because libtop_la_SOURCES is empty, so automake picks C as
default language. If libtop_la_SOURCES was not empty, automake would select the linker
as explained in Section 8.14.3.1 [How the Linker is Chosen], page 81.
If one of the sublibraries contains non-C source, it is important that the appropriate
linker be chosen. One way to achieve this is to pretend that there is such a non-C file
among the sources of the library, thus forcing automake to select the appropriate linker.
Here is the top-level Makefile of our example updated to force C++ linking.
SUBDIRS = sub1 sub2 ...
lib_LTLIBRARIES = libtop.la
libtop_la_SOURCES =
# Dummy C++ source to cause C++ linking.
nodist_EXTRA_libtop_la_SOURCES = dummy.cxx
libtop_la_LIBADD = \
sub1/libsub1.la \
sub2/libsub2.la \
...
‘EXTRA_*_SOURCES’ variables are used to keep track of source files that might be compiled
(this is mostly useful when doing conditional compilation using AC_SUBST; see Section 8.3.4
[Conditional Libtool Sources], page 62), and the nodist_ prefix means the listed sources are
not to be distributed (see Section 8.4 [Program and Library Variables], page 67). In effect
the file dummy.cxx does not need to exist in the source tree. Of course if you have some real
source file to list in libtop_la_SOURCES there is no point in cheating with nodist_EXTRA_
libtop_la_SOURCES.

8.3.6 Libtool Modules

These are Libtool libraries meant to be dlopened. They are indicated to libtool by passing
-module at link-time.
pkglib_LTLIBRARIES = mymodule.la
mymodule_la_SOURCES = doit.c
Chapter 8: Building Programs and Libraries 64

mymodule_la_LDFLAGS = -module
Ordinarily, Automake requires that a library’s name start with lib. However, when
building a dynamically loadable module you might wish to use a "nonstandard" name.
Automake will not complain about such nonstandard names if it knows the library being
built is a libtool module, i.e., if -module explicitly appears in the library’s _LDFLAGS variable
(or in the common AM_LDFLAGS variable when no per-library _LDFLAGS variable is defined).
As always, AC_SUBST variables are black boxes to Automake since their values are not
yet known when automake is run. Therefore if -module is set via such a variable, Automake
cannot notice it and will proceed as if the library was an ordinary libtool library, with strict
naming.
If mymodule_la_SOURCES is not specified, then it defaults to the single file mymodule.c
(see Section 8.5 [Default SOURCES], page 71).

8.3.7 _LIBADD, _LDFLAGS, and _LIBTOOLFLAGS

As shown in previous sections, the ‘library_LIBADD’ variable should be used to list extra
libtool objects (.lo files) or libtool libraries (.la) to add to library.
The ‘library_LDFLAGS’ variable is the place to list additional libtool linking flags,
such as -version-info, -static, and a lot more. See Section “Link mode” in The Libtool
Manual.
The libtool command has two kinds of options: mode-specific options and generic op-
tions. Mode-specific options such as the aforementioned linking flags should be lumped with
the other flags passed to the tool invoked by libtool (hence the use of ‘library_LDFLAGS’
for libtool linking flags). Generic options include --tag=tag and --silent (see Section
“Invoking libtool” in The Libtool Manual for more options). They should appear before
the mode selection on the command line; in Makefile.ams they should be listed in the
‘library_LIBTOOLFLAGS’ variable.
If ‘library_LIBTOOLFLAGS’ is not defined, then the variable AM_LIBTOOLFLAGS is used
instead.
These flags are passed to libtool after the --tag=tag option computed by Automake
(if any), so ‘library_LIBTOOLFLAGS’ (or AM_LIBTOOLFLAGS) is a good place to override or
supplement the --tag=tag setting.
The libtool rules also use a LIBTOOLFLAGS variable that should not be set in
Makefile.am: this is a user variable (see Section 26.5 [Flag Variables Ordering], page 152).
It allows users to run ‘make LIBTOOLFLAGS=--silent’, for instance. Note that the
verbosity of libtool can also be influenced by the Automake support for silent rules (see
Section 21.3 [Automake Silent Rules], page 137).

8.3.8 LTLIBOBJS and LTALLOCA

Where an ordinary library might include ‘$(LIBOBJS)’ or ‘$(ALLOCA)’ (see Section 8.6
[LIBOBJS], page 72), a libtool library must use ‘$(LTLIBOBJS)’ or ‘$(LTALLOCA)’. This is
required because the object files that libtool operates on do not necessarily end in .o.
Nowadays, the computation of LTLIBOBJS from LIBOBJS is performed automatically by
Autoconf (see Section “AC_LIBOBJ vs. LIBOBJS” in The Autoconf Manual).

8.3.9 Common Issues Related to Libtool’s Use

Chapter 8: Building Programs and Libraries 65

8.3.9.1 Error: ‘required file './ltmain.sh' not found’—libtoolize

needed
Libtool comes with a tool called libtoolize that will install Libtool’s supporting files into
a package. Running this command will install ltmain.sh. You should execute it before
aclocal and automake.
People upgrading old packages to newer autotools are likely to face this issue because
older Automake versions used to call libtoolize. Therefore old build scripts do not call
libtoolize.
Since Automake 1.6, it has been decided that running libtoolize was not Automake’s
business. Instead, that functionality has been moved into the autoreconf command (see
Section “Using autoreconf” in The Autoconf Manual). The autoreconf command saves
you from having to figure out which infrastructure scripts to run in what order. Augmenting
existing bootstrap or autogen.sh scripts with a call to autoreconf should also free you
from any similar incompatible change in the future.
8.3.9.2 Error: ‘Libtool library used but 'LIBTOOL' is undefined’—
libtoolize redux
This error message results from Automake seeing Libtool being used in Makefile.am, but
the LIBTOOL variable is not defined. There are two common reasons for this. First, LT_INIT
is missing from configure.ac; it can simply be added.
The second reason is more complicated: if you’ve installed Automake under a separate
prefix, Automake cannot know where to find the LT_INIT macro. Automake looks in the
aclocal.m4 file, which is generated by the aclocal command (see Section 6.3 [aclocal
Invocation], page 36). But since the default search paths for aclocal are based on where it
is installed (see Section 6.3.2 [Macro Search Path], page 39), if Automake is installed in one
place (e.g., because it’s for a test release), and Libtool in another (e.g., for general system
use), libtool.m4 won’t be found by aclocal and thus LT_INIT won’t be defined.
The best solution is to run libtoolize in the tree that is using the separately-installed
Automake. That will copy libtool.m4 and the other Libtool M4 files and scripts into
your package, including ltmain.sh (see previous section). If you have subpackages that
use Libtool independently, you’ll need to run libtoolize in each of them. See Section
“Invoking libtoolize” in The Libtool Manual.
The libtoolize output suggests using an m4 subdirectory:
libtoolize: Consider adding 'AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIRS([m4])' to configure.ac,
libtoolize: and rerunning libtoolize and aclocal.
libtoolize: Consider adding '-I m4' to ACLOCAL_AMFLAGS in Makefile.am.
For purposes of Libtool and Automake, however, an m4 subdirectory is required, not just
something to consider. Without having the Libtool M4 files in the local package, aclocal
will (frustratingly) report the same ‘Libtool library used but ...’ error. (The name of
the subdirectory for the M4 files can be anything, but ‘m4’ is by far the most common
convention.)
Here is a concrete example. Suppose you’ve installed a test release of Automake (thank
you) with --prefix=/tmp/amtest, and thus put /tmp/amtest/bin first in your PATH. You
already have Libtool installed under /usr/local/gnu. Then, your Libtool-using package
will fail to bootstrap, with the error:
Makefile.am:161: error: Libtool library used but 'LIBTOOL' is undefined
Chapter 8: Building Programs and Libraries 66

...
You can resolve this by ensuring your configure.ac includes these lines (after the AM_
INIT_AUTOMAKE):
AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIRS([m4])
AM_PROG_AR
LT_INIT
and then running:
libtoolize
autoreconf
To summarize, the libtoolize (from the system directory) copies libtool.m4 and the
other Libtool support files into your package. The subsequent autoreconf then runs
aclocal (under the test prefix) which can now find LT_INIT.
(For more discussion of this, see https://bugs.gnu.org/71847.

8.3.9.3 Objects ‘created with both libtool and without’

Sometimes, the same source file is used both to build a Libtool library and to build another
non-libtool target (be it a program or another library).
Let’s consider the following Makefile.am.
bin_PROGRAMS = prog
prog_SOURCES = prog.c foo.c ...

lib_LTLIBRARIES = libfoo.la
libfoo_la_SOURCES = foo.c ...
(In this trivial case the issue could be avoided by linking libfoo.la with prog instead of
listing foo.c in prog_SOURCES. But let’s assume we want to keep prog and libfoo.la
separate.)
Technically, it means that we should build foo.$(OBJEXT) for prog, and foo.lo for
libfoo.la. The problem is that in the course of creating foo.lo, Libtool may erase (or
replace) foo.$(OBJEXT), and this cannot be avoided.
Therefore, when Automake detects this situation it will complain with a message such
as
object 'foo.$(OBJEXT)' created both with libtool and without
A workaround for this issue is to ensure that these two objects get different basenames.
As explained in Section 26.6 [Renamed Objects], page 155, this happens automatically when
per-target flags are used.
bin_PROGRAMS = prog
prog_SOURCES = prog.c foo.c ...
prog_CFLAGS = $(AM_CFLAGS)

lib_LTLIBRARIES = libfoo.la
libfoo_la_SOURCES = foo.c ...
Adding ‘prog_CFLAGS = $(AM_CFLAGS)’ is almost a no-op, because when the prog_CFLAGS
is defined, it is used instead of AM_CFLAGS. However as a side effect it will cause prog.c and
Chapter 8: Building Programs and Libraries 67

foo.c to be compiled as prog-prog.$(OBJEXT) and prog-foo.$(OBJEXT), which solves

the issue.

8.4 Program and Library Variables

Associated with each program is a collection of variables that can be used to modify how
that program is built. There is a similar list of such variables for each library. The canonical
name of the program (or library) is used as a base for naming these variables.
In the list below, we use the name “maude” to refer to the program or library. In your
Makefile.am you would replace this with the canonical name of your program. This list
also refers to “maude” as a program, but in general the same rules apply for both static and
dynamic libraries; the documentation below notes situations where programs and libraries
differ.

maude_SOURCES
This variable, if it exists, lists all the source files that are compiled to build the
program. These files are added to the distribution by default. When building
the program, Automake will cause each source file to be compiled to a single .o
file (or .lo when using Libtool). Normally these object files are named after the
source file, but other factors can change this. If a file in the _SOURCES variable
has an unrecognized extension, Automake will do one of two things with it. If a
suffix rule exists for turning files with the unrecognized extension into .o files,
then automake will treat this file as it will any other source file (see Section 8.18
[Support for Other Languages], page 83). Otherwise, the file will be ignored as
though it were a header file.
The prefixes dist_ and nodist_ can be used to control whether files listed
in a _SOURCES variable are distributed. dist_ is redundant, as sources are
distributed by default, but it can be specified for clarity if desired.
It is possible to have both dist_ and nodist_ variants of a given _SOURCES
variable at once; this lets you easily distribute some files and not others, for
instance:
nodist_maude_SOURCES = nodist.c
dist_maude_SOURCES = dist-me.c
By default the output file (on Unix systems, the .o file) will be put into the cur-
rent build directory. However, if the option subdir-objects is in effect in the
current directory then the .o file will be put into the subdirectory named after
the source file. For instance, with subdir-objects enabled, sub/dir/file.c
will be compiled to sub/dir/file.o. Some projects prefer or require this
mode of operation. You can specify subdir-objects in AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS
(see Chapter 17 [Options], page 127).
When subdir-objects is specified, and source files which lie outside the current
directory tree are nevertheless specified, as in foo_SOURCES = ../lib/other.c,
Automake will still remove ../lib/other.o, in fact, ../lib/*.o (e.g., at make
clean, even though it is arguably wrong for one subdirectory to clean in a
sibling. This may or may not be changed in the future.
Chapter 8: Building Programs and Libraries 68

EXTRA_maude_SOURCES
Automake needs to know the list of files you intend to compile statically. For
one thing, this is the only way Automake has of knowing what sort of language
support a given Makefile.in requires. (There are other, more obscure reasons
for this limitation as well.) This means that, for example, you can’t put a
configure substitution like ‘@my_sources@’ into a ‘_SOURCES’ variable. If you
intend to conditionally compile source files and use configure to substitute the
appropriate object names into, e.g., _LDADD (see below), then you should list
the corresponding source files in the EXTRA_ variable.
This variable also supports dist_ and nodist_ prefixes. For instance, nodist_
EXTRA_maude_SOURCES would list extra sources that may need to be built, but
should not be distributed.
maude_AR A static library is created by default by invoking ‘$(AR) $(ARFLAGS)’ followed
by the name of the library and then the objects being put into the library. You
can override this by setting the _AR variable. This is usually used with C++;
some C++ compilers require a special invocation in order to instantiate all the
templates that should go into a library. For instance, the SGI C++ compiler
likes this variable set like so:
libmaude_a_AR = $(CXX) -ar -o
maude_RANLIB
A static library’s index is updated by default by invoking ‘$(RANLIB)’ followed
by the name of the library. You can override this by setting the _RANLIB
variable.
maude_LIBADD
Extra objects can be added to a library using the _LIBADD variable. For in-
stance, this should be used for objects determined by configure (see Section 8.2
[A Library], page 59).
In the case of Libtool libraries, maude_LIBADD can also refer to other Libtool
libraries.
maude_LDADD
Extra objects (*.$(OBJEXT)) and libraries (*.a, *.la) can be added to a pro-
gram by listing them in the _LDADD variable. For instance, this should be used
for objects determined by configure (see Section 8.1.2 [Linking], page 56).
_LDADD and _LIBADD are inappropriate for passing program-specific linker flags
(except for -l, -L, -dlopen and -dlpreopen). Use the _LDFLAGS variable for
this purpose.
For instance, if your configure.ac uses AC_PATH_XTRA, you could link your
program against the X libraries like so:
maude_LDADD = $(X_PRE_LIBS) $(X_LIBS) $(X_EXTRA_LIBS)
We recommend that you use -l and -L only when referring to third-party
libraries, and give the explicit file names of any library built by your package.
Doing so will ensure that maude_DEPENDENCIES (see below) is correctly defined
by default.
Chapter 8: Building Programs and Libraries 69

maude_LDFLAGS
This variable is used to pass extra flags to the link step of a program or a
shared library. It overrides the AM_LDFLAGS variable, even if it is defined only
in a false branch of a conditional; in other words, if prog_LDFLAGS is defined at
all, AM_LDFLAGS will not be used.
maude_LIBTOOLFLAGS
This variable is used to pass extra options to libtool. It overrides the
AM_LIBTOOLFLAGS variable. These options are output before libtool’s
--mode=mode option, so they should not be mode-specific options (those belong
to the compiler or linker flags). See Section 8.3.7 [Libtool Flags], page 64.
maude_DEPENDENCIES
EXTRA_maude_DEPENDENCIES
It is also occasionally useful to have a target (program or library) depend on
some other file that is not in fact part of that target. This can be done using
the _DEPENDENCIES variable. Each target depends on the contents of such a
variable, but no further interpretation is done.
Since these dependencies are associated with the link rule used to create the
programs they should normally list files used by the link command. That is
*.$(OBJEXT), *.a, or *.la files for programs; *.lo and *.la files for Libtool
libraries; and *.$(OBJEXT) files for static libraries. In rare cases you may need
to add other kinds of files such as linker scripts, but listing a source file in
_DEPENDENCIES is wrong. If some source file needs to be built before all the
components of a program are built, consider using the BUILT_SOURCES variable
(see Section 9.4 [Sources], page 87).
If _DEPENDENCIES is not supplied, it is computed by Automake. The
automatically-assigned value is the contents of _LDADD or _LIBADD, with most
configure substitutions, -l, -L, -dlopen and -dlpreopen options removed.
The configure substitutions that are left in are only ‘$(LIBOBJS)’ and
‘$(ALLOCA)’; these are left because it is known that they will not cause an
invalid value for _DEPENDENCIES to be generated.
_DEPENDENCIES is more likely used to perform conditional compilation using an
AC_SUBST variable that contains a list of objects. See Section 8.1.3 [Conditional
Sources], page 57, and Section 8.3.4 [Conditional Libtool Sources], page 62.
The EXTRA_*_DEPENDENCIES variable may be useful for cases where you merely
want to augment the automake-generated _DEPENDENCIES variable rather than
replacing it.
maude_LINK
You can override the linker on a per-program basis. By default the linker is
chosen according to the languages used by the program. For instance, a program
that includes C++ source code would use the C++ compiler to link. The _LINK
variable must hold the name of a command that can be passed all the .o file
names and libraries to link against as arguments. Note that the name of the
underlying program is not passed to _LINK; typically one uses ‘$@’:
maude_LINK = $(CCLD) -magic -o $@
Chapter 8: Building Programs and Libraries 70

If a _LINK variable is not supplied, it may still be generated and used by Au-
tomake due to the use of per-target link flags such as _CFLAGS, _LDFLAGS or
_LIBTOOLFLAGS, in cases where they apply.
If the variable AM_V_*_LINK exists, it is used to output a status line in silent
mode; otherwise, AM_V_GEN is used.
maude_CCASFLAGS
maude_CFLAGS
maude_CPPFLAGS
maude_CXXFLAGS
maude_FFLAGS
maude_GCJFLAGS
maude_LFLAGS
maude_OBJCFLAGS
maude_OBJCXXFLAGS
maude_RFLAGS
maude_UPCFLAGS
maude_YFLAGS
Automake allows you to set compilation flags on a per-program (or per-library)
basis. A single source file can be included in several programs, and it
will potentially be compiled with different flags for each program. This
works for any language directly supported by Automake. These per-target
compilation flags are ‘_CCASFLAGS’, ‘_CFLAGS’, ‘_CPPFLAGS’, ‘_CXXFLAGS’,
‘_FFLAGS’, ‘_GCJFLAGS’, ‘_LFLAGS’, ‘_OBJCFLAGS’, ‘_OBJCXXFLAGS’, ‘_RFLAGS’,
‘_UPCFLAGS’, and ‘_YFLAGS’.
When using a per-target compilation flag, Automake will choose a different
name for the intermediate object files. Ordinarily a file like sample.c will be
compiled to produce sample.o. However, if the program’s _CFLAGS variable is
set, then the object file will be named, for instance, maude-sample.o. (See also
Section 26.6 [Renamed Objects], page 155.)
In compilations with per-target flags, the ordinary ‘AM_’ form of the flags vari-
able is not automatically included in the compilation (however, the user form
of the variable is included). So for instance, if you want the hypothetical maude
compilations to also use the value of AM_CFLAGS, you would need to write:
maude_CFLAGS = ... your flags ... $(AM_CFLAGS)
See Section 26.5 [Flag Variables Ordering], page 152, for more discussion about
the interaction between user variables, ‘AM_’ shadow variables, and per-target
variables.
maude_SHORTNAME
On some platforms the allowable file names are very short. In order to support
these systems and per-target compilation flags at the same time, Automake
allows you to set a “short name” that will influence how intermediate object
files are named. For instance, in the following example,
bin_PROGRAMS = maude
maude_CPPFLAGS = -DSOMEFLAG
maude_SHORTNAME = m
Chapter 8: Building Programs and Libraries 71

maude_SOURCES = sample.c ...

the object file would be named m-sample.o rather than maude-sample.o.
This facility is rarely needed in practice, and we recommend avoiding it until
you find it is required.

8.5 Default _SOURCES

_SOURCES variables are used to specify source files of programs (see Section 8.1 [A Pro-
gram], page 55), libraries (see Section 8.2 [A Library], page 59), and Libtool libraries (see
Section 8.3 [A Shared Library], page 59).
When no such variable is specified for a target, Automake will define one itself. The
default is to compile a single C file whose base name is the name of the target itself, with
any extension replaced by AM_DEFAULT_SOURCE_EXT, which defaults to .c.
For example if you have the following somewhere in your Makefile.am with no corre-
sponding libfoo_a_SOURCES:
lib_LIBRARIES = libfoo.a sub/libc++.a
libfoo.a will be built using a default source file named libfoo.c, and sub/libc++.a
will be built from sub/libc++.c. (In older versions sub/libc++.a would be built from
sub_libc___a.c, i.e., the default source was the canonicalized name of the target, with .c
appended. We believe the new behavior is more sensible, but for backward compatibility
automake will use the old name if a file or a rule with that name exists and AM_DEFAULT_
SOURCE_EXT is not used.)
Default sources are mainly useful in test suites, when building many test programs each
from a single source. For instance, in
check_PROGRAMS = test1 test2 test3
AM_DEFAULT_SOURCE_EXT = .cpp
test1, test2, and test3 will be built from test1.cpp, test2.cpp, and test3.cpp. With-
out the last line, they will be built from test1.c, test2.c, and test3.c.
Another case where this is convenient is building many Libtool modules (modulen.la),
each defined in its own file (modulen.c).
AM_LDFLAGS = -module
lib_LTLIBRARIES = module1.la module2.la module3.la
Finally, there is one situation where this default source computation needs to be avoided:
when a target should not be built from sources. We already saw such an example in
Section 4.2 [true], page 26; this happens when all the constituents of a target have already
been compiled and just need to be combined using a _LDADD variable. Then it is necessary
to define an empty _SOURCES variable, so that automake does not compute a default.
bin_PROGRAMS = target
target_SOURCES =
target_LDADD = libmain.a libmisc.a
Chapter 8: Building Programs and Libraries 72

8.6 Special handling for LIBOBJS and ALLOCA

The ‘$(LIBOBJS)’ and ‘$(ALLOCA)’ variables list object files that should be compiled into
the project to provide an implementation for functions that are missing or broken on the
host system. They are substituted by configure.
These variables are defined by Autoconf macros such as AC_LIBOBJ, AC_REPLACE_FUNCS
(see Section “Generic Function Checks” in The Autoconf Manual), or AC_FUNC_ALLOCA (see
Section “Particular Function Checks” in The Autoconf Manual). Many other Autoconf
macros call AC_LIBOBJ or AC_REPLACE_FUNCS to populate ‘$(LIBOBJS)’.
Using these variables is very similar to doing conditional compilation using AC_SUBST
variables, as described in Section 8.1.3 [Conditional Sources], page 57. That is, when build-
ing a program, ‘$(LIBOBJS)’ and ‘$(ALLOCA)’ should be added to the associated ‘*_LDADD’
variable, or to the ‘*_LIBADD’ variable when building a library. However there is no need
to list the corresponding sources in ‘EXTRA_*_SOURCES’ nor to define ‘*_DEPENDENCIES’.
Automake automatically adds ‘$(LIBOBJS)’ and ‘$(ALLOCA)’ to the dependencies, and it
will discover the list of corresponding source files automatically (by tracing the invocations
of the AC_LIBSOURCE Autoconf macros). If you have already defined ‘*_DEPENDENCIES’
explicitly for an unrelated reason, then you either need to add these variables manually, or
use ‘EXTRA_*_DEPENDENCIES’ instead of ‘*_DEPENDENCIES’.
These variables are usually used to build a portability library that is linked with all the
programs of the project. We now review a sample setup. First, configure.ac contains
some checks that affect either LIBOBJS or ALLOCA.
# configure.ac
...
AC_CONFIG_LIBOBJ_DIR([lib])
...
AC_FUNC_MALLOC dnl May add malloc.$(OBJEXT) to LIBOBJS
AC_FUNC_MEMCMP dnl May add memcmp.$(OBJEXT) to LIBOBJS
AC_REPLACE_FUNCS([strdup]) dnl May add strdup.$(OBJEXT) to LIBOBJS
AC_FUNC_ALLOCA dnl May add alloca.$(OBJEXT) to ALLOCA
...
AC_CONFIG_FILES([
lib/Makefile
src/Makefile
])
AC_OUTPUT
The AC_CONFIG_LIBOBJ_DIR tells Autoconf that the source files of these object files are
to be found in the lib/ directory. Automake can also use this information, otherwise it
expects the source files are to be in the directory where the ‘$(LIBOBJS)’ and ‘$(ALLOCA)’
variables are used.
The lib/ directory should therefore contain malloc.c, memcmp.c, strdup.c, alloca.c.
Here is its Makefile.am:
# lib/Makefile.am

noinst_LIBRARIES = libcompat.a
libcompat_a_SOURCES =
Chapter 8: Building Programs and Libraries 73

libcompat_a_LIBADD = $(LIBOBJS) $(ALLOCA)

The library can have any name, of course, and anyway it is not going to be installed: it
just holds the replacement versions of the missing or broken functions so we can later link
them in. Many projects also include extra functions, specific to the project, in that library:
they are simply added on the _SOURCES line.
There is a small trap here, though: ‘$(LIBOBJS)’ and ‘$(ALLOCA)’ might be empty, and
building an empty library is not portable. You should ensure that there is always something
to put in libcompat.a. Most projects will also add some utility functions in that directory,
and list them in libcompat_a_SOURCES, so in practice libcompat.a cannot be empty.
Finally here is how this library could be used from the src/ directory.
# src/Makefile.am

# Link all programs in this directory with libcompat.a

LDADD = ../lib/libcompat.a

bin_PROGRAMS = tool1 tool2 ...

tool1_SOURCES = ...
tool2_SOURCES = ...
When option subdir-objects is not used, as in the above example, the variables
‘$(LIBOBJS)’ or ‘$(ALLOCA)’ can only be used in the directory where their sources lie.
E.g., here it would be wrong to use ‘$(LIBOBJS)’ or ‘$(ALLOCA)’ in src/Makefile.am.
However if both subdir-objects and AC_CONFIG_LIBOBJ_DIR are used, it is OK to use
these variables in other directories. For instance src/Makefile.am could be changed as
follows.
# src/Makefile.am

AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS = subdir-objects
LDADD = $(LIBOBJS) $(ALLOCA)

bin_PROGRAMS = tool1 tool2 ...

tool1_SOURCES = ...
tool2_SOURCES = ...
Because ‘$(LIBOBJS)’ and ‘$(ALLOCA)’ contain object file names that end with
‘.$(OBJEXT)’, they are not suitable for Libtool libraries (where the expected object
extension is .lo): LTLIBOBJS and LTALLOCA should be used instead.
LTLIBOBJS is defined automatically by Autoconf and should not be defined by hand (as
in the past), however at the time of writing LTALLOCA still needs to be defined from ALLOCA
manually. See Section “AC_LIBOBJ vs. LIBOBJS” in The Autoconf Manual.

8.7 Variables used when building a program

Occasionally it is useful to know which Makefile variables Automake uses for compilations,
and in which order (see Section 26.5 [Flag Variables Ordering], page 152); for instance, you
might need to do your own compilation in some special cases.
Some variables are inherited from Autoconf; these are CC, CFLAGS, CPPFLAGS, DEFS,
LDFLAGS, and LIBS.
Chapter 8: Building Programs and Libraries 74

There are some additional variables that Automake defines on its own:
AM_CPPFLAGS
The contents of this variable are passed to every compilation that invokes the
C preprocessor; it is a list of arguments to the preprocessor. For instance, -I
and -D options should be listed here.
Automake already provides some -I options automatically, in a separate vari-
able that is also passed to every compilation that invokes the C preprocessor. In
particular it generates ‘-I.’, ‘-I$(srcdir)’, and a -I pointing to the directory
holding config.h (if you’ve used AC_CONFIG_HEADERS). You can disable the
default -I options using the nostdinc option.
When a file to be included is generated during the build and not part
of a distribution tarball, its location is under $(builddir), not under
$(srcdir). This matters especially for packages that use header files placed
in sub-directories and want to allow builds outside the source tree (see
Section 2.2.6 [VPATH Builds], page 6). In that case we recommend using a
pair of -I options, such as, e.g., ‘-Isome/subdir -I$(srcdir)/some/subdir’
or ‘-I$(top_builddir)/some/subdir -I$(top_srcdir)/some/subdir’. Note
that the reference to the build tree should come before the reference to the
source tree, so that accidentally leftover generated files in the source directory
are ignored.
AM_CPPFLAGS is ignored in preference to a per-executable (or per-library) _
CPPFLAGS variable if it is defined.
INCLUDES This does the same job as AM_CPPFLAGS (or any per-target _CPPFLAGS variable
if it is used). It is an older name for the same functionality. This variable is
deprecated; we suggest using AM_CPPFLAGS and per-target _CPPFLAGS instead.
AM_CFLAGS
This is the variable the Makefile.am author can use to pass in additional C
compiler flags. In some situations, this is not used, in preference to the per-
executable (or per-library) _CFLAGS.
COMPILE This is the command used to compile a C source file. The file name is appended
to form the complete command line.
AM_LDFLAGS
This is the variable the Makefile.am author can use to pass in additional linker
flags. In some situations, this is not used, in preference to the per-executable
(or per-library) _LDFLAGS.
LINK This is the command used to link a C program. It already includes ‘-o $@’ and
the usual variable references (for instance, CFLAGS); it takes as “arguments”
the names of the object files and libraries to link in. This variable is not used
when the linker is overridden with a per-target _LINK variable or per-target
flags cause Automake to define such a _LINK variable.

8.8 Yacc and Lex support

Automake has somewhat idiosyncratic support for Yacc and Lex.
Chapter 8: Building Programs and Libraries 75

Automake assumes that the .c file generated by yacc or lex should be named using the
basename of the input file. That is, for a Yacc source file foo.y, Automake will cause the
intermediate file to be named foo.c (as opposed to y.tab.c, which is more traditional).
The extension of a Yacc source file is used to determine the extension of the resulting
C or C++ source and header files. Be aware that header files are generated only when the
option -d is given to Yacc; see below for more information about this flag, and how to
specify it. Files with the extension .y will thus be turned into .c sources and .h headers;
likewise, .yy will become .cc and .hh, .y++ will become c++ and h++, .yxx will become
.cxx and .hxx, and .ypp will become .cpp and .hpp.
Similarly, Lex source files can be used to generate C or C++; the extensions .l, .ll,
.l++, .lxx, and .lpp are recognized.
You should never explicitly mention the intermediate (C or C++) file in any SOURCES
variable (except BUILT_SOURCES, see below); only list the source file.
The intermediate files generated by yacc (or lex) will be included in any distribution
that is made. That way the user doesn’t need to have yacc or lex.
If a Yacc source file is seen, then your configure.ac must define the variable YACC. This
is most easily done by invoking the macro AC_PROG_YACC (see Section “Particular Program
Checks” in The Autoconf Manual).
When yacc is invoked, it is passed AM_YFLAGS and YFLAGS. The latter is a user variable
and the former is intended for the Makefile.am author.
AM_YFLAGS is usually used to pass the -d option to yacc. Automake knows what this
means and will automatically adjust its rules to update and distribute the header file built
by ‘yacc -d’. Caveat: automake recognizes -d in AM_YFLAGS only if it is not clustered with
other options; for example, it won’t be recognized if AM_YFLAGS is -dt, but it will be if
AM_YFLAGS is -d -t or -t -d.
What Automake cannot guess, though, is where this header will be used: it is up to
you to ensure the header gets built before it is first used. Typically this is necessary in
order for dependency tracking to work when the header is included by another file. The
common solution is listing the header file, and the corresponding C file, in BUILT_SOURCES
(see Section 9.4 [Sources], page 87) as follows.
BUILT_SOURCES = parser.h parser.c
AM_YFLAGS = -d
bin_PROGRAMS = foo
foo_SOURCES = ... parser.y ...
If a Lex source file is seen, then your configure.ac must define the variable LEX. You
can use AC_PROG_LEX to do this (see Section “Particular Program Checks” in The Auto-
conf Manual), but using the AM_PROG_LEX macro (see Section 6.4 [Macros], page 45) is
recommended.
When lex is invoked, it is passed AM_LFLAGS and LFLAGS. The latter is a user variable
and the former is intended for the Makefile.am author.
When AM_MAINTAINER_MODE (see Section 26.2 [maintainer-mode], page 149) is in effect,
the rebuild rules for distributed Yacc and Lex sources are only used when maintainer-mode
is enabled, or when the files have been erased.
Chapter 8: Building Programs and Libraries 76

When Yacc or Lex sources are used, automake -a automatically installs an auxiliary
program called ylwrap in your package (see Section 3.7 [Auxiliary Programs], page 24).
This program is used by the build rules to rename the output of these tools, and makes it
possible to include multiple yacc (or lex) source files in a single directory. This is necessary
because Yacc’s output file name is fixed, and a parallel make could invoke more than one
instance of yacc simultaneously.

8.8.1 Linking Multiple Yacc Parsers

For yacc, simply managing locking as with ylwrap is insufficient. The output of yacc
always uses the same symbol names internally, so it isn’t possible to link two yacc parsers
into the same executable.
We recommend using the following renaming hack used in gdb:
#define yymaxdepth c_maxdepth
#define yyparse c_parse
#define yylex c_lex
#define yyerror c_error
#define yylval c_lval
#define yychar c_char
#define yydebug c_debug
#define yypact c_pact
#define yyr1 c_r1
#define yyr2 c_r2
#define yydef c_def
#define yychk c_chk
#define yypgo c_pgo
#define yyact c_act
#define yyexca c_exca
#define yyerrflag c_errflag
#define yynerrs c_nerrs
#define yyps c_ps
#define yypv c_pv
#define yys c_s
#define yy_yys c_yys
#define yystate c_state
#define yytmp c_tmp
#define yyv c_v
#define yy_yyv c_yyv
#define yyval c_val
#define yylloc c_lloc
#define yyreds c_reds
#define yytoks c_toks
#define yylhs c_yylhs
#define yylen c_yylen
#define yydefred c_yydefred
#define yydgoto c_yydgoto
#define yysindex c_yysindex
Chapter 8: Building Programs and Libraries 77

#define yyrindex c_yyrindex

#define yygindex c_yygindex
#define yytable c_yytable
#define yycheck c_yycheck
#define yyname c_yyname
#define yyrule c_yyrule
For each define, replace the ‘c_’ prefix with whatever you like. These defines work for
bison, byacc, and traditional yaccs. If you find a parser generator that uses a symbol not
covered here, please report the new name so it can be added to the list.

8.9 C++ Support

Automake includes full support for C++.
Any package including C++ code must define the output variable CXX in configure.ac;
the simplest way to do this is to use the AC_PROG_CXX macro (see Section “Particular
Program Checks” in The Autoconf Manual).
A few additional variables are defined when a C++ source file is seen:
CXX The name of the C++ compiler.
CXXFLAGS Any flags to pass to the C++ compiler.
AM_CXXFLAGS
The maintainer’s variant of CXXFLAGS.
CXXCOMPILE
The command used to compile a C++ source file. The file name is appended to
form the complete command line.
CXXLINK The command used to link a C++ program.

8.10 Objective C Support

Automake includes some support for Objective C.
Any package including Objective C code must define the output variable OBJC in
configure.ac; the simplest way to do this is to use the AC_PROG_OBJC macro (see Section
“Particular Program Checks” in The Autoconf Manual).
A few additional variables are defined when an Objective C source file is seen:
OBJC The name of the Objective C compiler.
OBJCFLAGS
Any flags to pass to the Objective C compiler.
AM_OBJCFLAGS
The maintainer’s variant of OBJCFLAGS.
OBJCCOMPILE
The command used to compile an Objective C source file. The file name is
appended to form the complete command line.
OBJCLINK The command used to link an Objective C program.
Chapter 8: Building Programs and Libraries 78

8.11 Objective C++ Support

Automake includes some support for Objective C++.
Any package including Objective C++ code must define the output variable OBJCXX in
configure.ac; the simplest way to do this is to use the AC_PROG_OBJCXX macro (see Section
“Particular Program Checks” in The Autoconf Manual).
A few additional variables are defined when an Objective C++ source file is seen:
OBJCXX The name of the Objective C++ compiler.
OBJCXXFLAGS
Any flags to pass to the Objective C++ compiler.
AM_OBJCXXFLAGS
The maintainer’s variant of OBJCXXFLAGS.
OBJCXXCOMPILE
The command used to compile an Objective C++ source file. The file name is
appended to form the complete command line.
OBJCXXLINK
The command used to link an Objective C++ program.

8.12 Unified Parallel C Support

Automake includes some support for Unified Parallel C.
Any package including Unified Parallel C code must define the output variable UPC in
configure.ac; the simplest way to do this is to use the AM_PROG_UPC macro (see Sec-
tion 6.4.1 [Public Macros], page 45).
A few additional variables are defined when a Unified Parallel C source file is seen:
UPC The name of the Unified Parallel C compiler.
UPCFLAGS Any flags to pass to the Unified Parallel C compiler.
AM_UPCFLAGS
The maintainer’s variant of UPCFLAGS.
UPCCOMPILE
The command used to compile a Unified Parallel C source file. The file name
is appended to form the complete command line.
UPCLINK The command used to link a Unified Parallel C program.

8.13 Assembly Support

Automake includes some support for assembly code. There are two forms of assembler files:
normal (*.s) and preprocessed by CPP (*.S or *.sx).
The variable CCAS holds the name of the compiler used to build assembly code. This com-
piler must work a bit like a C compiler; in particular it must accept -c and -o. The values
of CCASFLAGS and AM_CCASFLAGS (or its per-target definition) is passed to the compilation.
For preprocessed files, DEFS, DEFAULT_INCLUDES, INCLUDES, CPPFLAGS and AM_CPPFLAGS
are also used.
Chapter 8: Building Programs and Libraries 79

The autoconf macro AM_PROG_AS will define CCAS and CCASFLAGS for you (unless they
are already set, it simply sets CCAS to the C compiler and CCASFLAGS to the C compiler
flags), but you are free to define these variables by other means.
Only the suffixes .s, .S, and .sx are recognized by automake as being files containing
assembly code.

8.14 Fortran 77 Support

Automake includes full support for Fortran 77.
Any package including Fortran 77 code must define the output variable F77 in
configure.ac; the simplest way to do this is to use the AC_PROG_F77 macro (see Section
“Particular Program Checks” in The Autoconf Manual).
A few additional variables are defined when a Fortran 77 source file is seen:
F77 The name of the Fortran 77 compiler.
FFLAGS Any flags to pass to the Fortran 77 compiler.
AM_FFLAGS
The maintainer’s variant of FFLAGS.
RFLAGS Any flags to pass to the Ratfor compiler.
AM_RFLAGS
The maintainer’s variant of RFLAGS.
F77COMPILE
The command used to compile a Fortran 77 source file. The file name is ap-
pended to form the complete command line.
FLINK The command used to link a pure Fortran 77 program or shared library.
Automake can handle preprocessing Fortran 77 and Ratfor source files in addition to
compiling them2 . Automake also contains some support for creating programs and shared
libraries that are a mixture of Fortran 77 and other languages (see Section 8.14.3 [Mixing
Fortran 77 With C and C++], page 80).
These issues are covered in the following sections.

8.14.1 Preprocessing Fortran 77

N.f is made automatically from N.F or N.r. This rule runs just the preprocessor to convert
a preprocessable Fortran 77 or Ratfor source file into a strict Fortran 77 source file. The
precise command used is as follows:
.F $(F77) -F $(DEFS) $(INCLUDES) $(AM_CPPFLAGS) $(CPPFLAGS)
$(AM_FFLAGS) $(FFLAGS)
.r $(F77) -F $(AM_FFLAGS) $(FFLAGS) $(AM_RFLAGS) $(RFLAGS)
2
Much, if not most, of the information in the following sections pertaining to preprocessing Fortran 77
programs was taken almost verbatim from Section “Catalogue of Rules” in The GNU Make Manual.
Chapter 8: Building Programs and Libraries 80

8.14.2 Compiling Fortran 77 Files

N.o is made automatically from N.f, N.F or N.r by running the Fortran 77 compiler. The
precise command used is as follows:
.f $(F77) -c $(AM_FFLAGS) $(FFLAGS)
.F $(F77) -c $(DEFS) $(INCLUDES) $(AM_CPPFLAGS) $(CPPFLAGS)
$(AM_FFLAGS) $(FFLAGS)
.r $(F77) -c $(AM_FFLAGS) $(FFLAGS) $(AM_RFLAGS) $(RFLAGS)

8.14.3 Mixing Fortran 77 With C and C++

Automake currently provides limited support for creating programs and shared libraries
that are a mixture of Fortran 77 and C and/or C++. However, there are many other issues
related to mixing Fortran 77 with other languages that are not (currently) handled by
Automake, but that are handled by other packages3 .
Automake can help in two ways:
1. Automatic selection of the linker depending on which combinations of source code.
2. Automatic selection of the appropriate linker flags (e.g., -L and -l) to pass to the
automatically selected linker in order to link in the appropriate Fortran 77 intrinsic
and run-time libraries.
These extra Fortran 77 linker flags are supplied in the output variable FLIBS by the
AC_F77_LIBRARY_LDFLAGS Autoconf macro. See Section “Fortran Compiler Charac-
teristics” in The Autoconf Manual.
If Automake detects that a program or shared library (as mentioned in some _PROGRAMS
or _LTLIBRARIES primary) contains source code that is a mixture of Fortran 77 and C and/or
C++, then it requires that the macro AC_F77_LIBRARY_LDFLAGS be called in configure.ac,
and that either $(FLIBS) appear in the appropriate _LDADD (for programs) or _LIBADD (for
shared libraries) variables. It is the responsibility of the person writing the Makefile.am
to make sure that ‘$(FLIBS)’ appears in the appropriate _LDADD or _LIBADD variable.
For example, consider the following Makefile.am:
bin_PROGRAMS = foo
foo_SOURCES = main.cc foo.f
foo_LDADD = libfoo.la $(FLIBS)

pkglib_LTLIBRARIES = libfoo.la
libfoo_la_SOURCES = bar.f baz.c zardoz.cc
libfoo_la_LIBADD = $(FLIBS)
In this case, Automake will insist that AC_F77_LIBRARY_LDFLAGS is mentioned
in configure.ac. Also, if ‘$(FLIBS)’ hadn’t been mentioned in foo_LDADD and
libfoo_la_LIBADD, then Automake would have issued a warning.

3
For example, the cfortran package (https://www-zeus.desy.de/~burow/cfortran/) addresses all of
these inter-language issues, and runs under nearly all Fortran 77, C and C++ compilers on nearly all
platforms. However, cfortran is not yet Free Software, but it will be in the next major release.
Chapter 8: Building Programs and Libraries 81

8.14.3.1 How the Linker is Chosen

When a program or library mixes several languages, Automake chooses the linker according
to the following priorities. (The names in parentheses are the variables containing the link
command.)
1. Native Java (GCJLINK)
2. Objective C++ (OBJCXXLINK)
3. C++ (CXXLINK)
4. Fortran 77 (F77LINK)
5. Fortran (FCLINK)
6. Objective C (OBJCLINK)
7. Unified Parallel C (UPCLINK)
8. C (LINK)
For example, if Fortran 77, C and C++ source code is compiled into a program, then the
C++ linker will be used. In this case, if the C or Fortran 77 linkers required any special
libraries that weren’t included by the C++ linker, then they must be manually added to an
_LDADD or _LIBADD variable by the user writing the Makefile.am.
Automake only looks at the file names listed in _SOURCES variables to choose the linker,
and defaults to the C linker. Sometimes this is inconvenient because you are linking against
a library written in another language and would like to set the linker more appropriately.
See Section 8.3.5 [Libtool Convenience Libraries], page 62, for a trick with nodist_EXTRA_
..._SOURCES.
A per-target _LINK variable will override the above selection. Per-target link flags will
cause Automake to write a per-target _LINK variable according to the language chosen as
above.

8.15 Fortran 9x Support

Automake includes support for Fortran 9x.
Any package including Fortran 9x code must define the output variable FC in
configure.ac; the simplest way to do this is to use the AC_PROG_FC macro (see Section
“Particular Program Checks” in The Autoconf Manual).
A few additional variables are defined when a Fortran 9x source file is seen:
FC The name of the Fortran 9x compiler.
FCFLAGS Any flags to pass to the Fortran 9x compiler.
AM_FCFLAGS
The maintainer’s variant of FCFLAGS.
FCCOMPILE
The command used to compile a Fortran 9x source file. The file name is ap-
pended to form the complete command line.
FCLINK The command used to link a pure Fortran 9x program or shared library.
Chapter 8: Building Programs and Libraries 82

8.15.1 Compiling Fortran 9x Files

file.o is made automatically from file.f90, file.f95, file.f03, or file.f08 by run-
ning the Fortran 9x compiler. The precise command used is as follows:
.f90 $(FC) $(AM_FCFLAGS) $(FCFLAGS) -c $(FCFLAGS_f90) $<
.f95 $(FC) $(AM_FCFLAGS) $(FCFLAGS) -c $(FCFLAGS_f95) $<
.f03 $(FC) $(AM_FCFLAGS) $(FCFLAGS) -c $(FCFLAGS_f03) $<
.f08 $(FC) $(AM_FCFLAGS) $(FCFLAGS) -c $(FCFLAGS_f08) $<

8.16 Compiling Java sources using gcj

Automake includes support for natively compiled Java, using gcj, the Java front end to the
GNU Compiler Collection (rudimentary support for compiling Java to bytecode using the
javac compiler is also present, albeit deprecated ; see Section 10.4 [Java], page 92).
Any package including Java code to be compiled must define the output variable
GCJ in configure.ac; the variable GCJFLAGS must also be defined somehow (either in
configure.ac or Makefile.am). The simplest way to do this is to use the AM_PROG_GCJ
macro.
By default, programs including Java source files are linked with gcj.
As always, the contents of AM_GCJFLAGS are passed to every compilation invoking gcj (in
its role as an ahead-of-time compiler, when invoking it to create .class files, AM_JAVACFLAGS
is used instead). If it is necessary to pass options to gcj from Makefile.am, this variable,
and not the user variable GCJFLAGS, should be used.
gcj can be used to compile .java, .class, .zip, or .jar files.
When linking, gcj requires that the main class be specified using the --main= option.
The easiest way to do this is to use the _LDFLAGS variable for the program.

8.17 Vala Support

Automake supports Vala (https://vala.dev/). Vala support requires the user to use GNU
make.
foo_SOURCES = foo.vala bar.vala zardoz.c
Any .vala file listed in a _SOURCES variable will be compiled into C code by the Vala
compiler. The generated .c files are distributed. The end user does not need to have a Vala
compiler installed.
Because all C files must be generated, and the Vala compiler compiles all the .vala
files for a target at once, it is not possible to add files to a _SOURCES variable that cannot
be compiled together; for example, alternative platform-specific definitions of the same
methods.
Automake ships with an Autoconf macro called AM_PROG_VALAC that will locate the Vala
compiler and optionally check its version number.
AM_PROG_VALAC ([minimum-version], [action-if-found], [Macro]
[action-if-not-found]) Search for a Vala compiler in PATH. If it is found, the variable
VALAC is set to point to it (see below for more details). This macro takes three optional
Chapter 8: Building Programs and Libraries 83

arguments. The first argument, if present, is the minimum version of the Vala API
required to compile this package. For Vala releases, this is the same as the major and
minor release number; e.g., when valac --version reports 0.48.7, valac --api-
version reports 0.48. If a compiler is found and satisfies minimum-version, then
action-if-found is run (this defaults to do nothing). Otherwise, action-if-not-found is
run. If action-if-not-found is not specified, the default value is to print a warning in
case no compiler is found, or if a too-old version of the compiler is found.

There are a few variables that are used when compiling Vala sources:
VALAC Absolute path to the Vala compiler, or simply ‘valac’ if no suitable Vala com-
piler could be found at configure runtime.
VALAFLAGS
Additional arguments for the Vala compiler.
AM_VALAFLAGS
The maintainer’s variant of VALAFLAGS.
lib_LTLIBRARIES = libfoo.la
libfoo_la_SOURCES = foo.vala
Note that currently, you cannot use per-target *_VALAFLAGS (see Section 26.6 [Renamed
Objects], page 155) to produce different C files from one Vala source file.

8.18 Support for Other Languages

Automake currently only includes full support for C, C++ (see Section 8.9 [C++ Support],
page 77), Objective C (see Section 8.10 [Objective C Support], page 77), Objective C++ (see
Section 8.11 [Objective C++ Support], page 78), Fortran 77 (see Section 8.14 [Fortran 77
Support], page 79), Fortran 9x (see Section 8.15 [Fortran 9x Support], page 81), and Java
(see Section 8.16 [Java Support with gcj], page 82). There is only rudimentary support for
other languages, support for which will be improved based on user demand.
Some limited support for adding your own languages is available via the suffix rule
handling (see Section 18.2 [Suffixes], page 132).

8.19 Automatic dependency tracking

As a developer it is often painful to continually update the Makefile.am whenever the
include-file dependencies change in a project. Automake supplies a way to automatically
track dependency changes (see Section 2.2.12 [Dependency Tracking], page 11).
Automake always uses complete dependencies for a compilation, including system head-
ers. Automake’s model is that dependency computation should be a side effect of the build.
To this end, dependencies are computed by running all compilations through a special
wrapper program called depcomp. depcomp understands how to coax many different C and
C++ compilers into generating dependency information in the format it requires. ‘automake
-a’ will install depcomp into your source tree for you. If depcomp can’t figure out how to
properly invoke your compiler, dependency tracking will simply be disabled for your build.
Experience with earlier versions of Automake (see Section “Dependency Tracking Evolu-
tion” in Brief History of Automake) taught us that it is not reliable to generate dependencies
Chapter 8: Building Programs and Libraries 84

only on the maintainer’s system, as configurations vary too much. So instead Automake
implements dependency tracking at build time.
This automatic dependency tracking can be suppressed by putting no-dependencies in
the variable AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS, or passing no-dependencies as an argument to AM_INIT_
AUTOMAKE (this should be the preferred way). Or, you can invoke automake with the -i
option. Dependency tracking is enabled by default.
The person building your package also can choose to disable dependency tracking by
configuring with --disable-dependency-tracking.
If, as the package maintainer, you wish to conditionalize your Makefile.am according
to whether dependency tracking is enabled, the best way is to define your own condi-
tional in configure.ac according to the shell variable $enable_dependency_tracking (all
--enable/--disable options are available as shell variables; see Section “Package Options”
in The Autoconf Manual):
AM_CONDITIONAL([NO_DEP_TRACKING],
[test x"$enable_dependency_tracking" = x"no"])
And then in your Makefile.am:
if NO_DEP_TRACKING
# stuff to do when dependency tracking is disabled
else
# stuff to do when it's enabled
endif

8.20 Support for executable extensions

On some platforms, such as Windows, executables are expected to have an extension such as
.exe. On these platforms, some compilers (GCC among them) will automatically generate
foo.exe when asked to generate foo.
Automake provides mostly-transparent support for this. Unfortunately mostly doesn’t
yet mean fully. Until the English dictionary is revised, you will have to assist Automake if
your package must support those platforms.
One thing you must be aware of is that, internally, Automake rewrites something like
this:
bin_PROGRAMS = liver
to this:
bin_PROGRAMS = liver$(EXEEXT)
The targets Automake generates are likewise given the ‘$(EXEEXT)’ extension.
The variables TESTS and XFAIL_TESTS (see Section 15.2 [Simple Tests], page 111) are
also rewritten if they contain filenames that have been declared as programs in the same
Makefile. (This is mostly useful when some programs from check_PROGRAMS are listed in
TESTS.)
However, Automake cannot apply this rewriting to configure substitutions. This means
that if you are conditionally building a program using such a substitution, then your
configure.ac must take care to add ‘$(EXEEXT)’ when constructing the output variable.
Chapter 9: Other Derived Objects 85

Sometimes maintainers like to write an explicit link rule for their program. Without
executable extension support, this is easy—you simply write a rule whose target is the
name of the program. However, when executable extension support is enabled, you must
instead add the ‘$(EXEEXT)’ suffix.
This might be a nuisance for maintainers who know their package will never run on a
platform that has executable extensions. For those maintainers, the no-exeext option (see
Chapter 17 [Options], page 127) will disable this feature. This works in a fairly ugly way; if
no-exeext is seen, then the presence of a rule for a target named foo in Makefile.am will
override an automake-generated rule for ‘foo$(EXEEXT)’. Without the no-exeext option,
this use will give a diagnostic.

9 Other Derived Objects

Automake can handle derived objects that are not C programs. Sometimes the support
for building such objects must be explicitly supplied, but Automake can still automatically
handle installation and distribution.

9.1 Executable Scripts

It is possible to define and install programs that are scripts. Such programs are listed using
the SCRIPTS primary name. When the script is distributed in its final, installable form, the
Makefile usually looks as follows:
# Install my_script in $(bindir) and distribute it.
dist_bin_SCRIPTS = my_script
Scripts are not distributed by default; as we have just seen, those that should be dis-
tributed can be specified using a dist_ prefix as with other primaries.
Scripts can be installed in bindir, sbindir, libexecdir, pkglibexecdir, or
pkgdatadir.
Scripts that need not be installed can be listed in noinst_SCRIPTS, and among them,
those which are needed only by ‘make check’ should go in check_SCRIPTS.
When a script needs to be built, the Makefile.am should include the appropriate
rules. For instance the automake program itself is a Perl script that is generated from
automake.in. Here is how this is handled:
bin_SCRIPTS = automake
CLEANFILES = $(bin_SCRIPTS)
EXTRA_DIST = automake.in

do_subst = sed -e 's,[@]datadir[@],$(datadir),g' \

-e 's,[@]PERL[@],$(PERL),g' \
-e 's,[@]PACKAGE[@],$(PACKAGE),g' \
-e 's,[@]VERSION[@],$(VERSION),g' \
...

automake: automake.in Makefile

$(do_subst) < $(srcdir)/automake.in > automake
Chapter 9: Other Derived Objects 86

chmod +x automake
Such scripts for which a build rule has been supplied need to be deleted explicitly using
CLEANFILES (see Chapter 13 [Clean], page 101), and their sources have to be distributed,
usually with EXTRA_DIST (see Section 14.1 [Basics of Distribution], page 102).
Another common way to build scripts is to process them from configure with AC_
CONFIG_FILES. In this situation Automake knows which files should be cleaned and dis-
tributed, and what the rebuild rules should look like.
For instance if configure.ac contains
AC_CONFIG_FILES([src/my_script], [chmod +x src/my_script])
to build src/my_script from src/my_script.in, then a src/Makefile.am to install this
script in $(bindir) can be as simple as
bin_SCRIPTS = my_script
CLEANFILES = $(bin_SCRIPTS)
There is no need for EXTRA_DIST or any build rule: Automake infers them from AC_CONFIG_
FILES (see Section 6.1 [Requirements], page 31). CLEANFILES is still useful, because by
default Automake will clean targets of AC_CONFIG_FILES in distclean, not clean.
Although this looks simpler, building scripts this way has one drawback: directory vari-
ables such as $(datadir) are not fully expanded and may refer to other directory variables.

9.2 Header files

Header files that must be installed are specified by the HEADERS family of variables. Headers
can be installed in includedir, oldincludedir, pkgincludedir or any other directory you
may have defined (see Section 3.3 [Uniform], page 21). For instance,
include_HEADERS = foo.h bar/bar.h
will install the two files as $(includedir)/foo.h and $(includedir)/bar.h.
The nobase_ prefix is also supported:
nobase_include_HEADERS = foo.h bar/bar.h
will install the two files as $(includedir)/foo.h and $(includedir)/bar/bar.h (see Sec-
tion 7.3 [Alternative], page 53).
Usually, only header files that accompany installed libraries need to be installed. Headers
used by programs or convenience libraries are not installed. The noinst_HEADERS variable
can be used for such headers. However, when the header belongs to a single convenience
library or program, we recommend listing it in the program’s or library’s _SOURCES variable
(see Section 8.1.1 [Program Sources], page 55) instead of in noinst_HEADERS. This is
clearer for the Makefile.am reader. noinst_HEADERS would be the right variable to use in
a directory containing only headers and no associated library or program.
All header files must be listed somewhere; in a _SOURCES variable or in a _HEADERS
variable. Missing ones will not appear in the distribution.
For header files that are built and must not be distributed, use the nodist_ prefix
as in nodist_include_HEADERS or nodist_prog_SOURCES. If these generated headers are
needed during the build, you must also ensure they exist before they are used (see Section 9.4
[Sources], page 87).
Chapter 9: Other Derived Objects 87

9.3 Architecture-independent data files

Automake supports the installation of miscellaneous data files using the DATA family of
variables.
Such data can be installed in the directories datadir, docdir, lispdir, sysconfdir,
sharedstatedir, localstatedir, or pkgdatadir.
By default, data files are not included in a distribution. Of course, you can use the
dist_ prefix to change this on a per-variable basis.
Here is how Automake declares its auxiliary data files:
dist_pkgdata_DATA = clean-kr.am clean.am ...

9.4 Built Sources

Because Automake’s automatic dependency tracking works as a side-effect of compilation
(see Section 8.19 [Dependencies], page 83) there is a bootstrap issue: a target should not
be compiled before its dependencies are made, but these dependencies are unknown until
the target is first compiled.
Ordinarily this is not a problem, because dependencies are distributed sources: they
preexist and do not need to be built. Suppose that foo.c includes foo.h. When it first
compiles foo.o, make only knows that foo.o depends on foo.c. As a side-effect of this
compilation depcomp records the foo.h dependency so that following invocations of make
will honor it. In these conditions, it’s clear there is no problem: either foo.o doesn’t exist
and has to be built (regardless of the dependencies), or accurate dependencies exist and
they can be used to decide whether foo.o should be rebuilt.
It’s a different story if foo.h doesn’t exist by the first make run. For instance, there
might be a rule to build foo.h. This time file.o’s build will fail because the compiler
can’t find foo.h. make failed to trigger the rule to build foo.h first by lack of dependency
information.
The BUILT_SOURCES variable is a workaround for this problem. A source file listed
in BUILT_SOURCES is made when ‘make all’, ‘make check’, ‘make install’, ‘make
install-exec’ (or make dist) is run, before other targets are processed. However, such
a source file is not compiled unless explicitly requested by mentioning it in some other
_SOURCES variable.
So, to conclude our introductory example, we could use ‘BUILT_SOURCES = foo.h’ to
ensure foo.h gets built before any other target (including foo.o) during ‘make all’ or
‘make check’.
BUILT_SOURCES is a bit of a misnomer, as any file which must be created early in the
build process can be listed in this variable. Moreover, all built sources do not necessarily
have to be listed in BUILT_SOURCES. For instance, a generated .c file doesn’t need to
appear in BUILT_SOURCES (unless it is included by another source), because it’s a known
dependency of the associated object.
To emphasize, BUILT_SOURCES is honored only by ‘make all’, ‘make check’, ‘make
install’, and make install-exec (and ‘make dist’). This means you cannot build an
arbitrary target (e.g., ‘make foo’) in a clean tree if it depends on a built source. However it
will succeed if you have run ‘make all’ earlier, because accurate dependencies are already
available.
Chapter 9: Other Derived Objects 88

The next section illustrates and discusses the handling of built sources on a toy example.

9.4.1 Built Sources Example

Suppose that foo.c includes bindir.h, which is installation-dependent and not distributed:
it needs to be built. Here bindir.h defines the preprocessor macro bindir to the value of
the make variable bindir (inherited from configure).
We suggest several implementations below. It’s not meant to be an exhaustive listing of
all ways to handle built sources, but it will give you a few ideas if you encounter this issue.

First Try
This first implementation will illustrate the bootstrap issue mentioned in the previous sec-
tion (see Section 9.4 [Sources], page 87).
Here is a tentative Makefile.am.
# This won't work.
bin_PROGRAMS = foo
foo_SOURCES = foo.c
nodist_foo_SOURCES = bindir.h
CLEANFILES = bindir.h
bindir.h: Makefile
echo '#define bindir "$(bindir)"' >$@
This setup doesn’t work, because Automake doesn’t know that foo.c includes bindir.h.
Remember, automatic dependency tracking works as a side-effect of compilation, so the
dependencies of foo.o will be known only after foo.o has been compiled (see Section 8.19
[Dependencies], page 83). The symptom is as follows.
% make
source='foo.c' object='foo.o' libtool=no \
depfile='.deps/foo.Po' tmpdepfile='.deps/foo.TPo' \
depmode=gcc /bin/sh ./depcomp \
gcc -I. -I. -g -O2 -c `test -f 'foo.c' || echo './'`foo.c
foo.c:2: bindir.h: No such file or directory
make: *** [foo.o] Error 1
In this example bindir.h is not distributed nor installed, and it is not even being built
on-time. One may wonder if the ‘nodist_foo_SOURCES = bindir.h’ line has any use at
all. This line simply states that bindir.h is a source of foo, so for instance, it should be
inspected while generating tags (see Section 18.1 [Tags], page 131). In other words, it does
not help our present problem, and the build would fail identically without it.

Using BUILT_SOURCES
A solution is to require bindir.h to be built before anything else. This is what BUILT_
SOURCES is meant for (see Section 9.4 [Sources], page 87).
bin_PROGRAMS = foo
foo_SOURCES = foo.c
nodist_foo_SOURCES = bindir.h
BUILT_SOURCES = bindir.h
CLEANFILES = bindir.h
Chapter 9: Other Derived Objects 89

bindir.h: Makefile
echo '#define bindir "$(bindir)"' >$@
See how bindir.h gets built first:
% make
echo '#define bindir "/usr/local/bin"' >bindir.h
make all-am
make[1]: Entering directory `/home/adl/tmp'
source='foo.c' object='foo.o' libtool=no \
depfile='.deps/foo.Po' tmpdepfile='.deps/foo.TPo' \
depmode=gcc /bin/sh ./depcomp \
gcc -I. -I. -g -O2 -c `test -f 'foo.c' || echo './'`foo.c
gcc -g -O2 -o foo foo.o
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/adl/tmp'
However, as said earlier, BUILT_SOURCES applies only to the all, check, and install
targets. It still fails if you try to run ‘make foo’ explicitly:
% make clean
test -z "bindir.h" || rm -f bindir.h
test -z "foo" || rm -f foo
rm -f *.o
% : > .deps/foo.Po # Suppress previously recorded dependencies
% make foo
source='foo.c' object='foo.o' libtool=no \
depfile='.deps/foo.Po' tmpdepfile='.deps/foo.TPo' \
depmode=gcc /bin/sh ./depcomp \
gcc -I. -I. -g -O2 -c `test -f 'foo.c' || echo './'`foo.c
foo.c:2: bindir.h: No such file or directory
make: *** [foo.o] Error 1

Recording Dependencies manually

Usually people are happy enough with BUILT_SOURCES because they never build targets such
as ‘make foo’ before ‘make all’, as in the previous example. However if this matters to you,
you can avoid BUILT_SOURCES and record such dependencies explicitly in the Makefile.am.
bin_PROGRAMS = foo
foo_SOURCES = foo.c
nodist_foo_SOURCES = bindir.h
foo.$(OBJEXT): bindir.h
CLEANFILES = bindir.h
bindir.h: Makefile
echo '#define bindir "$(bindir)"' >$@
You don’t have to list all the dependencies of foo.o explicitly, only those that might
need to be built. If a dependency already exists, it will not hinder the first compilation
and will be recorded by the normal dependency tracking code. (After this first compilation,
the dependency tracking code will also have recorded the dependency between foo.o and
bindir.h, so our explicit dependency is only useful to the first build.)
Chapter 9: Other Derived Objects 90

Adding explicit dependencies like this can be a bit dangerous if you are not careful
enough. This is due to the way Automake tries not to overwrite your rules (it assumes you
know better than it). ‘foo.$(OBJEXT): bindir.h’ supersedes any rule Automake may want
to output to build ‘foo.$(OBJEXT)’. It happens to work in this case because Automake
doesn’t have to output any ‘foo.$(OBJEXT):’ target: it relies on a suffix rule instead (i.e.,
‘.c.$(OBJEXT):’). Always check the generated Makefile.in if you do this.

Build bindir.h from configure

It’s possible to define this preprocessor macro from configure, either in config.h (see
Section “Defining Directories” in The Autoconf Manual), or by processing a bindir.h.in
file using AC_CONFIG_FILES (see Section “Configuration Actions” in The Autoconf Manual).
At this point it should be clear that building bindir.h from configure works well for
this example. bindir.h will exist before you build any target, hence will not cause any
dependency issue.
The Makefile can be shrunk as follows. We do not even have to mention bindir.h.
bin_PROGRAMS = foo
foo_SOURCES = foo.c
However, it’s not always possible to build sources from configure, especially when these
sources are generated by a tool that needs to be built first.

Build bindir.c, not bindir.h.

Another attractive idea is to define bindir as a variable or function exported from bindir.o,
and build bindir.c instead of bindir.h.
noinst_PROGRAMS = foo
foo_SOURCES = foo.c bindir.h
nodist_foo_SOURCES = bindir.c
CLEANFILES = bindir.c
bindir.c: Makefile
echo 'const char bindir[] = "$(bindir)";' >$@
bindir.h contains just the variable’s declaration and doesn’t need to be built, so it
won’t cause any trouble. bindir.o is always dependent on bindir.c, so bindir.c will get
built first.

Which is best?
There is no panacea, of course. Each solution has its merits and drawbacks.
You cannot use BUILT_SOURCES if the ability to run ‘make foo’ on a clean tree is impor-
tant to you.
You won’t add explicit dependencies if you are leery of overriding an Automake rule by
mistake.
Building files from ./configure is not always possible, neither is converting .h files into
.c files.
Chapter 10: Other GNU Tools 91

10 Other GNU Tools

Since Automake is primarily intended to generate Makefile.ins for use in GNU programs,
it tries hard to interoperate with other GNU tools.

10.1 Emacs Lisp

Automake provides some support for Emacs Lisp. The LISP primary is used to hold a list
of .el files. Possible prefixes for this primary are lisp_ and noinst_. Note that if lisp_
LISP is defined, then configure.ac must run AM_PATH_LISPDIR (see Section 6.4 [Macros],
page 45).
Lisp sources are not distributed by default. You can prefix the LISP primary with
dist_, as in dist_lisp_LISP or dist_noinst_LISP, to indicate that these files should be
distributed.
Automake will byte-compile all Emacs Lisp source files using the Emacs found by AM_
PATH_LISPDIR, if any was found. When performing such byte-compilation, the flags speci-
fied in the (developer-reserved) AM_ELCFLAGS and (user-reserved) ELCFLAGS make variables
will be passed to the Emacs invocation.
Byte-compiled Emacs Lisp files are not portable among all versions of Emacs, so it
makes sense to turn this off if you expect sites to have more than one version of Emacs
installed. Furthermore, many packages do not actually benefit from byte-compilation. Still,
we recommend that you byte-compile your Emacs Lisp sources. It is probably better for
sites with strange setups to cope for themselves than to make the installation less nice for
everybody else.
There are two ways to avoid byte-compiling. Historically, we have recommended the
following construct.
lisp_LISP = file1.el file2.el
ELCFILES =
ELCFILES is an internal Automake variable that normally lists all .elc files that must be
byte-compiled. Automake defines ELCFILES automatically from lisp_LISP. Emptying this
variable explicitly prevents byte-compilation.
Since Automake 1.8, we now recommend using lisp_DATA instead:
lisp_DATA = file1.el file2.el
Note that these two constructs are not equivalent. _LISP will not install a file if Emacs
is not installed, while _DATA will always install its files.

10.2 Gettext
If AM_GNU_GETTEXT is seen in configure.ac, then Automake turns on support for GNU
gettext, a message catalog system for internationalization (see Section “Introduction” in
GNU gettext utilities).
The gettext support in Automake requires the addition of one or two subdirectories
to the package: po and possibly also intl. The latter is needed if AM_GNU_GETTEXT is
not invoked with the ‘external’ argument, or if AM_GNU_GETTEXT_INTL_SUBDIR is used.
Automake ensures that these directories exist and are mentioned in SUBDIRS.
Chapter 10: Other GNU Tools 92

10.3 Libtool
Automake provides support for GNU Libtool (see Section “Introduction” in The Libtool
Manual) with the LTLIBRARIES primary. See Section 8.3 [A Shared Library], page 59.

10.4 Java bytecode compilation (deprecated)

Automake provides some minimal support for Java bytecode compilation with the JAVA pri-
mary (in addition to the support for compiling Java to native machine code; see Section 8.16
[Java Support with gcj], page 82). Note however that the interface and most features de-
scribed here are deprecated. Future Automake releases will strive to provide a better and
cleaner interface, which however won’t be backward-compatible; the present interface will
probably be removed altogether some time after the introduction of the new interface (if
that ever materializes). In any case, the current JAVA primary features are frozen and will
no longer be developed, not even to take bug fixes.
Any .java files listed in a _JAVA variable will be compiled with JAVAC at build time. By
default, .java files are not included in the distribution; you should use the dist_ prefix to
distribute them.
Here is a typical setup for distributing .java files and installing the .class files resulting
from their compilation.
javadir = $(datadir)/java
dist_java_JAVA = a.java b.java ...
Currently Automake enforces the restriction that only one _JAVA primary can be used in
a given Makefile.am. The reason for this restriction is that, in general, it isn’t possible to
know which .class files were generated from which .java files, so it would be impossible
to know which files to install where. For instance, a .java file can define multiple classes;
the resulting .class file names cannot be predicted without parsing the .java file.
There are a few variables that are used when compiling Java sources:

JAVAC The name of the Java compiler. This defaults to ‘javac’.

JAVACFLAGS
The flags to pass to the compiler. This is considered to be a user variable (see
Section 3.6 [User Variables], page 23).

AM_JAVACFLAGS
More flags to pass to the Java compiler. This, and not JAVACFLAGS, should be
used when it is necessary to put Java compiler flags into Makefile.am.

JAVAROOT The value of this variable is passed to the -d option to javac. It defaults to
‘$(top_builddir)’.

CLASSPATH_ENV
This variable is a shell expression that is used to set the CLASSPATH environment
variable on the javac command line. (In the future we will probably handle
class path setting differently.)
Chapter 10: Other GNU Tools 93

10.5 Python
Automake provides support for Python compilation with the PYTHON primary. A typical
setup is to call AM_PATH_PYTHON in configure.ac and use a line like this in Makefile.am:
python_PYTHON = tree.py leave.py
Python source files are included in the distribution by default; prepend nodist_ (as in
nodist_python_PYTHON) to omit them.
At install time, any files listed in a _PYTHON variable will be byte-compiled with py-
compile. py-compile creates both standard (.pyc) and optimized (.pyo) byte-compiled
versions of the source files. Because byte-compilation occurs at install time, files listed in
noinst_PYTHON will not be compiled.
Automake ships with an Autoconf macro named AM_PATH_PYTHON that determines some
Python-related directory variables (see below). If you have called AM_PATH_PYTHON from
configure.ac, then you may use the variables python_PYTHON and pkgpython_PYTHON to
list Python source files in your Makefile.am, depending on whether you want your files
installed in pythondir or pkgpythondir, respectively.
AM_PATH_PYTHON ([version], [action-if-found], [Macro]
[action-if-not-found])
Search for a Python interpreter on the system. This macro takes three optional
arguments. The first argument, if present, is the minimum version of Python required
for this package: AM_PATH_PYTHON will skip any Python interpreter that is older than
version. If an interpreter is found and satisfies version, then action-if-found is run.
Otherwise, action-if-not-found is run.
If action-if-not-found is not specified, as in the following example, the default is to
abort configure:
AM_PATH_PYTHON([2.5])
This is fine when Python is an absolute requirement for the package. If Python ≥ 2.5
was only optional for the package, AM_PATH_PYTHON could be called as follows.
AM_PATH_PYTHON([2.5],, [:])
If the PYTHON variable is set when AM_PATH_PYTHON is called, then that will be the
only Python interpreter that is tried.
AM_PATH_PYTHON creates the following output variables based on the Python instal-
lation found during configuration:
PYTHON The name of the Python executable, or ‘:’ if no suitable interpreter could be
found.
Assuming action-if-not-found is used (otherwise ./configure will abort if
Python is absent), the value of PYTHON can be used to set up a conditional in
order to disable the relevant part of a build as follows.
AM_PATH_PYTHON(,, [:])
AM_CONDITIONAL([HAVE_PYTHON], [test "$PYTHON" != :])
PYTHON_VERSION
The Python version number, in the form major.minor (e.g., ‘2.5’). This is set
to be the value of ‘'%u.%u' % sys.version_info[:2]’.
Chapter 10: Other GNU Tools 94

PYTHON_PREFIX
PYTHON_EXEC_PREFIX
With no special options given, these have values ‘${prefix}’ and
‘${exec_prefix}’, respectively (unexpanded; see below).
The configure options --with-python_prefix and --with-python_exec_
prefix set them to an explicit value.
The configure option --with-python-sys-prefix set them to the values of
Python’s ‘sys.prefix’ and ‘sys.exec_prefix’ variables. These often differ
from ‘${prefix}’ and ‘${exec_prefix}’, e.g., on platforms such as Mac OS x
(where Python is usually installed as a Framework).

PYTHON_PLATFORM
The canonical name used by Python to describe the operating system, as given
by ‘sys.platform’. This value is sometimes needed when building Python
extensions.

pythondir
The subdirectory of the Python install tree in which to install Python scripts.
By default this is, on all systems, $PYTHON_PREFIX/lib/pythonversion/site-
packages, where $PYTHON_PREFIX is described above, and version is the Python
version. (For those knowledgeable about Python installation details: systems
generally have their own Python installation scheme, such as posix_local
on Debian and related (as of Python 3.10), which ends up using a directory
named dist-packages; Automake uses the posix_prefix scheme and site-
packages.)

pkgpythondir
This is the directory under pythondir that is named after the package. That
is, it is ‘$(pythondir)/$(PACKAGE)’. It is provided as a convenience.

pyexecdir
This is the directory where Python extension modules (shared libraries) should
be installed. An extension module written in C could be declared as follows to
Automake:
pyexec_LTLIBRARIES = quaternion.la
quaternion_la_SOURCES = quaternion.c support.c support.h
quaternion_la_LDFLAGS = -avoid-version -module

pkgpyexecdir
This is a convenience variable that is defined as ‘$(pyexecdir)/$(PACKAGE)’.

All of these directory variables have values that can start with either ‘${prefix}’ or
‘${exec_prefix}’, unexpanded. This works fine in Makefiles, but it makes these variables
hard to use in configure. This is mandated by the GNU coding standards, so that the user
can run ‘make prefix=/foo install’. The Autoconf manual has a section with more details
on this topic (see Section “Installation Directory Variables” in The Autoconf Manual). See
also Section 26.9 [Hard-Coded Install Paths], page 161.
Chapter 11: Building documentation 95

10.5.1 Supported versions

Automake guarantees releases will support all Python versions that are still supported by
the Python project at the time of the Automake release. Support for EOL versions of
Python are not guaranteed, but will be considered as long as it is not onerous to do so,
and there are large supported distros including them. If you need to support older Python
versions, please use a previous Automake release.
Here are the current support plans.
Version Status
0.x Not
supported
1.x Not
supported
2.0–2.6 Untested, but
should work
2.7 Supported
(until Apr
2026)
3.0–3.3 Untested, but
should work
3.4 Supported
(until Apr
2022)
3.5 Supported
(until Apr
2024)
3.6 Supported
(until Apr
2028)
3.7 Supported
(until Apr
2028)
3.8 Supported
(until Apr
2030)
3.9 Supported
(until Apr
2030)
3.10 Supported
(until Apr
2030)

11 Building documentation
Currently Automake provides support for Texinfo and man pages.
Chapter 11: Building documentation 96

11.1 Texinfo
If the current directory contains Texinfo source, you must declare it with the TEXINFOS
primary. Generally Texinfo files are converted into info, and thus the info_TEXINFOS vari-
able is most commonly used here. Any Texinfo source file should have the .texi extension.
Automake also accepts .txi or .texinfo extensions, but their use is discouraged now, and
will elicit runtime warnings.
Automake generates rules to build .info, .dvi, .ps, .pdf and .html files from your
Texinfo sources. Following the GNU Coding Standards, only the .info files are built by
‘make all’ and installed by ‘make install’ (unless you use no-installinfo, see below).
Furthermore, .info files are automatically distributed so that Texinfo is not a prerequisite
for installing your package.
It is worth noting that, contrary to what happens with the other formats, the generated
.info files are by default placed in srcdir rather than in the builddir. This can be
changed with the info-in-builddir option.
If the Texinfo sources are in a subdirectory relative to the Makefile, then -I flags for the
subdirectory, both in the source directory and in the build directory, will automatically be
added. There is no need to specify these in ‘$(MAKEINFO)’, ‘$(MAKEINFOFLAGS)’, etc.
If a Texinfo source file contains an ‘@setfilename’ directive, and its argument has
extension ‘.info’ (or no extension, but this is discouraged), that argument should be the
same as the basename of the Texinfo file, extended with ‘.info’. The Make rules generated
by Automake assume this, and will not work if the ‘@setfilename’ is for some other name.
If a Texinfo source ‘foo.texi’ is not present, but foo.texi.in exists, Texinfo will read
that .texi.in file for @setfilename and @include version.texi (described below).
Texinfo source files need not be present at all, and if present, need not contain
@setfilename. Then the file name given in the Makefile.am will be used.
Other documentation formats can be built on request by ‘make dvi’, ‘make ps’,
‘make pdf’ and ‘make html’, and they can be installed with ‘make install-dvi’, ‘make
install-ps’, ‘make install-pdf’ and ‘make install-html’ explicitly. ‘make uninstall’
will remove everything: the Texinfo documentation installed by default as well as all the
above optional formats.
All of these targets can be extended using ‘-local’ rules (see Section 22.1 [Extending],
page 141).
If a .texi file @includes version.texi (actually any file named vers...texi, then
that file will be automatically generated. The file version.texi defines four Texinfo
flags you can reference using @value{EDITION}, @value{VERSION}, @value{UPDATED}, and
@value{UPDATED-MONTH}.
EDITION
VERSION Both of these flags hold the version number of your program. They are kept
separate for clarity.
UPDATED This holds the date the primary .texi file was last modified.
UPDATED-MONTH
This holds the name of the month in which the primary .texi file was last
modified.
Chapter 11: Building documentation 97

The version.texi support requires the mdate-sh script; this script is supplied with
Automake and automatically included when automake is invoked with the --add-missing
option.
If you have multiple Texinfo files, and you want to use the version.texi feature, then
you have to have a separate version file for each Texinfo file. Automake will treat any include
in a Texinfo file that matches vers*.texi just like an automatically generated version file.
Often an Info file depends on more than one .texi file. For instance, in GNU Hello,
hello.texi includes the file fdl.texi. You can tell Automake about these dependencies
using the texi_TEXINFOS variable. Here is how GNU Hello does it:
info_TEXINFOS = hello.texi
hello_TEXINFOS = fdl.texi
By default, Automake requires the file texinfo.tex to appear in the same directory
as the Makefile.am file that lists the .texi files. If you used AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR in
configure.ac (see Section “Finding ‘configure’ Input” in The Autoconf Manual), then
texinfo.tex is looked for there. In both cases, automake then supplies texinfo.tex if
--add-missing is given, and takes care of its distribution. However, if you set the TEXINFO_
TEX variable (see below), it overrides the location of the file and turns off its installation
into the source as well as its distribution.
The option no-texinfo.tex can be used to eliminate the requirement for the file
texinfo.tex. Use of the variable TEXINFO_TEX is preferable, however, because that allows
the dvi, ps, and pdf targets to still work.
Automake generates an install-info rule; some people apparently use this. By default,
info pages are installed by ‘make install’, so running make install-info is pointless. This
can be prevented via the no-installinfo option. In this case, .info files are not installed
by default, and user must request this explicitly using ‘make install-info’.
By default, make install-info and make uninstall-info will try to run the install-
info program (if available) to update (or create/remove) the ${infodir}/dir index. If
this is undesired, it can be prevented by exporting the AM_UPDATE_INFO_DIR variable to
"no".
The following variables are used by the Texinfo build rules.

MAKEINFO The name of the program invoked to build .info files. This variable is defined
by Automake. If the makeinfo program is found on the system then it will be
used by default; otherwise missing will be used instead.

MAKEINFOHTML
The command invoked to build .html files. Automake defines this to
‘$(MAKEINFO) --html’.

MAKEINFOFLAGS
User flags passed to each invocation of ‘$(MAKEINFO)’ and ‘$(MAKEINFOHTML)’.
This user variable (see Section 3.6 [User Variables], page 23) is not expected to
be defined in any Makefile; it can be used by users to pass extra flags to suit
their needs.
Chapter 11: Building documentation 98

AM_MAKEINFOFLAGS
AM_MAKEINFOHTMLFLAGS
AM_TEXI2FLAGS
Maintainer flags passed to each makeinfo invocation. Unlike MAKEINFOFLAGS,
these variables are meant to be defined by maintainers in Makefile.am.
‘$(AM_MAKEINFOFLAGS)’ is passed to makeinfo when building .info
files; ‘$(AM_MAKEINFOHTMLFLAGS)’ is used when building .html files; and
‘$(AM_TEXI2FLAGS)’ is used when building .dvi and .pdf files.
For instance, the following setting can be used to obtain one single .html file
per manual, without node separators.
AM_MAKEINFOHTMLFLAGS = --no-headers --no-split
AM_MAKEINFOHTMLFLAGS defaults to ‘$(AM_MAKEINFOFLAGS)’. This means that
defining AM_MAKEINFOFLAGS without defining AM_MAKEINFOHTMLFLAGS will im-
pact builds of both .info and .html files.
TEXI2DVI The name of the command that converts a .texi file into a .dvi file. This
defaults to ‘texi2dvi’, a script that ships with the Texinfo package.
TEXI2PDF The name of the command that translates a .texi file into a .pdf file. This
defaults to ‘$(TEXI2DVI) --pdf --batch’.
DVIPS The name of the command that builds a .ps file out of a .dvi file. This defaults
to ‘dvips’.
TEXINFO_TEX
If your package has Texinfo files in many directories, you can use the variable
TEXINFO_TEX to tell Automake where to find the canonical texinfo.tex for
your package. The value of this variable should be the relative path from the
current Makefile.am to texinfo.tex:
TEXINFO_TEX = ../doc/texinfo.tex

11.2 Man Pages

A package can also include man pages (but see the GNU standards on this matter, Section
“Man Pages” in The GNU Coding Standards.) Man pages are declared using the MANS
primary. Generally the man_MANS variable is used. Man pages are automatically installed
in the correct subdirectory of mandir, based on the file extension.
File extensions such as .1c are handled by looking for the valid part of the extension
and using that to determine the correct subdirectory of mandir. Valid section names are
the digits ‘0’ through ‘9’, and the letters ‘l’ and ‘n’.
Sometimes developers prefer to name a man page something like foo.man in the source,
and then rename it to have the correct suffix, for example foo.1, when installing the
file. Automake also supports this mode. For a valid section named section, there is a
corresponding directory named ‘mansectiondir’, and a corresponding _MANS variable. Files
listed in such a variable are installed in the indicated section. If the file already has a valid
suffix, then it is installed as-is; otherwise the file suffix is changed to match the section.
For instance, consider this example:
man1_MANS = rename.man thesame.1 alsothesame.1c
Chapter 12: What Gets Installed 99

In this case, rename.man will be renamed to rename.1 when installed, but the other files
will keep their names.
By default, man pages are installed by ‘make install’. However, since the GNU project
does not require man pages, many maintainers do not expend effort to keep the man pages
up to date. In these cases, the no-installman option will prevent the man pages from being
installed by default. The user can still explicitly install them via ‘make install-man’.
For fast installation, with many files it is preferable to use ‘mansection_MANS’ over
‘man_MANS’ as well as files that do not need to be renamed.
Man pages are not currently considered to be source, because it is not uncommon for
man pages to be automatically generated. Therefore they are not automatically included
in the distribution. However, this can be changed by use of the dist_ prefix. For instance
here is how to distribute and install the two man pages of GNU cpio (which includes both
Texinfo documentation and man pages):
dist_man_MANS = cpio.1 mt.1
The nobase_ prefix is meaningless for man pages and is disallowed.
Executables and manpages may be renamed upon installation (see Section 2.2.9 [Re-
naming], page 9). For manpages this can be avoided by use of the notrans_ prefix. For
instance, suppose an executable ‘foo’ allowing to access a library function ‘foo’ from the
command line. The way to avoid renaming of the foo.3 manpage is:
man_MANS = foo.1
notrans_man_MANS = foo.3
‘notrans_’ must be specified first when used in conjunction with either ‘dist_’ or
‘nodist_’ (see Section 14.2 [Fine-grained Distribution Control], page 103). For instance:
notrans_dist_man3_MANS = bar.3

12 What Gets Installed

Naturally, Automake handles the details of installing your program once it has been built.
All files named by the various primaries are automatically installed in the appropriate places
when the user runs ‘make install’.

12.1 Basics of Installation

A file named in a primary is installed by copying the built file into the appropriate directory.
The base name of the file is used when installing.
bin_PROGRAMS = hello subdir/goodbye
In this example, both ‘hello’ and ‘goodbye’ will be installed in ‘$(bindir)’.
Sometimes it is useful to avoid the basename step at install time. For instance, you
might have a number of header files in subdirectories of the source tree that are laid out
precisely how you want to install them. In this situation you can use the nobase_ prefix to
suppress the base name step. For example:
nobase_include_HEADERS = stdio.h sys/types.h
will install stdio.h in ‘$(includedir)’ and types.h in ‘$(includedir)/sys’.
Chapter 12: What Gets Installed 100

For most file types, Automake will install multiple files at once, while avoiding command
line length issues (see Section 3.4 [Length Limitations], page 22). Since some install
programs will not install the same file twice in one invocation, you may need to ensure that
file lists are unique within one variable such as ‘nobase_include_HEADERS’ above.
You should not rely on the order in which files listed in one variable are installed.
Likewise, to cater for parallel make, you should not rely on any particular file installation
order even among different file types (library dependencies are an exception here).

12.2 The Two Parts of Install

Automake generates separate install-data and install-exec rules, in case the installer
is installing on multiple machines that share directory structure—these targets allow the
machine-independent parts to be installed only once. install-exec installs platform-
dependent files, and install-data installs platform-independent files. The install target
depends on both of these targets. While Automake tries to automatically segregate objects
into the correct category, the Makefile.am author is, in the end, responsible for making
sure this is done correctly.
Variables using the standard directory prefixes ‘data’, ‘info’, ‘man’, ‘include’,
‘oldinclude’, ‘pkgdata’, or ‘pkginclude’ are installed by install-data.
Variables using the standard directory prefixes ‘bin’, ‘sbin’, ‘libexec’, ‘sysconf’,
‘localstate’, ‘lib’, or ‘pkglib’ are installed by install-exec.
For instance, data_DATA files are installed by install-data, while bin_PROGRAMS files
are installed by install-exec.
Any variable using a user-defined directory prefix with ‘exec’ in the name (e.g.,
myexecbin_PROGRAMS) is installed by install-exec. All other user-defined prefixes are
installed by install-data.

12.3 Extending Installation

It is possible to extend this mechanism by defining an install-exec-local or install-
data-local rule. If these rules exist, they will be run at ‘make install’ time. These rules
can do almost anything; care is required.
Automake also supports two install hooks, install-exec-hook and install-data-
hook. These hooks are run after all other install rules of the appropriate type, exec or data,
have completed. So, for instance, it is possible to perform post-installation modifications
using an install hook. See Section 22.1 [Extending], page 141, for some examples.

12.4 Staged Installs

Automake generates support for the DESTDIR variable in all install rules. DESTDIR is used
during the ‘make install’ step to relocate install objects into a staging area. Each object
and path is prefixed with the value of DESTDIR before being copied into the install area.
Here is an example of typical DESTDIR usage:
mkdir /tmp/staging &&
make DESTDIR=/tmp/staging install
The mkdir command avoids a security problem if the attacker creates a symbolic
link from /tmp/staging to a victim area; then make places install objects in a directory
Chapter 13: What Gets Cleaned 101

tree built under /tmp/staging. If /gnu/bin/foo and /gnu/share/aclocal/foo.m4

are to be installed, the above command would install /tmp/staging/gnu/bin/foo and
/tmp/staging/gnu/share/aclocal/foo.m4.
This feature is commonly used to build install images and packages (see Section 2.2.10
[DESTDIR], page 10).
Support for DESTDIR is implemented by coding it directly into the install rules. If your
Makefile.am uses a local install rule (e.g., install-exec-local) or an install hook, then
you must write that code to respect DESTDIR.
See Section “Makefile Conventions” in The GNU Coding Standards, for another usage
example.

12.5 Install Rules for the User

Automake also generates rules for targets uninstall, installdirs, and install-strip.
Automake supports uninstall-local and uninstall-hook. There is no notion of sep-
arate uninstalls for “exec” and “data”, as these features would not provide additional func-
tionality.
Note that uninstall is not meant as a replacement for a real packaging tool.

13 What Gets Cleaned

The GNU Makefile Standards specify a number of different clean rules. See Section “Stan-
dard Targets for Users” in The GNU Coding Standards.
Generally the files that can be cleaned are determined automatically by Automake. Of
course, Automake also recognizes some variables that can be defined to specify additional
files to clean. These variables are MOSTLYCLEANFILES, CLEANFILES, DISTCLEANFILES, and
MAINTAINERCLEANFILES.
When cleaning involves more than deleting some hard-coded list of files, it is also possible
to supplement the cleaning rules with your own commands. Simply define a rule for any of
the mostlyclean-local, clean-local, distclean-local, or maintainer-clean-local
targets (see Section 22.1 [Extending], page 141). A common case is deleting a directory, for
instance, a directory created by the test suite:
clean-local:
-rm -rf testSubDir
Since make allows only one set of rules for a given target, a more extensible way of writing
this is to use a separate target listed as a dependency:
clean-local: clean-local-check
.PHONY: clean-local-check
clean-local-check:
-rm -rf testSubDir
As the GNU Standards aren’t always explicit as to which files should be removed by
which rule, we’ve adopted a heuristic that we believe was first formulated by François
Pinard:
• If make built it, and it is commonly something that one would want to rebuild (for
instance, a .o file), then mostlyclean should delete it.
Chapter 14: What Goes in a Distribution 102

• Otherwise, if make built it, then clean should delete it.

• If configure built it, then distclean should delete it.
• If the maintainer built it (for instance, a .info file), then maintainer-clean should
delete it. However maintainer-clean should not delete anything that needs to exist
in order to run ‘./configure && make’.
We recommend that you follow this same set of heuristics in your Makefile.am.

14 What Goes in a Distribution

14.1 Basics of Distribution

The dist rule in the generated Makefile.in can be used to generate a gzipped tar file
and/or other flavors of archives for distribution. The file is named based on the PACKAGE
and VERSION variables automatically defined by either the AC_INIT invocation or by a
deprecated two-arguments invocation of the AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE macro (see Section 6.4.1
[Public Macros], page 45, for how these variables get their values, from either defaults or
explicit values—it’s slightly trickier than one would expect). More precisely, the gzipped
tar file is named ‘${PACKAGE}-${VERSION}.tar.gz’.
You can set the environment (or Makefile.am) variable TAR to override the tar program
used; it defaults to tar. See Section 14.5 [The Types of Distributions], page 108, for how
to generate other kinds of archives.
With GNU tar, you can also set the environment (or Makefile.am) variable TAR_OPTIONS
to pass options to tar. One common case for this is wanting to avoid using the local user’s
uid and gid in the tar file, or the uid being larger than is supported by the tar format (not
uncommon nowadays). This can be done with, for example>
TAR_OPTIONS = --owner=0 --group=0
export TAR_OPTIONS
The export (a GNU make feature) is necessary to pass the variable in the environment to
the tar invocation. (For more discussion, see https://bugs.gnu.org/19615.)
For the most part, the files to distribute are automatically found by Automake:
• All source files are automatically included in a distribution, as are all Makefile.am and
Makefile.in files.
• Files that are read by configure are automatically distributed. These are the source
files as specified in various Autoconf macros such as AC_CONFIG_FILES and siblings.
• Files included in a Makefile.am (using include) or in configure.ac (using m4_
include).
• Automake has a built-in list of commonly used files automatically included in the
distribution if they are found in the current directory (either physically, or as the
target of a Makefile.am rule). Some common examples: ABOUT-GNU, COPYING, TODO.
This list also includes helper scripts installed with ‘automake --add-missing’.
Some common examples: compile, config.guess, config.rpath, config.sub,
texinfo.tex.
Chapter 14: What Goes in a Distribution 103

• Automake has another built-in list of files automatically distributed if they are found
either with the plain name, or with extension .md (presumably MarkDown, though this
not checked). They are checked for in that order, so the plain name is preferred. These
are: AUTHORS ChangeLog INSTALL NEWS README README-alpha THANKS.
• A final built-in list of files are those distributed only if other certain conditions hold. For
example, the files config.h.top and config.h.bot are automatically distributed only
if, e.g., ‘AC_CONFIG_HEADERS([config.h])’ is used in configure.ac). README-alpha
is another such file, with README-alpha.md distributed if that is what is available; see
Section 3.2 [Strictness], page 20, for its conditions for distribution.
These three lists of files are given in their entirety in the output from automake --help.
Despite all this automatic inclusion, it is still common to have files to be distributed
which are not found by the automatic rules. You should listed these files in the EXTRA_DIST
variable. You can mention files in subdirectories in EXTRA_DIST.
You can also mention a directory in EXTRA_DIST; in this case the entire directory will
be recursively copied into the distribution. To emphasize, this copies everything in the
directory, including temporary editor files, intermediate build files, version control files,
etc.; thus we recommend against using this feature as-is. However, you can use the dist-
hook feature to ameliorate the problem; see Section 14.3 [The dist Hook], page 103.
If you define SUBDIRS, Automake will recursively include the subdirectories in the dis-
tribution. If SUBDIRS is defined conditionally (see Chapter 20 [Conditionals], page 134),
Automake will normally include all directories that could possibly appear in SUBDIRS in
the distribution. If you need to specify the set of directories conditionally, you can set the
variable DIST_SUBDIRS to the exact list of subdirectories to include in the distribution (see
Section 7.2 [Conditional Subdirectories], page 50).

14.2 Fine-grained Distribution Control

Sometimes you need tighter control over what does not go into the distribution; for instance,
you might have source files that are generated and that you do not want to distribute. In
this case Automake gives fine-grained control using the dist and nodist prefixes. Any
primary or _SOURCES variable can be prefixed with dist_ to add the listed files to the
distribution. Similarly, nodist_ can be used to omit the files from the distribution.
As an example, here is how you would cause some data to be distributed while leaving
some source code out of the distribution:
dist_data_DATA = distribute-this
bin_PROGRAMS = foo
nodist_foo_SOURCES = do-not-distribute.c

14.3 The dist Hook

Occasionally it is useful to be able to change the distribution before it is packaged up. If
the dist-hook rule exists, it is run after the distribution directory is filled, but before the
actual distribution archives are created. One way to use this is for removing unnecessary
files that get recursively included by specifying a directory in EXTRA_DIST:
EXTRA_DIST = doc
dist-hook:
Chapter 14: What Goes in a Distribution 104

chmod -R u+w $(distdir)/doc

rm -rf `find $(distdir)/doc -type d -name RCS`
The dist-hook recipe should not assume that the regular files in the distribution directory
are writable; this might not be the case if one is packaging from a read-only source tree,
or when a make distcheck is being done. Similarly, the recipe should not assume that the
subdirectories put into the distribution directory as a result of being listed in EXTRA_DIST
are writable. So, if the dist-hook recipe wants to modify the content of an existing file
(or EXTRA_DIST subdirectory) in the distribution directory, it should explicitly to make it
writable first:
EXTRA_DIST = README doc
dist-hook:
chmod u+w $(distdir)/README $(distdir)/doc
echo "Distribution date: `date`" >> $(distdir)/README
rm -f $(distdir)/doc/HACKING
Two variables that come handy when writing dist-hook rules are ‘$(distdir)’ and
‘$(top_distdir)’.
‘$(distdir)’ points to the directory where the dist rule will copy files from the current
directory before creating the tarball. If you are at the top-level directory, then ‘distdir
= $(PACKAGE)-$(VERSION)’. When used from subdirectory named foo/, then ‘distdir =
../$(PACKAGE)-$(VERSION)/foo’. ‘$(distdir)’ can be either a relative or absolute path;
do not assume a particular form.
‘$(top_distdir)’ always points to the root directory of the distributed tree. At
the top level it’s equal to ‘$(distdir)’. In the foo/ subdirectory ‘top_distdir =
../$(PACKAGE)-$(VERSION)’. ‘$(top_distdir)’ can also be either a relative or absolute
path.
When packages are nested using AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS (see Section 7.4 [Subpackages],
page 53), then ‘$(distdir)’ and ‘$(top_distdir)’ are relative to the package where ‘make
dist’ was run, not to any sub-packages involved.

14.4 Checking the Distribution

Automake also generates a distcheck rule that can be of help to ensure that a given distri-
bution will actually work. Simplifying a bit, we can say this rule first makes a distribution,
and then, operating from it, takes the following steps (in this order):
• does a VPATH build (see Section 2.2.6 [VPATH Builds], page 6), with the srcdir and
all its content made read-only;
• makes the printable documentation (with make dvi), if any,
• runs the test suite (with make check) on this fresh build;
• installs the package in a temporary directory (with make install), and runs the test
suite on the resulting installation (with make installcheck);
• checks that the package can be correctly uninstalled (by make uninstall) and cleaned
(by make distclean);
• finally, makes another tarball to ensure the distribution is self-contained.
All of these actions are performed in a temporary directory. The exact location and
the exact structure of such a directory (where the read-only sources are placed, how the
Chapter 14: What Goes in a Distribution 105

temporary build and install directories are named and how deeply they are nested, etc.) is
to be considered an implementation detail, which can change at any time, so please do not
rely on it.

14.4.1 DISTCHECK_CONFIGURE_FLAGS
Building the package involves running ‘./configure’. If you need to supply additional
flags to configure, define them in the AM_DISTCHECK_CONFIGURE_FLAGS variable in your
top-level Makefile.am. The user can still extend or override the flags provided there by
defining the DISTCHECK_CONFIGURE_FLAGS variable, on the command line when invoking
make. It’s worth noting that make distcheck needs complete control over the configure
options --srcdir and --prefix, so those options cannot be overridden by AM_DISTCHECK_
CONFIGURE_FLAGS nor by DISTCHECK_CONFIGURE_FLAGS.
Developers are encouraged to strive to make their code buildable without requiring any
special configure option; thus, in general, you shouldn’t define AM_DISTCHECK_CONFIGURE_
FLAGS. GNU m4 offers an example of when its use is justified, however. GNU m4 configures
by default with its experimental and seldom used ‘changeword’ feature disabled; so in
this case it is useful to have make distcheck run configure with the --with-changeword
option, to ensure that the code for changeword support still compiles correctly. GNU m4 also
employs the AM_DISTCHECK_CONFIGURE_FLAGS variable to stress-test the use of --program-
prefix=g, since at one point the m4 build system had a bug where make installcheck was
wrongly assuming it could blindly test ‘m4’, rather than the just-installed ‘gm4’.

14.4.2 distcheck-hook
If the distcheck-hook rule is defined in your top-level Makefile.am, then it will be invoked
by distcheck after the new distribution has been unpacked, but before the unpacked copy
is configured and built. Your distcheck-hook can do almost anything, though as always
caution is advised. Generally this hook is used to check for potential distribution errors not
caught by the standard mechanism.
distcheck-hook, as well as AM_DISTCHECK_CONFIGURE_FLAGS and DISTCHECK_
CONFIGURE_FLAGS, are not honored in a subpackage Makefile.am, but the flags from
AM_DISTCHECK_CONFIGURE_FLAGS and DISTCHECK_CONFIGURE_FLAGS are passed down to
the configure script of the subpackage.

14.4.3 dvi and distcheck

Ordinarily, make distcheck runs make dvi. It does nothing if the distribution contains
no Texinfo sources. If the distribution does contain a Texinfo manual, by default the dvi
target will run TEX to make sure it can be successfully processed (see Section 11.1 [Texinfo],
page 96).
However, you may wish to test the manual by producing pdf (e.g., if your manual uses
images in formats other than eps), html (if you don’t have TEX at all), some other format,
or just skip the test entirely (not recommended). You can change the target that is run by
setting the variable AM_DISTCHECK_DVI_TARGET in your Makefile.am; for example,
AM_DISTCHECK_DVI_TARGET = pdf
To make dvi into a do-nothing target, see the example for EMPTY_AUTOMAKE_TARGETS in
Section 22.2 [Third-Party Makefiles], page 142.
Chapter 14: What Goes in a Distribution 106

14.4.4 distcleancheck
distcheck ensures that the distclean rule actually removes all built files. This is done by
running ‘make distcleancheck’ at the end of the VPATH build. By default, distcleancheck
will run distclean and then make sure the build tree has been emptied by running the value
of the variable ‘$(distcleancheck_listfiles)’. Often this check will find generated files
that you forgot to add to the DISTCLEANFILES variable (see Chapter 13 [Clean], page 101).
The distcleancheck behavior should be OK for most packages, otherwise you have
the possibility to override the definition of either the distcleancheck rule, or the
‘$(distcleancheck_listfiles)’ variable. For instance, to disable distcleancheck
completely (not recommended), add the following rule to your top-level Makefile.am:
distcleancheck:
@:
If you want distcleancheck to ignore built files that have not been cleaned because
they are also part of the distribution, make the following definition:
distcleancheck_listfiles = \
find . -type f -exec sh -c 'test -f $(srcdir)/$$1 || echo $$1' \
sh '{}' ';'
The above definition is not the default because it’s usually an error if your Makefiles
cause some distributed files to be rebuilt when the user builds the package: consider the user
missing the tool required to build the file; or if the required tool is built by your package,
consider the cross-compilation case where it can’t be run.
Please see the (following) section Section 14.4.6 [Errors with distclean], page 106, before
playing with distcleancheck_listfiles.

14.4.5 distuninstallcheck
distcheck also checks that the uninstall rule works properly, both for ordinary and
DESTDIR builds. It does this by invoking ‘make uninstall’, and then it checks the install
tree to see if any files are left over. This check will make sure that you correctly coded your
uninstall-related rules.
By default, the checking is done by the distuninstallcheck rule, and the list of files
in the install tree is generated by ‘$(distuninstallcheck_listfiles)’. The value of the
latter variable is taken to be a shell command to run that prints the list of files to stdout.
Either of these can be overridden to modify the behavior of distcheck. For instance,
to disable this check completely (not recommended), you would write:
distuninstallcheck:
@:

14.4.6 Errors with distclean

As explained in the section above (see Section 14.4 [Checking the Distribution], page 104),
‘make distcheck’ attempts to build and check your package for errors. One such error you
might see is:
ERROR: files left in build directory after distclean:
The file(s) left in the build directory after ‘make distclean’ has run are listed after this
error message. This can happen in two ways:
Chapter 14: What Goes in a Distribution 107

• files that were forgotten to be distclean-ed;

• distributed files that are erroneously rebuilt.
In the first case of simple left-over files not intended to be distributed, the fix is to include
them for cleaning (see Chapter 13 [Clean], page 101); this is straightforward and doesn’t
need more explanation.
The second case, however, is not always easy to understand and fix, so let’s proceed
with an example. Suppose our package contains a program for which we want to build a
man page using help2man. GNU help2man produces simple manual pages from the --help
and --version output of other commands (see The Help2man Manual). Because we don’t
want to force our users to install help2man, we distribute the generated man page using the
following setup.
# This Makefile.am is bogus.
bin_PROGRAMS = foo
foo_SOURCES = foo.c
dist_man_MANS = foo.1

foo.1: foo$(EXEEXT)
help2man --output=foo.1 ./foo$(EXEEXT)
This will effectively distribute the man page. However, ‘make distcheck’ will fail with:
ERROR: files left in build directory after distclean:
./foo.1
Why was foo.1 rebuilt? Because although distributed, foo.1 depends on a non-
distributed built file: foo$(EXEEXT). foo$(EXEEXT) is built by the user, so it will always
appear to be newer than the distributed foo.1.
In other words, ‘make distcheck’ caught an inconsistency in our package. Our intent
was to distribute foo.1 so users do not need to install help2man, but since this rule causes
this file to be always rebuilt, users do need help2man. Either we should ensure that foo.1
is not rebuilt by users, or there is no point in distributing foo.1.
More generally, the rule is that distributed files should never depend on non-distributed
built files. If you distribute something generated, distribute all its sources.
One way to fix the above example, while still distributing foo.1, is to not depend on
foo$(EXEEXT), but instead on relevant source files. For instance, assuming foo --version
and foo --help do not change unless foo.c or configure.ac change, we could write the
following Makefile.am:
bin_PROGRAMS = foo
foo_SOURCES = foo.c
dist_man_MANS = foo.1

foo.1: foo.c $(top_srcdir)/configure.ac

$(MAKE) $(AM_MAKEFLAGS) foo$(EXEEXT)
help2man --output=foo.1 ./foo$(EXEEXT)
This way, foo.1 will not get rebuilt every time foo$(EXEEXT) changes. The make call
makes sure foo$(EXEEXT) is up-to-date before help2man.
Chapter 14: What Goes in a Distribution 108

Another step towards ensuring this would be to use separate directories for binaries and
man pages, and set SUBDIRS so that binaries are built before man pages. Unfortunately,
this alone is, in general, not sufficient. In order to avoid to avoid concurrency bugs, it may
be necessary to include wrappers; this is done by GNU Autoconf, as mentioned below.
We could also decide not to distribute foo.1. In this case it’s fine to have foo.1
dependent upon foo$(EXEEXT), since both will have to be rebuilt. However, it might
be impossible to build the package in a cross-compilation, because building foo.1 involves
an execution of foo$(EXEEXT). The exception would be if foo is a platform-independent
script, such as help2man.
Another context where such errors are common is when distributed files are built by
tools that are built by the package. The pattern is similar:
distributed-file: built-tools distributed-sources
build-command
should be changed to
distributed-file: distributed-sources
$(MAKE) $(AM_MAKEFLAGS) built-tools
build-command
or you could choose not to distribute distributed-file, if cross-compilation does not
matter.
The points made through these examples are worth summarizing:

• Distributed files should never depend upon non-distributed built files.
• Distributed files should be distributed with all their dependencies.
• If a file is intended to be rebuilt by users, then there is no point in distributing it.

Real-world examples for help2man:

• Autoconf takes the approach described above, including man pages in its releases.
A wrapper for each script is needed to avoid concurrency problems. See its source
file autoconf/man/local.mk, which has a good discussion of the necessary additional
details.
• Automake itself takes another approach: it does not include man pages in distributions;
thus, every user generates them when building from the release tarballs. This is ok
(only) because Automake also includes a copy of the help2man script, which is plausible
because help2man is small, self-contained, and platform-independent. See the source
file automake/doc/local.mk.
If you’re desperate, it’s possible to disable this check completely by setting
distcleancheck_listfiles (see Section 14.4.4 [distcleancheck], page 106). Make sure you
understand the reason why ‘make distcheck’ complains first. distcleancheck_listfiles
is a way to hide errors, not to fix them. You can always do better.

14.5 The Types of Distributions

Automake generates rules to provide archives of the project for distributions in various
formats. Their targets are:
Chapter 14: What Goes in a Distribution 109

dist-gzip
Generate a ‘gzip’ tar archive of the distribution. This is the only format enabled
by default. By default, this rule makes gzip use a compression option of -9
(more widely supported than --best). To make it use a different one, set the
GZIP_ENV environment variable. For example, ‘make dist-gzip GZIP_ENV=-7’.
GZIP_ENV is not used when decompressing.

dist-bzip2
Generate a ‘bzip2’ tar archive of the distribution. bzip2 archives are usually
smaller than gzipped archives. By default, this rule makes ‘bzip2’ use a com-
pression option of -9. To make it use a different one, set the BZIP2 environment
variable.

dist-lzip
Generate an ‘lzip’ tar archive of the distribution. lzip archives are usually
smaller than bzip2-compressed archives. By default, this rule makes ‘lzip’ use
a compression option of -9. To make it use a different one, set the LZIP_OPT
environment variable.

dist-xz Generate an ‘xz’ tar archive of the distribution. xz archives are usually smaller
than bzip2-compressed archives. By default, this rule makes ‘xz’ use a compres-
sion option of -e. To make it use a different one, set the XZ_OPT environment
variable. For example, run this command to use the default compression ratio,
but with a progress indicator: ‘make dist-xz XZ_OPT=-ve’.

dist-zip Generate a ‘zip’ archive of the distribution.

dist-zstd
Generate a zstd tar archive of the distribution. By default, this rule makes zstd
use a compression option of -19. To use a different setting, set the ZSTD_OPT en-
vironment variable. For example, run this command to use the default compres-
sion ratio, but with a progress indicator: ‘make dist-zstd ZSTD_OPT=-19v’.
However, note that for compatibility with zstd itself, you may instead set the
ZSTD_CLEVEL environment variable, in which case, any ZSTD_OPT setting is ig-
nored.

dist-shar
Generate a ‘shar’ archive of the distribution. This format archive is obsolescent,
and use of this option is deprecated. It and the corresponding functionality will
be removed altogether in Automake 2.0.

dist-tarZ
Generate a tar archive of the distribution, compressed with the historical (and
obsolescent) program compress. This option is deprecated, and it and the
corresponding functionality will be removed altogether in Automake 2.0.

The rule dist (and its historical synonym dist-all) will create archives in all the
enabled formats (see Section 17.2 [List of Automake options], page 127, for how to change
this list). By default, only the dist-gzip target is enabled by dist.
Chapter 15: Support for test suites 110

15 Support for test suites

Automake can generate code to handle two kinds of test suites. One is based on integration
with the dejagnu framework. The other (and most used) form is based on the use of
generic test scripts, and its activation is triggered by the definition of the special TESTS
variable. This second form allows for various degrees of sophistication and customization; in
particular, it allows for concurrent execution of test scripts, use of established test protocols
such as TAP, and definition of custom test drivers and test runners.
In either case, the testsuite is invoked via ‘make check’.

15.1 Generalities about Testing

The purpose of testing is to determine whether a program or system behaves as expected
(e.g., known inputs produce the expected outputs, error conditions are correctly handled or
reported, and older bugs do not resurface).
The minimal unit of testing is usually called test case, or simply test. How a test case is
defined or delimited, and even what exactly constitutes a test case, depends heavily on the
testing paradigm and/or framework in use, so we won’t attempt any more precise definition.
The set of the test cases for a given program or system constitutes its testsuite.
A test harness (also testsuite harness) is a program or software component that executes
all (or part of) the defined test cases, analyzes their outcomes, and reports or registers
these outcomes appropriately. Again, the details of how this is accomplished (and how the
developer and user can influence it or interface with it) varies wildly, and we’ll attempt no
precise definition.
A test is said to pass when it can determine that the condition or behavior it means to
verify holds, and is said to fail when it can determine that such condition of behavior does
not hold.
Sometimes, tests can rely on non-portable tools or prerequisites, or simply make no sense
on a given system (for example, a test checking a Windows-specific feature makes no sense
on a GNU/Linux system). In this case, accordingly to the definition above, the tests can
neither be considered passed nor failed; instead, they are skipped, that is, they are not run,
or their result is in any case ignored for what concerns the count of failures and successes.
Skips are usually explicitly reported though, so that the user will be aware that not all of
the testsuite has been run.
It’s not uncommon, especially during early development stages, that some tests fail for
known reasons, and that the developer doesn’t want to tackle these failures immediately
(this is especially true when the failing tests deal with corner cases). In this situation, the
better policy is to declare that each of those failures is an expected failure (or xfail ). In case
a test that is expected to fail ends up passing instead, many testing environments will flag
the result as a special kind of failure called unexpected pass (or xpass).
Many testing environments and frameworks distinguish between test failures and hard
errors. As we’ve seen, a test failure happens when some invariant or expected behavior
of the software under test is not met. A hard error happens when e.g., the set-up of a
test case scenario fails, or when some other unexpected or highly undesirable condition is
encountered (for example, the program under test experiences a segmentation fault).
Chapter 15: Support for test suites 111

15.2 Simple Tests

15.2.1 Scripts-based Testsuites
If the special variable TESTS is defined, its value is taken to be a list of programs or scripts
to run in order to do the testing. Under the appropriate circumstances, it’s possible for
TESTS to list also data files to be passed to one or more test scripts defined by different
means (the so-called “log compilers”, see Section 15.2.3 [Parallel Test Harness], page 114).
Test scripts can be executed serially or concurrently. Automake supports both these
kinds of test execution, with the parallel test harness being the default. The concurrent
test harness relies on the concurrence capabilities (if any) offered by the underlying make
implementation, and can thus only be as good as those are.
By default, only the exit statuses of the test scripts are considered when determining
the testsuite outcome. But Automake allows also the use of more complex test protocols,
either standard (see Section 15.4 [Using the TAP test protocol], page 121) or custom (see
Section 15.3 [Custom Test Drivers], page 117). You can’t enable such protocols when the
serial harness is used, though. In the rest of this section we are going to concentrate mostly
on protocol-less tests, since we cover test protocols in a later section (again, see Section 15.3
[Custom Test Drivers], page 117).
When no test protocol is in use, an exit status of 0 from a test script will denote a
success, an exit status of 77 a skipped test, an exit status of 99 a hard error, and any other
exit status will denote a failure.
You may define the variable XFAIL_TESTS to a list of tests (usually a subset of TESTS) that
are expected to fail; this will effectively reverse the result of those tests (with the provision
that skips and hard errors remain untouched). You may also instruct the testsuite harness to
treat hard errors like simple failures, by defining the DISABLE_HARD_ERRORS make variable
to a nonempty value.
Note however that, for tests based on more complex test protocols, the exact effects of
XFAIL_TESTS and DISABLE_HARD_ERRORS might change, or they might even have no effect
at all (for example, in tests using TAP, there is no way to disable hard errors, and the
DISABLE_HARD_ERRORS variable has no effect on them).
The result of each test case run by the scripts in TESTS will be printed on standard
output, along with the test name. For test protocols that allow more test cases per test
script (such as TAP), a number, identifier and/or brief description specific for the single
test case is expected to be printed in addition to the name of the test script. The possible
results (whose meanings should be clear from the previous Section 15.1 [Generalities about
Testing], page 110) are PASS, FAIL, SKIP, XFAIL, XPASS and ERROR. Here is an example of
output from a hypothetical testsuite that uses both plain and TAP tests:
PASS: foo.sh
PASS: zardoz.tap 1 - Daemon started
PASS: zardoz.tap 2 - Daemon responding
SKIP: zardoz.tap 3 - Daemon uses /proc # SKIP /proc is not mounted
PASS: zardoz.tap 4 - Daemon stopped
SKIP: bar.sh
PASS: mu.tap 1
XFAIL: mu.tap 2 # TODO frobnication not yet implemented
Chapter 15: Support for test suites 112

A testsuite summary (expected to report at least the number of run, skipped and failed
tests) will be printed at the end of the testsuite run. By default, the first line of the summary
has the form:
Testsuite summary for package-string
where package-string is the name and version of the package. If you have several independent
test suites for different parts of the package, though, it can be misleading for each suite to
imply it is for the whole package. Or, in complex projects, you may wish to add the
current directory or other information to the testsuite header line. So you can override the
‘ for package-string’ suffix on that line by setting the AM_TESTSUITE_SUMMARY_HEADER
variable. The value of this variable is used unquoted in a shell echo command, so you must
include any necessary quotes. For example, the default value is
AM_TESTSUITE_SUMMARY_HEADER = ' for $(PACKAGE_STRING)'
including the double quotes (interpreted by the shell) and the leading space (since the value
is output directly after the ‘Testsuite summary’). The $(PACKAGE_STRING) is substituted
by make.
If the standard output is connected to a capable terminal, then the test results and the
summary are colored appropriately. The developer and the user can disable colored output
by setting the make variable ‘AM_COLOR_TESTS=no’; the user can in addition force colored
output even without a connecting terminal with ‘AM_COLOR_TESTS=always’. It’s also worth
noting that some make implementations, when used in parallel mode, have slightly different
semantics (see Section “Parallel make” in The Autoconf Manual), which can break the
automatic detection of a connection to a capable terminal. If this is the case, the user will
have to resort to the use of ‘AM_COLOR_TESTS=always’ in order to have the testsuite output
colorized.
Test programs that need data files should look for them in srcdir (which is both a make
variable and an environment variable made available to the tests), so that they work when
building in a separate directory (see Section “Build Directories ” in The Autoconf Manual),
and in particular for the distcheck rule (see Section 14.4 [Checking the Distribution],
page 104).
Automake ensures that each file listed in TESTS is built before it is run; you can list
both source and derived programs (or scripts) in TESTS; the generated rule will look both
in srcdir and ‘..’. For instance, you might want to run a C program as a test. To do this
you would list its name in TESTS and also in check_PROGRAMS, and then specify it as you
would any other program.
Programs listed in check_PROGRAMS (and check_LIBRARIES, check_LTLIBRARIES, ...)
are only built during make check, not during make all. You should list there any program
needed by your tests that does not need to be built by make all. The programs in check_
PROGRAMS are not automatically added to TESTS because check_PROGRAMS usually lists
programs used by the tests, not the tests themselves. If all your programs are in fact test
cases, you can set TESTS = $(check_PROGRAMS).

15.2.1.1 Testsuite Environment Overrides

The AM_TESTS_ENVIRONMENT and TESTS_ENVIRONMENT variables can be used to run ini-
tialization code and set environment variables for the test scripts. The former variable is
developer-reserved, and can be defined in the Makefile.am, while the latter is reserved for
Chapter 15: Support for test suites 113

the user, which can employ it to extend or override the settings in the former; for this
to work portably, however, the contents of a non-empty AM_TESTS_ENVIRONMENT must be
terminated by a semicolon.
The AM_TESTS_FD_REDIRECT variable can be used to define file descriptor redirections
for the test scripts. One might think that AM_TESTS_ENVIRONMENT could be used for this
purpose, but experience has shown that doing so portably is practically impossible. The
main hurdle is constituted by Korn shells, which usually set the close-on-exec flag on file de-
scriptors opened with the exec builtin, thus rendering an idiom like AM_TESTS_ENVIRONMENT
= exec 9>&2; ineffectual. This issue also affects some Bourne shells, such as the HP-UX’s
/bin/sh.
AM_TESTS_ENVIRONMENT = \
## Some environment initializations are kept in a separate shell
## file 'tests-env.sh', which can make it easier to also run tests
## from the command line.
. $(srcdir)/tests-env.sh; \
## On Solaris, prefer more POSIX-compliant versions of the standard
## tools by default.
if test -d /usr/xpg4/bin; then \
PATH=/usr/xpg4/bin:$$PATH; export PATH; \
fi;

## With this, the test scripts will be able to print diagnostic

## messages to the original standard error stream, even if the test
## driver redirects the stderr of the test scripts to a log file
## before executing them.
AM_TESTS_FD_REDIRECT = 9>&2
As another example, a notice that a test is starting can be emitted using AM_TESTS_
ENVIRONMENT (for package maintainers) or TESTS_ENVIRONMENT by users:
make -j12 ... TESTS_ENVIRONMENT='echo RUNNING: "$$f";' check
The shell variable $f contains the test name. (Although technically this is not guaranteed,
in practice it is extremely unlikely to ever change.) This can be helpful to see when trying
to debug test failures.
Notwithstanding these benefits, AM_TESTS_ENVIRONMENT is, for historical and implemen-
tation reasons, not supported by the serial harness (see Section 15.2.2 [Serial Test Harness],
page 113).

15.2.2 Older (and discouraged) Serial Test Harness

First, note that today the use of this harness is strongly discouraged in favor of the parallel
test harness (see Section 15.2.3 [Parallel Test Harness], page 114). Still, there are a few
situations when the advantages offered by the parallel harness are irrelevant, and when test
concurrency can even cause tricky problems. In those cases, it might make sense to still use
the serial harness, for simplicity and reliability (we still suggest trying to give the parallel
harness a shot though).
Chapter 15: Support for test suites 114

The serial test harness is enabled by the Automake option serial-tests. It operates
by simply running the tests serially, one at the time, without any I/O redirection. It’s up
to the user to implement logging of tests’ output, if that’s required or desired.
For historical and implementation reasons, the AM_TESTS_ENVIRONMENT variable is not
supported by this harness (it will be silently ignored if defined); only TESTS_ENVIRONMENT
is, and it is to be considered a developer-reserved variable. This is done so that, when using
the serial harness, TESTS_ENVIRONMENT can be defined to an invocation of an interpreter
through which the tests are to be run. For instance, the following setup may be used to
run tests with Perl:
TESTS_ENVIRONMENT = $(PERL) -Mstrict -w
TESTS = foo.pl bar.pl baz.pl
It’s important to note that the use of TESTS_ENVIRONMENT endorsed here would be invalid
with the parallel harness. That harness provides a more elegant way to achieve the same
effect, with the further benefit of freeing the TESTS_ENVIRONMENT variable for the user (see
Section 15.2.3 [Parallel Test Harness], page 114).
Another, less serious limitation of the serial harness is that it doesn’t distinguish between
simple failures and hard errors; this is for historical reasons, and might be fixed in future
Automake versions.

15.2.3 Parallel Test Harness

By default, Automake generates a parallel (concurrent) test harness. It features automatic
collection of the test scripts output in .log files, concurrent execution of tests with make
-j, specification of inter-test dependencies, lazy reruns of tests that have not completed in
a prior run, and hard errors for exceptional failures.
The parallel test harness operates by defining a set of make rules that run the test scripts
listed in TESTS, and, for each such script, save its output in a corresponding .log file and its
results (and other “metadata”, see Section 15.3.3 [API for Custom Test Drivers], page 118)
in a corresponding .trs (as in Test ReSults) file. The .log file will contain all the output
emitted by the test on its standard output and its standard error. The .trs file will contain,
among the other things, the results of the test cases run by the script.
The parallel test harness will also create a summary log file, TEST_SUITE_LOG, which
defaults to test-suite.log and requires a .log suffix. This file depends upon all the .log
and .trs files created for the test scripts listed in TESTS. It contains the output of all
tests that failed, encountered a hard error, succeeded unexpectedly, or—unless the variable
IGNORE_SKIPPED_LOGS is set to a non-empty value—were skipped.
As with the serial harness above, by default one status line is printed per completed
test, and a short summary after the suite has completed. However, standard output and
standard error of the test are redirected to a per-test log file, so that parallel execution
does not produce intermingled output. The output from failed tests is collected in the
test-suite.log file. If the variable ‘VERBOSE’ is set, this file is output after the summary.
Each couple of .log and .trs files is created when the corresponding test has completed.
The set of log files is listed in the read-only variable TEST_LOGS, and defaults to TESTS, with
the executable extension if any (see Section 8.20 [EXEEXT], page 84), as well as any suffix
listed in TEST_EXTENSIONS removed, and .log appended. Results are undefined if a test
file name ends in several concatenated suffixes. TEST_EXTENSIONS defaults to .test; it can
Chapter 15: Support for test suites 115

be overridden by the user, in which case any extension listed in it must be constituted by
a dot, followed by a non-digit alphabetic character, followed by any number of alphabetic
characters. For example, ‘.sh’, ‘.T’ and ‘.t1’ are valid extensions, while ‘.x-y’, ‘.6c’ and
‘.t.1’ are not.
It is important to note that, due to current limitations (unlikely to be lifted), configure
substitutions in the definition of TESTS can only work if they will expand to a list of tests
that have a suffix listed in TEST_EXTENSIONS.
For tests that match an extension .ext listed in TEST_EXTENSIONS, you can provide a
custom “test runner” using the variable ext_LOG_COMPILER (note the upper-case extension)
and pass options in AM_ext_LOG_FLAGS and allow the user to pass options in ext_LOG_
FLAGS. It will cause all tests with this extension to be called with this runner. For all tests
without a registered extension, the variables LOG_COMPILER, AM_LOG_FLAGS, and LOG_FLAGS
may be used. For example,
TESTS = foo.pl bar.py baz
TEST_EXTENSIONS = .pl .py
PL_LOG_COMPILER = $(PERL)
AM_PL_LOG_FLAGS = -w
PY_LOG_COMPILER = $(PYTHON)
AM_PY_LOG_FLAGS = -v
LOG_COMPILER = ./wrapper-script
AM_LOG_FLAGS = -d
will invoke ‘$(PERL) -w foo.pl’, ‘$(PYTHON) -v bar.py’, and ‘./wrapper-script -d baz’
to produce foo.log, bar.log, and baz.log, respectively. The foo.trs, bar.trs and
baz.trs files will be automatically produced as a side-effect.
It’s important to note that, differently from what we’ve seen for the serial test harness
(see Section 15.2.2 [Serial Test Harness], page 113), the AM_TESTS_ENVIRONMENT and TESTS_
ENVIRONMENT variables cannot be used to define a custom test runner; the LOG_COMPILER
and LOG_FLAGS (or their extension-specific counterparts) should be used instead:
## This is WRONG!
AM_TESTS_ENVIRONMENT = PERL5LIB='$(srcdir)/lib' $(PERL) -Mstrict -w
## Do this instead.
AM_TESTS_ENVIRONMENT = PERL5LIB='$(srcdir)/lib'; export PERL5LIB;
LOG_COMPILER = $(PERL)
AM_LOG_FLAGS = -Mstrict -w
By default, the test suite harness will run all tests, but there are several ways to limit
the set of tests that are run:
• You can set the TESTS variable. For example, you can use a command like this to run
only a subset of the tests:
env TESTS="foo.test bar.test" make -e check
If you’re using a recursive make setup, you’ll probably also need to override SUBDIRS:
env TESTS="foo.test bar.test" make -e check SUBDIRS=
Otherwise, the test harness will descend into all subdirectories, where the tests presum-
ably do not exist, and thus fail. (Patch to provide better behavior would be welcome.)
Chapter 15: Support for test suites 116

Another issue: the command above will unconditionally overwrite the test-suite.log
file, thus clobbering the recorded results of any previous testsuite run. This might be
undesirable for packages whose testsuite takes a long time to execute. Luckily, this
problem can easily be avoided by also overriding TEST_SUITE_LOG at runtime; for
example,
env TEST_SUITE_LOG=partial.log TESTS="..." make -e check
will write the result of the partial testsuite runs to the partial.log, without touching
test-suite.log.
• You can set the TEST_LOGS variable. By default, this variable is computed at make
run time from the value of TESTS as described above. For example, you can use the
following:
set x subset*.log; shift
env TEST_LOGS="foo.log $*" make -e check
The comments made above about TEST_SUITE_LOG overriding applies here too.
• By default, the test harness removes all old per-test .log and .trs files before it starts
running tests to regenerate them. The variable RECHECK_LOGS contains the set of .log
(and, by implication, .trs) files which are removed. RECHECK_LOGS defaults to TEST_
LOGS, which means all tests need to be rechecked. By overriding this variable, you can
choose which tests need to be reconsidered. For example, you can lazily rerun only
those tests which are outdated, i.e., older than their prerequisite test files, by setting
this variable to the empty value:
env RECHECK_LOGS= make -e check
• You can ensure that all tests are rerun which have failed or passed unexpectedly, by
running make recheck in the test directory. This convenience target will set RECHECK_
LOGS appropriately before invoking the main test harness.
In order to guarantee an ordering between tests even with make -jN, dependencies between
the corresponding .log files may be specified through usual make dependencies. For exam-
ple, the following snippet lets the test named foo-execute.test depend upon completion
of the test foo-compile.test:
TESTS = foo-compile.test foo-execute.test
foo-execute.log: foo-compile.log
Please note that this ordering ignores the results of required tests, thus the test foo-
execute.test is run even if the test foo-compile.test failed or was skipped beforehand.
Further, please note that specifying such dependencies currently works only for tests that
end in one of the suffixes listed in TEST_EXTENSIONS.
Tests without such specified dependencies may be run concurrently with parallel make
-jN, so be sure they are prepared for concurrent execution.
The combination of lazy test execution and correct dependencies between tests and their
sources may be exploited for efficient unit testing during development. To further speed up
the edit-compile-test cycle, it may even be useful to specify compiled programs in EXTRA_
PROGRAMS instead of with check_PROGRAMS, as the former allows intertwined compilation
and test execution (but note that EXTRA_PROGRAMS are not cleaned automatically; see Sec-
tion 3.3 [Uniform], page 21).
Chapter 15: Support for test suites 117

The variables TESTS and XFAIL_TESTS may contain conditional parts as well as configure
substitutions. In the latter case, however, certain restrictions apply: substituted test names
must end with a nonempty test suffix like .test, so that one of the inference rules generated
by automake can apply. For literal test names, automake can generate per-target rules to
avoid this limitation.
Please note that it is currently not possible to use $(srcdir)/ or $(top_srcdir)/ in the
TESTS variable. This technical limitation is necessary to avoid generating test logs in the
source tree and has the unfortunate consequence that it is not possible to specify distributed
tests that are themselves generated by means of explicit rules, in a way that is portable to
all make implementations (see Section “Make Target Lookup” in The Autoconf Manual, the
semantics of FreeBSD and OpenBSD make conflict with this). In case of doubt you may
want to require to use GNU make, or work around the issue with inference rules to generate
the tests.

15.3 Custom Test Drivers

15.3.1 Overview of Custom Test Drivers Support
Starting from Automake version 1.12, the parallel test harness allows the package authors
to use third-party custom test drivers, in case the default ones are inadequate for their
purposes, or do not support their testing protocol of choice.
A custom test driver is expected to properly run the test programs passed to it (including
the command-line arguments passed to those programs, if any), to analyze their execution
and outcome, to create the .log and .trs files associated to these test runs, and to display
the test results on the console. It is responsibility of the author of the test driver to ensure
that it implements all the above steps meaningfully and correctly; Automake isn’t and can’t
be of any help here. On the other hand, the Automake-provided code for testsuite summary
generation offers support for test drivers allowing several test results per test script, if they
take care to register such results properly (see Section 15.3.3.2 [Log files generation and test
results recording], page 119).
The exact details of how test scripts’ results are to be determined and analyzed is left
to the individual drivers. Some drivers might only consider the test script exit status (this
is done for example by the default test driver used by the parallel test harness, described
in the previous section). Other drivers might implement more complex and advanced test
protocols, which might require them to parse and interpret the output emitted by the test
script they’re running (examples of such protocols are TAP and SubUnit).
It’s very important to note that, even when using custom test drivers, most of the
infrastructure described in the previous section about the parallel harness remains in place;
this includes:
• list of test scripts defined in TESTS, and overridable at runtime through the redefinition
of TESTS or TEST_LOGS;
• concurrency through the use of make’s option -j;
• per-test .log and .trs files, and generation of a summary .log file from them;
• recheck target, RECHECK_LOGS variable, and lazy reruns of tests;
• inter-test dependencies;
Chapter 15: Support for test suites 118

• support for check_* variables (check_PROGRAMS, check_LIBRARIES, ...);

• use of VERBOSE environment variable to get verbose output on testsuite failures;
• definition and honoring of TESTS_ENVIRONMENT, AM_TESTS_ENVIRONMENT and
AM_TESTS_FD_REDIRECT variables;
• definition of generic and extension-specific LOG_COMPILER and LOG_FLAGS variables.

On the other hand, the exact semantics of how (and if) testsuite output colorization, XFAIL_
TESTS, and hard errors are supported and handled is left to the individual test drivers.

15.3.2 Declaring Custom Test Drivers

Custom testsuite drivers are declared by defining the make variables LOG_DRIVER or ext_
LOG_DRIVER (where ext must be declared in TEST_EXTENSIONS). They must be defined
to programs or scripts that will be used to drive the execution, logging, and outcome
report of the tests with corresponding extensions (or of those with no registered extension
in the case of LOG_DRIVER). Clearly, multiple distinct test drivers can be declared in the
same Makefile.am. Note moreover that the LOG_DRIVER variables are not a substitute
for the LOG_COMPILER variables: the two sets of variables can, and often do, usefully and
legitimately coexist.
The developer-reserved variable AM_LOG_DRIVER_FLAGS and the user-reserved variable
LOG_DRIVER_FLAGS can be used to define flags that will be passed to each invocation of
LOG_DRIVER, with the user-defined flags obviously taking precedence over the developer-
reserved ones. Similarly, for each extension ext declared in TEST_EXTENSIONS, flags listed
in AM_ext_LOG_DRIVER_FLAGS and ext_LOG_DRIVER_FLAGS will be passed to invocations of
ext_LOG_DRIVER.

15.3.3 API for Custom Test Drivers

Note that the APIs described here are still highly experimental, and will very likely undergo
tightening and possibly extensive changes in the future, to accommodate for new features
or to satisfy additional portability requirements.
The main characteristic of these APIs is that they are designed to share as much infras-
tructure, semantics, and implementation detail as possible with the parallel test harness
and its default driver.

15.3.3.1 Command-line arguments for test drivers

A custom driver can rely on various command-line options and arguments being passed to it
automatically by the Automake-generated test harness. It is mandatory that it understands
all of them (even if the exact interpretation of the associated semantics can legitimately
change between a test driver and another, and even be a no-op in some drivers). Options
are separated from their arguments by whitespace.4
Here is the list of options:

4
Regrettably, older versions of this manual stated that option arguments should be joined to their options
with a = character, rather than passed as in the following argument word as shown here. The syntax with
= has never been accepted by the test drivers supplied with Automake, and has never been produced by
Makefiles generated by Automake.
Chapter 15: Support for test suites 119

--test-name NAME
The name of the test, with VPATH prefix (if any) removed. This can have
a suffix and a directory component (as in e.g., sub/foo.test), and is mostly
meant to be used in console reports about testsuite advancements and results
(see Section 15.3.3.3 [Testsuite progress output], page 121).
--log-file PATH.log
The .log file the test driver must create (see [Basics of test metadata],
page 114). If it has a directory component (as in e.g., sub/foo.log), the test
harness will ensure that such directory exists before the test driver is called.
--trs-file PATH.trs
The .trs file the test driver must create (see [Basics of test metadata],
page 114). If it has a directory component (as in e.g., sub/foo.trs), the test
harness will ensure that such directory exists before the test driver is called.
--color-tests {yes|no}
Whether the console output should be colorized or not (see [Simple tests and
color-tests], page 112, to learn when this option gets activated and when it
doesn’t).
--collect-skipped-logs {yes|no}
Whether to include the logs of skipped tests in the global test-suite.log file.
--expect-failure {yes|no}
Whether the tested program is expected to fail.
--enable-hard-errors {yes|no}
Whether “hard errors” in the tested program should be treated differently from
normal failures or not (the default should be yes). The exact meaning of “hard
error” is highly dependent from the test protocols or conventions in use.
-- Explicitly terminate the list of options.
The first non-option argument passed to the test driver is the program to be run, and all
the following ones are command-line options and arguments for this program.
Exact semantics attached to the --color-tests, --collect-skipped-logs, --expect-
failure, and --enable-hard-errors options are left up to the individual test drivers. Still,
having a behavior compatible or at least similar to that provided by the default driver is
advised, as that results in better consistency and thus a more pleasant user experience.

15.3.3.2 Log files generation and test results recording

The test driver must correctly generate the files specified by the --log-file and --trs-
file option (even when the tested program fails or crashes).
The .log file should ideally contain all the output produced by the tested program,
plus optionally other information that might facilitate debugging or analysis of bug reports.
Apart from that, its format is basically free.
The .trs file is used to register some metadata through the use of custom reStructured-
Text fields. This metadata is expected to be employed in various ways by the parallel test
harness; for example, to count the test results when printing the testsuite summary, or to
Chapter 15: Support for test suites 120

decide which tests to rerun upon make recheck. Unrecognized metadata in a .trs file is
currently ignored by the harness, but this might change in the future. The list of currently
recognized metadata follows.
:test-result:
The test driver must use this field to register the results of each test case run
by a test script file. Several :test-result: fields can be present in the same
.trs file; this is done in order to support test protocols that allow a single test
script to run more test cases.
The only recognized test results are currently PASS, XFAIL, SKIP, FAIL, XPASS
and ERROR. These results, when declared with :test-result:, can be op-
tionally followed by text holding the name and/or a brief description of the
corresponding test; the harness will ignore such extra text when generating
test-suite.log and preparing the testsuite summary.
:recheck:
If this field is present and defined to no, then the corresponding test script will
not be run upon a make recheck. What happens when two or more :recheck:
fields are present in the same .trs file is undefined behavior.
:copy-in-global-log:
If this field is present and defined to no, then the content of the .log file will not
be copied into the global test-suite.log. We allow to forsake such copying
because, while it can be useful in debugging and analysis of bug report, it can
also be just a waste of space in normal situations, e.g., when a test script is
successful. What happens when two or more :copy-in-global-log: fields are
present in the same .trs file is undefined behavior.
:test-global-result:
This is used to declare the "global result" of the script. Currently, the value of
this field is needed only to be reported (more or less verbatim) in the generated
global log file $(TEST_SUITE_LOG), so it’s quite free-form. For example, a
test script which runs 10 test cases, 6 of which pass and 4 of which are skipped,
could reasonably have a PASS/SKIP value for this field, while a test script which
runs 19 successful tests and one failed test could have an ALMOST PASSED value.
What happens when two or more :test-global-result: fields are present in
the same .trs file is undefined behavior.
Let’s see a small example. Assume a .trs file contains the following lines:
:test-result: PASS server starts
:global-log-copy: no
:test-result: PASS HTTP/1.1 request
:test-result: FAIL HTTP/1.0 request
:recheck: yes
:test-result: SKIP HTTPS request (TLS library wasn't available)
:test-result: PASS server stops
Then the corresponding test script will be rerun by make check, will contribute with five
test results to the testsuite summary (three of these tests being successful, one failed, and
one skipped), and the content of the corresponding .log file will not be copied into the
global log file test-suite.log.
Chapter 15: Support for test suites 121

15.3.3.3 Testsuite progress output

A custom test driver also has the task of displaying, on the standard output, the test results
as soon as they become available. Depending on the protocol in use, it can also display
the reasons for failures and skips, and, more generally, any useful diagnostic output (but
remember that each line on the screen is precious, so that cluttering the screen with overly
verbose information is bad idea). The exact format of this progress output is left up to the
test driver; in fact, a custom test driver might theoretically even decide not to do any such
report, leaving it all to the testsuite summary (that would be a very lousy idea, of course,
and serves only to illustrate the flexibility that is granted here).
Remember that consistency is good; so, if possible, try to be consistent with the output
of the built-in Automake test drivers, providing a similar “look & feel”. In particular, the
testsuite progress output should be colorized when the --color-tests is passed to the
driver. On the other end, if you are using a known and widespread test protocol with well-
established implementations, being consistent with those implementations’ output might be
a good idea too.

15.4 Using the TAP test protocol

15.4.1 Introduction to TAP
TAP, the Test Anything Protocol, is a simple text-based interface between testing modules
or programs and a test harness. The tests (also called “TAP producers” in this context)
write test results in a simple format on standard output; a test harness (also called “TAP
consumer”) will parse and interpret these results, and properly present them to the user,
and/or register them for later analysis. The exact details of how this is accomplished can
vary among different test harnesses. The Automake harness will present the results on
the console in the usual fashion (see [Testsuite progress on console], page 111), and will
use the .trs files (see [Basics of test metadata], page 114) to store the test results and
related metadata. Apart from that, it will try to remain as compatible as possible with
pre-existing and widespread utilities, such as the prove utility (https://metacpan.org/
pod/distribution/Test-Harness/bin/prove), at least for the simpler usages.
TAP started its life as part of the test harness for Perl, but today it has been (mostly)
standardized, and has various independent implementations in different languages; among
them, C, C++, Perl, Python, PHP, and Java. For a semi-official specification of the TAP
protocol, please refer to the documentation of ‘Test::Harness’ (https://metacpan.org/
pod/Test::Harness).
The most relevant real-world usages of TAP are obviously in the testsuites of perl and
of many Perl modules. Still, other important third-party packages, such as git (https://
git-scm.com/), also use TAP in their testsuite.

15.4.2 Use TAP with the Automake test harness

Currently, the TAP driver that comes with Automake requires some by-hand steps on the
developer’s part (this situation should hopefully be improved in future Automake versions).
You’ll have to grab the tap-driver.sh script from the Automake distribution by hand,
copy it in your source tree, and use the Automake support for third-party test drivers to
Chapter 15: Support for test suites 122

instruct the harness to use the tap-driver.sh script and the awk program found by AM_
INIT_AUTOMAKE to run your TAP-producing tests. See the example below for clarification.
Apart from the options common to all the Automake test drivers (see Section 15.3.3.1
[Command-line arguments for test drivers], page 118), tap-driver.sh supports the follow-
ing options, whose names are chosen for enhanced compatibility with the prove utility.
--ignore-exit
Causes the test driver to ignore the exit status of the test scripts; by default,
the driver will report an error if the script exits with a non-zero status. This
option has effect also on non-zero exit statuses due to termination by a signal.
--comments
Instruct the test driver to display TAP diagnostics (i.e., lines beginning with the
‘#’ character) in the testsuite progress output too; by default, TAP diagnostics
are only copied to the .log file.
--no-comments
Revert the effects of --comments.
--merge Instruct the test driver to merge the test scripts’ standard error into their
standard output. This is necessary if you want to ensure that diagnostics from
the test scripts are displayed in the correct order relative to test results; this
can be of great help in debugging (especially if your test scripts are shell scripts
run with shell tracing active). As a downside, this option might cause the test
harness to get confused if anything that appears on standard error looks like a
test result.
--no-merge
Revert the effects of --merge.
--diagnostic-string STRING
Change the string that introduces TAP diagnostics from the default value of “#”
to STRING. This can be useful if your TAP-based test scripts produce verbose
output on which they have limited control (because, say, the output comes from
other tools invoked in the scripts), and it might contain text that gets spuriously
interpreted as TAP diagnostics: such an issue can be solved by redefining the
string that activates TAP diagnostics to a value you know won’t appear by
chance in the tests’ output. Note however that this feature is non-standard, as
the “official” TAP protocol does not allow for such a customization; so don’t
use it if you can avoid it.
Here is an example of how the TAP driver can be set up and used.
% cat configure.ac
AC_INIT([GNU Try Tap], [1.0], [[email protected]])
AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR([build-aux])
AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE([foreign -Wall -Werror])
AC_CONFIG_FILES([Makefile])
AC_REQUIRE_AUX_FILE([tap-driver.sh])
AC_OUTPUT
Chapter 15: Support for test suites 123

% cat Makefile.am
TEST_LOG_DRIVER = env AM_TAP_AWK='$(AWK)' $(SHELL) \
$(top_srcdir)/build-aux/tap-driver.sh
TESTS = foo.test bar.test baz.test
EXTRA_DIST = $(TESTS)

% cat foo.test
#!/bin/sh
echo 1..4 # Number of tests to be executed.
echo 'ok 1 - Swallows fly'
echo 'not ok 2 - Caterpillars fly # TODO metamorphosis in progress'
echo 'ok 3 - Pigs fly # SKIP not enough acid'
echo '# I just love word plays ...'
echo 'ok 4 - Flies fly too :-)'

% cat bar.test
#!/bin/sh
echo 1..3
echo 'not ok 1 - Bummer, this test has failed.'
echo 'ok 2 - This passed though.'
echo 'Bail out! Ennui kicking in, sorry...'
echo 'ok 3 - This will not be seen.'

% cat baz.test
#!/bin/sh
echo 1..1
echo ok 1
# Exit with error, even if all the tests have been successful.
exit 7

% cp PREFIX/share/automake-APIVERSION/tap-driver.sh .
% autoreconf -vi && ./configure && make check
...
PASS: foo.test 1 - Swallows fly
XFAIL: foo.test 2 - Caterpillars fly # TODO metamorphosis in progress
SKIP: foo.test 3 - Pigs fly # SKIP not enough acid
PASS: foo.test 4 - Flies fly too :-)
FAIL: bar.test 1 - Bummer, this test has failed.
PASS: bar.test 2 - This passed though.
ERROR: bar.test - Bail out! Ennui kicking in, sorry...
PASS: baz.test 1
ERROR: baz.test - exited with status 7
...
Please report to [email protected]
...
% echo exit status: $?
exit status: 1
Chapter 15: Support for test suites 124

% env TEST_LOG_DRIVER_FLAGS='--comments --ignore-exit' \

TESTS='foo.test baz.test' make -e check
...
PASS: foo.test 1 - Swallows fly
XFAIL: foo.test 2 - Caterpillars fly # TODO metamorphosis in progress
SKIP: foo.test 3 - Pigs fly # SKIP not enough acid
# foo.test: I just love word plays...
PASS: foo.test 4 - Flies fly too :-)
PASS: baz.test 1
...
% echo exit status: $?
exit status: 0

15.4.3 Incompatibility with other TAP parsers and drivers

For implementation or historical reasons, the TAP driver and harness as implemented by
Automake have some minor compatibility issues with the mainstream versions, which you
should be aware of.
• A Bail out! directive doesn’t stop the whole testsuite, but only the test script it
occurs in. This doesn’t follow TAP specifications, but on the other hand it maximizes
compatibility (and code sharing) with the “hard error” concept of the default testsuite
driver.
• The version and pragma directives are not supported.
• The --diagnostic-string option of our driver allows modification of the string that
introduces TAP diagnostics from the default value of “#”. The standard TAP protocol
currently has no way to allow this, so if you use it your diagnostic will be lost to more
compliant tools like prove and Test::Harness
• And there are probably some other small and yet undiscovered compatibility issues,
especially in corner cases or with rare usages.

15.4.4 Links and external resources on TAP

Here are some links to more extensive official or third-party documentation and resources
about the TAP protocol and related tools and libraries.
• ‘Test::Harness’ (https://metacpan.org/pod/Test::Harness), the (mostly) official
documentation about the TAP format and protocol.
• prove (https://metacpan.org/pod/distribution/Test-Harness/bin/prove), the
most famous command-line TAP test driver, included in the distribution of perl and
‘Test::Harness’ (https://metacpan.org/pod/distribution/Test-Harness/lib/
Test/Harness.pm).
• The TAP wiki (https://testanything.org/).
• A “gentle introduction” to testing for Perl coders: ‘Test::Tutorial’ (https://
metacpan.org/pod/distribution/Test-Simple/lib/Test/Tutorial.pod).
• ‘Test::Simple’ (https://metacpan.org/pod/distribution/Test-Simple/lib/
Test/Simple.pm) and ‘Test::More’ (https://metacpan.org/pod/distribution/
Chapter 16: Rebuilding Makefiles 125

Test-Simple/lib/Test/More.pm), the standard Perl testing libraries, which are based

on TAP.
• C TAP Harness (https://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/software/c-tap-harness/), a C-
based project implementing both a TAP producer and a TAP consumer.
• tap4j (https://tap4j.org/), a Java-based project implementing both a TAP producer
and a TAP consumer.

15.5 DejaGnu Tests

If dejagnu (see Section “Introduction” in DejaGnu) appears in AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS, then
a dejagnu-based test suite is assumed. The variable DEJATOOL is a list of names that are
passed, one at a time, as the --tool argument to runtest invocations; it defaults to the
name of the package.
The variable RUNTESTDEFAULTFLAGS holds the --tool and --srcdir flags that are passed
to dejagnu by default; this can be overridden if necessary.
The variables EXPECT and RUNTEST can also be overridden to provide project-specific
values. For instance, you will need to do this if you are testing a compiler toolchain,
because the default values do not take into account host and target names.
The contents of the variable RUNTESTFLAGS are passed to the runtest invocation. This
is considered a “user variable” (see Section 3.6 [User Variables], page 23). If you need to
set runtest flags in Makefile.am, you can use AM_RUNTESTFLAGS instead.
Automake will generate rules to create a local site.exp file, defining various variables
detected by configure. This file is automatically read by DejaGnu. It is OK for the user
of a package to edit this file in order to tune the test suite. However this is not the place
where the test suite author should define new variables: this should be done elsewhere in
the real test suite code. Especially, site.exp should not be distributed.
Still, if the package author has legitimate reasons to extend site.exp at make time,
he can do so by defining the variable EXTRA_DEJAGNU_SITE_CONFIG; the files listed there
will be considered site.exp prerequisites, and their content will be appended to it (in the
same order in which they appear in EXTRA_DEJAGNU_SITE_CONFIG). Note that files are not
distributed by default.
For more information regarding DejaGnu test suites, see The DejaGnu Manual.

15.6 Install Tests

The installcheck target is available to the user as a way to run any tests after the package
has been installed. You can add tests to this by writing an installcheck-local rule.

16 Rebuilding Makefiles
Automake generates rules to automatically rebuild Makefiles, configure, and other de-
rived files like Makefile.in.
If you are using AM_MAINTAINER_MODE in configure.ac, then these automatic rebuilding
rules are only enabled in maintainer mode.
Chapter 16: Rebuilding Makefiles 126

Sometimes it is convenient to supplement the rebuild rules for configure or

config.status with additional dependencies. The variables CONFIGURE_DEPENDENCIES
and CONFIG_STATUS_DEPENDENCIES can be used to list these extra dependencies. These
variables should be defined in all Makefiles of the tree (because these two rebuild rules are
output in all of them), so it is safer and easier to AC_SUBST them from configure.ac. For
instance, the following statement will cause configure to be rerun each time version.sh
is changed.
AC_SUBST([CONFIG_STATUS_DEPENDENCIES], ['$(top_srcdir)/version.sh'])
Note the ‘$(top_srcdir)/’ in the file name. Since this variable is to be used in all
Makefiles, its value must be sensible at any level in the build hierarchy.
Beware not to mistake CONFIGURE_DEPENDENCIES for CONFIG_STATUS_DEPENDENCIES.
CONFIGURE_DEPENDENCIES adds dependencies to the configure rule, whose effect is to
run autoconf. This variable should be seldom used, because automake already tracks m4_
included files. However it can be useful when playing tricky games with m4_esyscmd or
similar non-recommendable macros with side effects. Be also aware that interactions of this
variable with the Section “autom4te cache” in The Autoconf Manual are quite problematic
and can cause subtle breakage, so you might want to disable the cache if you want to use
CONFIGURE_DEPENDENCIES.
CONFIG_STATUS_DEPENDENCIES adds dependencies to the config.status rule, whose
effect is to run configure. This variable should therefore carry any non-standard source
that may be read as a side effect of running configure, like version.sh in the example
above.
Speaking of version.sh scripts, we recommend against them today. They are mainly
used when the version of a package is updated automatically by a script (e.g., in daily
builds). Here is what some old-style configure.acs may look like:
AC_INIT
. $srcdir/version.sh
AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE([name], $VERSION_NUMBER)
...
Here, version.sh is a shell fragment that sets VERSION_NUMBER. The problem with this ex-
ample is that automake cannot track dependencies (listing version.sh in CONFIG_STATUS_
DEPENDENCIES, and distributing this file is up to the user), and that it uses the obsolete
form of AC_INIT and AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE. Upgrading to the new syntax is not straightfor-
ward, because shell variables are not allowed in AC_INIT’s arguments. We recommend that
version.sh be replaced by an M4 file that is included by configure.ac:
m4_include([version.m4])
AC_INIT([name], VERSION_NUMBER)
AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE
...
Here version.m4 could contain something like ‘m4_define([VERSION_NUMBER], [1.2])’.
The advantage of this second form is that automake will take care of the dependencies when
defining the rebuild rule, and will also distribute the file automatically. An inconvenience
is that autoconf will now be rerun each time the version number is bumped, when only
configure had to be rerun in the previous setup.
Chapter 17: Changing Automake’s Behavior 127

GNU Make, at least, has an option --always-make which tells Make to consider that
all targets are out of date. This interacts badly with Automake-generated Makefiles, which
implement their own careful rules for when to regenerate Makefiles, as described above.
The result is an endless loop, or other poor behavior. The only thing to do, as far as we
know, is to refrain from using --always-make.

17 Changing Automake’s Behavior

17.1 Options generalities

Various features of Automake can be controlled by options. Except where noted otherwise,
options can be specified in one of several ways. Most options can be applied on a per-
Makefile basis when listed in a special Makefile variable named AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS. Some
of these options only make sense when specified in the toplevel Makefile.am file. Options
are applied globally to all processed Makefile files when listed in the first argument of AM_
INIT_AUTOMAKE in configure.ac, and some options which require changes to the configure
script can only be specified there. These are annotated below.
As a general rule, options specified in AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS take precedence over those
specified in AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE, which in turn take precedence over those specified on the
command line.
Also, some care must be taken about the interactions among strictness level and warning
categories. As a general rule, strictness-implied warnings are overridden by those specified
by explicit options. For example, even if ‘portability’ warnings are disabled by default in
foreign strictness, a usage like this will end up enabling them:
AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS = -Wportability foreign
However, a strictness level specified in a higher-priority context will override all the ex-
plicit warnings specified in a lower-priority context. For example, if configure.ac contains:
AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE([-Wportability])
and Makefile.am contains:
AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS = foreign
then ‘portability’ warnings will be disabled in Makefile.am.

17.2 List of Automake options

gnits
gnu
foreign
Set the strictness as appropriate. See Section 3.2 [Strictness], page 20. The
gnits option also implies options readme-alpha and check-news.
check-news
Cause ‘make dist’ to fail unless the current version number appears in the first
few lines of the NEWS file.
dejagnu Cause dejagnu-specific rules to be generated. See Section 15.5 [DejaGnu Tests],
page 125.
Chapter 17: Changing Automake’s Behavior 128

dist-bzip2
Hook dist-bzip2 to dist.
dist-lzip
Hook dist-lzip to dist.
dist-xz Hook dist-xz to dist.
dist-zip Hook dist-zip to dist.
dist-zstd
Hook dist-zstd to dist.
dist-shar
Hook dist-shar to dist. Use of this option is deprecated, as the ‘shar’ format
is obsolescent and problematic. Support for it will be removed altogether in
Automake 2.0.
dist-tarZ
Hook dist-tarZ to dist. Use of this option is deprecated, as the ‘compress’
program is obsolete. Support for it will be removed altogether in Automake
2.0.
filename-length-max=99
Abort if file names longer than 99 characters are found during ‘make dist’. Such
long file names are generally considered not to be portable in tarballs. See the
tar-v7 and tar-ustar options below. This option should be used in the top-
level Makefile.am or as an argument of AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE in configure.ac;
it will be ignored otherwise. It will also be ignored in sub-packages of nested
packages (see Section 7.4 [Subpackages], page 53).
info-in-builddir
Instruct Automake to place the generated .info files in the builddir rather
than in the srcdir. Note that this might make VPATH builds with some
non-GNU make implementations more brittle.
no-define
This option is meaningful only when passed as an argument to AM_INIT_
AUTOMAKE. It will prevent the PACKAGE and VERSION variables from being AC_
DEFINEd. But notice that they will remain defined as shell variables in the
generated configure, and as make variables in the generated Makefile; this is
deliberate, and required for backward compatibility.
no-dependencies
This is similar to using --ignore-deps on the command line, but is useful for
those situations where you don’t have the necessary bits to make automatic
dependency tracking work (see Section 8.19 [Dependencies], page 83). In this
case the effect is to effectively disable automatic dependency tracking.
no-dist Don’t emit any code related to dist target. This is useful when a package has
its own method for making distributions.
no-dist-built-sources
Don’t build BUILT_SOURCES as part of dist. This option can be set if building
the distribution only requires the source files, and doesn’t compile anything as a
Chapter 17: Changing Automake’s Behavior 129

side-effect. The default is for ‘$(distdir)’ to depend on ‘$(BUILT_SOURCES)’

because it is common, at least among GNU packages, to want to build the
program to generate man pages with help2man (see Section 14.4.6 [Errors with
distclean], page 106). Admittedly the default behavior should perhaps be to
omit the dependency, but to preserve compatibility, we don’t want to change it
now.
no-dist-gzip
Do not hook dist-gzip to dist.
no-exeext
If your Makefile.am defines a rule for target foo, it will override a rule for a
target named ‘foo$(EXEEXT)’. This is necessary when EXEEXT is found to be
empty. However, by default automake will generate an error for this use. The
no-exeext option will disable this error. This is intended for use only where
it is known in advance that the package will not be ported to Windows, or any
other operating system using extensions on executables.
no-installinfo
The generated Makefile.in will not cause info pages to be built or installed by
default. However, info and install-info targets will still be available. This
option is disallowed at gnu strictness and above.
no-installman
The generated Makefile.in will not cause man pages to be installed by default.
However, an install-man target will still be available for optional installation.
This option is disallowed at gnu strictness and above.
nostdinc This option can be used to disable the standard -I options that are ordinarily
automatically provided by Automake.
no-texinfo.tex
Don’t require texinfo.tex, even if there are texinfo files in this directory.
posix Generate the special target .POSIX as the first non-comment line in the
Makefile.in files. This alters the behavior of the make program. See Section
“make” in The GNU Make Manual.
serial-tests
Enable the older serial test suite harness for TESTS (see Section 15.2.2 [Serial
Test Harness], page 113, for more information).
parallel-tests
Enable test suite harness for TESTS that can run tests in parallel (see Sec-
tion 15.2.3 [Parallel Test Harness], page 114, for more information). This op-
tion is only kept for backward-compatibility, since the parallel test harness is
the default now.
readme-alpha
If this release is an alpha release, and the file README-alpha exists, then it
will be added to the distribution. If this option is given, version numbers are
expected to follow one of two forms. The first form is ‘major.minor.alpha’,
Chapter 17: Changing Automake’s Behavior 130

where each element is a number; the final period and number should be left off
for non-alpha releases. The second form is ‘major.minoralpha’, where alpha
is a letter; it should be omitted for non-alpha releases.
std-options
Make the installcheck rule check that installed scripts and programs support
the --help and --version options. This also provides a basic check that the
program’s run-time dependencies are satisfied after installation.
In a few situations, programs (or scripts) have to be exempted from this test.
For instance, false (from GNU coreutils) is never successful, even for --help
or --version. You can list such programs in the variable AM_INSTALLCHECK_
STD_OPTIONS_EXEMPT. Programs (not scripts) listed in this variable should be
suffixed by ‘$(EXEEXT)’ for the sake of Windows or OS/2. For instance, suppose
we build false as a program but true.sh as a script, and that neither of them
support --help or --version:
AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS = std-options
bin_PROGRAMS = false ...
bin_SCRIPTS = true.sh ...
AM_INSTALLCHECK_STD_OPTIONS_EXEMPT = false$(EXEEXT) true.sh
subdir-objects
If this option is specified, then objects are placed into the subdirectory of the
build directory corresponding to the subdirectory of the source file. For in-
stance, if the source file is subdir/file.cxx, then the output file would be
subdir/file.o. See Section 8.4 [Program and Library Variables], page 67.
tar-v7
tar-ustar
tar-pax
These three mutually exclusive options select the tar format to use when gener-
ating tarballs with ‘make dist’. (The tar file created is then compressed accord-
ing to the set of no-dist-gzip, dist-bzip2, dist-lzip, dist-xz, dist-zstd
and dist-tarZ options in use.)
These options must be passed as arguments to AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE (see Sec-
tion 6.4 [Macros], page 45) because they can require additional configure checks.
Automake will complain if it sees such options in an AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS vari-
able.
tar-v7 selects the old V7 tar format. This is the historical default. This anti-
quated format is understood by all tar implementations and supports file names
with up to 99 characters. When given longer file names some tar implementa-
tions will diagnose the problem while others will generate broken tarballs or use
non-portable extensions. Furthermore, the V7 format cannot store empty direc-
tories. When using this format, consider using the filename-length-max=99
option to catch file names too long.
tar-ustar selects the ustar format defined by POSIX 1003.1-1988. This format
is old enough to be portable: As of 2018, it is supported by the native tar
command on GNU, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, AIX, HP-UX, and Solaris,
Chapter 18: Miscellaneous Rules 131

at least. It fully supports empty directories. It can store file names with up to
256 characters, provided that the file name can be split at directory separator
in two parts, first of them being at most 155 bytes long. So, in most cases the
maximum file name length will be shorter than 256 characters.
tar-pax selects the new pax interchange format defined by POSIX 1003.1-2001.
It does not limit the length of file names. However, this format is very young
and should probably be restricted to packages that target only very modern
platforms. As of 2018, this format is supported by the native tar command
only on GNU, FreeBSD, and OpenBSD systems; it is not supported by the
native tar command on NetBSD, AIX, HP-UX, or Solaris. There are moves to
change the pax format in an upward-compatible way, so this option may refer
to a more recent version in the future.
See Section “Controlling the Archive Format” in GNU Tar, for further discus-
sion about tar formats.
configure knows several ways to construct these formats. It will not abort if
it cannot find a tool up to the task (so that the package can still be built), but
‘make dist’ will fail.
version A version number (e.g., ‘0.30’) can be specified. If Automake is not the same
version or newer than the version specified, creation of the Makefile.in will
be suppressed.
-Wcategory or --warnings=category
These options behave exactly like their command-line counterpart (see Chap-
ter 5 [automake Invocation], page 27). This allows you to enable or disable
some warning categories on a per-file basis. You can also setup some warnings
for your entire project; for instance, try ‘AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE([-Wall])’ in your
configure.ac.
Unrecognized options are diagnosed by automake.
If you want an option to apply to all the files in the tree, you can use the AM_INIT_
AUTOMAKE macro in configure.ac. See Section 6.4 [Macros], page 45.

18 Miscellaneous Rules
There are a few rules and variables that didn’t fit anywhere else.

18.1 Interfacing to etags

Automake will generate rules to generate TAGS files for use with GNU Emacs under some
circumstances.
If any C, C++ or Fortran 77 source code or headers are present, then tags and TAGS rules
will be generated for the directory. All files listed using the _SOURCES, _HEADERS, and _LISP
primaries will be used to generate tags. Generated source files that are not distributed must
be declared in variables like nodist_noinst_HEADERS or nodist_prog_SOURCES or they will
be ignored.
Chapter 18: Miscellaneous Rules 132

A tags rule will be output at the topmost directory of a multi-directory package. When
run from this topmost directory, ‘make tags’ will generate a TAGS file that includes by
reference all TAGS files from subdirectories.
The tags rule will also be generated if the variable ETAGS_ARGS is defined. This variable
is intended for use in directories that contain taggable source that etags does not under-
stand. The user can use the ETAGSFLAGS to pass additional flags to etags; AM_ETAGSFLAGS
is also available for use in Makefile.am. The variable ETAGS is the name of the program to
invoke (by default etags).
Here is how Automake generates tags for its source, and for nodes in its Texinfo file:
ETAGS_ARGS = automake.in --lang=none \
--regex='/^@node[ \t]+\([^,]+\)/\1/' automake.texi
If you add file names to ETAGS_ARGS, you will probably also want to define TAGS_
DEPENDENCIES. The contents of this variable are added directly to the dependencies for
the tags rule.
Automake also generates a ctags rule that can be used to build vi-style tags files.
The variable CTAGS is the name of the program to invoke (by default ctags); CTAGSFLAGS
can be used by the user to pass additional flags, and AM_CTAGSFLAGS can be used by the
Makefile.am.
Automake will also generate an ID rule that will run mkid on the source. This is only
supported on a directory-by-directory basis.
Similarly, the cscope rule will create a list of all the source files in the tree and run cscope
to build an inverted index database. The variable CSCOPE is the name of the program to
invoke (by default cscope); CSCOPEFLAGS and CSCOPE_ARGS can be used by the user to
pass additional flags and file names respectively, while AM_CSCOPEFLAGS can be used by the
Makefile.am. Note that, currently, the Automake-provided cscope support, when used in
a VPATH build, might not work well with non-GNU make implementations (especially with
make implementations performing Section “VPATH rewrites” in The Autoconf Manual).
Finally, Automake also emits rules to support the GNU Global Tags program (https://
www.gnu.org/software/global/). The GTAGS rule runs Global Tags and puts the result
in the top build directory. The variable GTAGS_ARGS holds arguments that are passed to
gtags.

18.2 Handling new file extensions

It is sometimes useful to introduce a new implicit rule to handle a file type that Automake
does not know about.
For instance, suppose you had a compiler that could compile .foo files to .o files. You
would simply define a suffix rule for your language:
.foo.o:
foocc -c -o $@ $<
Then you could directly use a .foo file in a _SOURCES variable and expect the correct
results:
bin_PROGRAMS = doit
doit_SOURCES = doit.foo
Chapter 19: Include 133

This was the simpler and more common case. In other cases, you will have to help
Automake to figure out which extensions you are defining your suffix rule for. This usually
happens when your extension does not start with a dot. Then, all you have to do is to put
a list of new suffixes in the SUFFIXES variable before you define your implicit rule.
For instance, the following definition prevents Automake from misinterpreting the
‘.idlC.cpp:’ rule as an attempt to transform .idlC files into .cpp files.
SUFFIXES = .idl C.cpp
.idlC.cpp:
# whatever
As you may have noted, the SUFFIXES variable behaves like the .SUFFIXES special target
of make. You should not touch .SUFFIXES yourself, but use SUFFIXES instead and let
Automake generate the suffix list for .SUFFIXES. Any given SUFFIXES go at the start of
the generated suffixes list, followed by Automake generated suffixes not already in the list.
Automake disables the Make program’s built-in rules with a .SUFFIXES: rule, and then
adds whatever suffixes are necessary. Automake also disables GNU Make’s built-in pattern
rules.

19 Include
Automake supports an include directive that can be used to include other Makefile frag-
ments when automake is run. Note that these fragments are read and interpreted by
automake, not by make. As with conditionals, make has no idea that include is in use.
There are two forms of include:
include $(srcdir)/file
Include a fragment that is found relative to the current source directory.
include $(top_srcdir)/file
Include a fragment that is found relative to the top source directory.
Note that if a fragment is included inside a conditional, then the condition applies to
the entire contents of that fragment.
Makefile fragments included this way are always distributed because they are needed
to rebuild Makefile.in.
Inside a fragment, the construct %reldir% is replaced with the directory of the fragment
relative to the base Makefile.am. Similarly, %canon_reldir% is replaced with the canoni-
calized (see Section 3.5 [Canonicalization], page 23) form of %reldir%. As a convenience,
%D% is a synonym for %reldir%, and %C% is a synonym for %canon_reldir%.
A special feature is that if the fragment is in the same directory as the base Makefile.am
(i.e., %reldir% is .), then:
%reldir% together with a following slash expands to the empty string, otherwise it ex-
pands to a dot;
%canon_reldir%
together with a following underscore expands to the empty string, otherwise it
expands to an underscore.
Chapter 20: Conditionals 134

Thus, a Makefile fragment might look like this:

bin_PROGRAMS += %reldir%/mumble
%canon_reldir%_mumble_SOURCES = %reldir%/one.c

20 Conditionals
Automake supports a simple type of conditional.
These conditionals are not the same as conditionals in GNU Make. Automake condi-
tionals are checked at configure time by the configure script, and affect the translation
from Makefile.in to Makefile. They are based on options passed to configure and on
results that configure has discovered about the host system. GNU Make conditionals are
checked at make time, and are based on variables passed to the make program or defined in
the Makefile.
Automake conditionals will work with any make program.

20.1 Usage of Conditionals

Before using a conditional, you must define it by using AM_CONDITIONAL in the
configure.ac file (see Section 6.4 [Macros], page 45).

AM_CONDITIONAL (conditional, condition) [Macro]

The conditional name, conditional, should be a simple string starting with a letter
and containing only letters, digits, and underscores. It must be different from ‘TRUE’
and ‘FALSE’, which are reserved by Automake.
The shell condition (suitable for use in a shell if statement) is evaluated when
configure is run. Note that you must arrange for every AM_CONDITIONAL to be
invoked every time configure is run. If AM_CONDITIONAL is run conditionally (e.g.,
in a shell if statement), then the result will confuse automake.
For portability, it is best to use shell operators && and || and parentheses, when
constructing a compound condition using the test command, and not the -a and -o
options and parentheses as options to test, all of which have been marked obsolescent
by POSIX (https://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/utilities/
test.html#tag_20_128_161). The name test is also more portable than [. See
Section “Limitations of Builtins” in The Autoconf Manual.

Conditionals typically depend upon options that the user provides to the configure
script. Here is an example of how to write a conditional that is true if the user uses the
--enable-debug option.
AC_ARG_ENABLE([debug],
[ --enable-debug Turn on debugging],
[case "${enableval}" in
yes) debug=true ;;
no) debug=false ;;
*) AC_MSG_ERROR([bad value ${enableval} for --enable-debug]) ;;
esac],[debug=false])
AM_CONDITIONAL([DEBUG], [test x$debug = xtrue])
Chapter 20: Conditionals 135

Here is an example of how to use that conditional in Makefile.am:

if DEBUG
DBG = debug
else
DBG =
endif
noinst_PROGRAMS = $(DBG)
This trivial example could also be handled using EXTRA_PROGRAMS (see Section 8.1.4
[Conditional Programs], page 58).
You may only test a single variable in an if statement, possibly negated using ‘!’. The
else statement may be omitted. Conditionals may be nested to any depth. You may
specify an argument to else in which case it must be the negation of the condition used for
the current if. Similarly you may specify the condition that is closed on the endif line:
if DEBUG
DBG = debug
else !DEBUG
DBG =
endif !DEBUG
Unbalanced conditions are errors. The if, else, and endif statements should not be
indented, i.e., start on column one.
The else branch of the above two examples could be omitted, since assigning the empty
string to an otherwise undefined variable makes no difference.
In order to allow access to the condition registered by AM_CONDITIONAL inside
configure.ac, and to allow conditional AC_CONFIG_FILES, AM_COND_IF may be used:
AM_COND_IF (conditional, [if-true], [if-false]) [Macro]
If conditional is fulfilled, execute if-true, otherwise execute if-false. If either branch
contains AC_CONFIG_FILES, it will cause automake to output the rules for the respec-
tive files only for the given condition.
AM_COND_IF macros may be nested when M4 quotation is used properly (see Section
“M4 Quotation” in The Autoconf Manual).
Here is an example of how to define a conditional config file:
AM_CONDITIONAL([SHELL_WRAPPER], [test "x$with_wrapper" = xtrue])
AM_COND_IF([SHELL_WRAPPER],
[AC_CONFIG_FILES([wrapper:wrapper.in])])

20.2 Limits of Conditionals

Conditionals should enclose complete statements like variables or rules definitions. Au-
tomake cannot deal with conditionals used inside a variable definition, for instance, and is
not even able to diagnose this situation. The following example would not work:
# This syntax is not understood by Automake
AM_CPPFLAGS = \
-DFEATURE_A \
if WANT_DEBUG
Chapter 21: Silencing make 136

-DDEBUG \
endif
-DFEATURE_B
However the intended definition of AM_CPPFLAGS can be achieved with
if WANT_DEBUG
DEBUGFLAGS = -DDEBUG
endif
AM_CPPFLAGS = -DFEATURE_A $(DEBUGFLAGS) -DFEATURE_B
or
AM_CPPFLAGS = -DFEATURE_A
if WANT_DEBUG
AM_CPPFLAGS += -DDEBUG
endif
AM_CPPFLAGS += -DFEATURE_B
More details and examples of conditionals are described alongside various Automake fea-
tures in this manual (see Section 7.2 [Conditional Subdirectories], page 50, see Section 8.1.3
[Conditional Sources], page 57, see Section 8.1.4 [Conditional Programs], page 58, see Sec-
tion 8.3.3 [Conditional Libtool Libraries], page 61, see Section 8.3.4 [Conditional Libtool
Sources], page 62).

21 Silencing make

21.1 Make is verbose by default

Normally, when executing the set of rules associated with a target, make prints each rule
before it is executed. This behavior, despite having been in place since the beginning of
make, and being mandated by the POSIX standard, starkly violates the “silence is golden”
UNIX principle5 :
When a program has nothing interesting or surprising to say, it should say noth-
ing. Well-behaved Unix programs do their jobs unobtrusively, with a minimum
of fuss and bother. Silence is golden.
The traditional verbosity of make is understandable, as it is useful, often necessary, in
order to understand reasons of failures. However, it can also hide warning and error messages
from make-invoked tools, drowning them in uninteresting and seldom useful messages, and
thus allowing them to easily go undetected.
This can be quite problematic, especially for developers, who usually know quite well
what’s going on behind the scenes, and for whom the verbose output from make ends
up being mostly noise that hampers the easy detection of potentially important warning
messages.
So Automake provides some support for silencing make.

5
See also http://catb.org/~esr/writings/taoup/html/ch11s09.html.
Chapter 21: Silencing make 137

21.2 Standard and generic ways to silence Make

Here we describe some common idioms/tricks to obtain a quieter make output, with their
relative advantages and drawbacks. In the next section (Section 21.3 [Automake Silent
Rules], page 137) we’ll see how Automake can help in this respect, providing more elaborate
and flexible idioms.
• make -s
This simply causes make not to print any rule before executing it.
The -s flag is mandated by POSIX, universally supported, and its purpose and function
are easy to understand.
But it also has serious limitations. First of all, it embodies an “all or nothing” strategy,
i.e., either everything is silenced, or nothing is; in practice, this lack of granularity makes
it unsuitable as a general solution. When the -s flag is used, the make output might
turn out to be too terse; in case of errors, the user won’t be able to easily see what
rule or command have caused them, or even, in case of tools with poor error reporting,
what the errors were.
• make >/dev/null || make
Apparently, this perfectly obeys the “silence is golden” rule: warnings from stderr are
passed through, output reporting is done only in case of error, and in that case it should
provide a verbose-enough report to allow an easy determination of the error location
and causes.
However, calling make two times in a row might hide errors (especially intermittent
ones), or subtly change the expected semantics of the make calls—these things can
clearly make debugging and error assessment very difficult.
• make --no-print-directory
This is GNU make specific. When called with the --no-print-directory option,
GNU make will disable printing of the working directory by invoked sub-makes (the
well-known “Entering/Leaving directory . . . ” messages). This helps to decrease the
verbosity of the output, but experience has shown that it can also often render debug-
ging considerably harder in projects using deeply-nested make recursion.
As an aside, the --no-print-directory option is automatically activated if the -s
flag is used.

21.3 How Automake can help in silencing Make

The tricks and idioms for silencing make described in the previous section can be useful from
time to time, but we’ve seen that they all have their serious drawbacks and limitations.
That’s why automake provides support for a more advanced and flexible way of obtaining
quieter output from make (for most rules at least).
To give the gist of what Automake can do in this respect, here is a simple comparison
between a typical make output (where silent rules are disabled) and one with silent rules
enabled:
% cat Makefile.am
bin_PROGRAMS = foo
foo_SOURCES = main.c func.c
Chapter 21: Silencing make 138

% cat main.c
int main (void) { return func (); } /* func used undeclared */
% cat func.c
int func (void) { int i; return i; } /* i used uninitialized */

The make output is by default very verbose. This causes warnings

from the compiler to be somewhat hidden, and not immediate to spot.
% make CFLAGS=-Wall
gcc -DPACKAGE_NAME=\"foo\" -DPACKAGE_TARNAME=\"foo\" ...
-DPACKAGE_STRING=\"foo\ 1.0\" -DPACKAGE_BUGREPORT=\"\" ...
-DPACKAGE=\"foo\" -DVERSION=\"1.0\" -I. -Wall -MT main.o
-MD -MP -MF .deps/main.Tpo -c -o main.o main.c
main.c: In function ‘main’:
main.c:3:3: warning: implicit declaration of function ‘func’
mv -f .deps/main.Tpo .deps/main.Po
gcc -DPACKAGE_NAME=\"foo\" -DPACKAGE_TARNAME=\"foo\" ...
-DPACKAGE_STRING=\"foo\ 1.0\" -DPACKAGE_BUGREPORT=\"\" ...
-DPACKAGE=\"foo\" -DVERSION=\"1.0\" -I. -Wall -MT func.o
-MD -MP -MF .deps/func.Tpo -c -o func.o func.c
func.c: In function ‘func’:
func.c:4:3: warning: ‘i’ used uninitialized in this function
mv -f .deps/func.Tpo .deps/func.Po
gcc -Wall -o foo main.o func.o

Clean up, so that we can rebuild everything from scratch.

% make clean
test -z "foo" || rm -f foo
rm -f *.o

Silent rules enabled: the output is minimal but informative.

The warnings from the compiler stick out very clearly.
% make V=0 CFLAGS=-Wall
CC main.o
main.c: In function ‘main’:
main.c:3:3: warning: implicit declaration of function ‘func’
CC func.o
func.c: In function ‘func’:
func.c:4:3: warning: ‘i’ used uninitialized in this function
CCLD foo
Also, in projects using Libtool, the use of silent rules can automatically enable libtool’s
--silent option:
% cat Makefile.am
lib_LTLIBRARIES = libx.la

% make # Both make and libtool are verbose by default.

...
Chapter 21: Silencing make 139

libtool: compile: gcc -DPACKAGE_NAME=\"foo\" ... -DLT_OBJDIR=\".libs/\"

-I. -g -O2 -MT libx.lo -MD -MP -MF .deps/libx.Tpo -c libx.c -fPIC
-DPIC -o .libs/libx.o
mv -f .deps/libx.Tpo .deps/libx.Plo
/bin/sh ./libtool --tag=CC --mode=link gcc -g -O2 -o libx.la -rpath
/usr/local/lib libx.lo
libtool: link: gcc -shared .libs/libx.o -Wl,-soname -Wl,libx.so.0
-o .libs/libx.so.0.0.0
libtool: link: cd .libs && rm -f libx.so && ln -s libx.so.0.0.0 libx.so
...

% make V=0
CC libx.lo
CCLD libx.la
For Automake-generated Makefiles, the user may influence the verbosity at configure
run time as well as at make run time:
• Passing --enable-silent-rules to configure will cause build rules to be less verbose;
the option --disable-silent-rules will cause normal verbose output.
• At make run time, the default chosen at configure time may be overridden: make V=1
will produce verbose output, make V=0 less verbose output.
Unfortunately, if V is assigned a value other than 0 or 1, errors will result. This is
problematic when a third-party program or library is built in the same tree and also
uses the make variable V, with different values. The best workaround is probably to set
AM_V_P=true (or similar), either on the make command line or in the V-using project’s
Makefile.am. (For more discussion, see https://bugs.gnu.org/20077.)
Silent rules are disabled by default; the user must enable them explicitly at either
configure run time or at make run time. We think that this is a good policy, since it
provides the casual user with enough information to prepare a good bug report in case
anything breaks.
Notwithstanding those rationales, developers who want to enable silent rules by default
in their own packages can do so by calling AM_SILENT_RULES([yes]) in configure.ac.
Analogously, users who prefer to have silent rules enabled by default for everything on
their system can edit their config.site file to make the variable enable_silent_rules
default to ‘yes’. This still allows disabling silent rules at configure time and at make time.
To work best, the current implementation of this feature normally uses nested variable
expansion ‘$(var1$(V))’, a Makefile feature that is not required by POSIX 2008 but
is widely supported in practice. On the rare make implementations that do not support
nested variable expansion, whether rules are silent is always determined at configure time,
and cannot be overridden at make time. Future versions of POSIX are likely to require
nested variable expansion, so this minor limitation should go away with time.
To extend the silent mode to your own rules, you have a few choices:
• You can use the predefined variable AM_V_GEN as a prefix to commands that should
output a status line in silent mode, and AM_V_at as a prefix to commands that should
not output anything in silent mode. When output is to be verbose, both of these
variables will expand to the empty string.
Chapter 22: When Automake Isn’t Enough 140

• You can silence a recipe unconditionally with @, and then use the predefined variable
AM_V_P to know whether make is being run in silent or verbose mode; adjust the verbose
information your recipe displays accordingly. For example:
generate-headers:
@set -e; \
... [commands defining shell variable '$headers'] ...; \
if $(AM_V_P); then set -x; else echo " GEN [headers]"; fi; \
rm -f $$headers && generate-header --flags $$headers

AM_V_P is (must be) always set to a simple command, not needing shell quoting, typi-
cally either : or true or false.
• You can add your own variables, so strings of your own choice are shown. The following
snippet shows how you would define your own equivalent of AM_V_GEN, say a string
‘PKG-GEN’:
pkg_verbose = $(pkg_verbose_@AM_V@)
pkg_verbose_ = $(pkg_verbose_@AM_DEFAULT_V@)
pkg_verbose_0 = @echo PKG-GEN $@;

foo: foo.in
$(pkg_verbose)cp $(srcdir)/foo.in $@

Even when silent rules are enabled, the --no-print-directory option is still required
with GNU make if the “Entering/Leaving directory . . . ” messages are to be elided.

21.4 Unsilencing Automake

With the AM_SILENT_RULES macro described in the previous section, Automake does a good
job reducing make output to a bare minimum. Sometimes you want to see more than that,
especially when debugging. Let’s summarize ways to get more information out of Automake
packages:
• Running make V=1 will produce generally verbose output.
• Adding AM_V_GEN= AM_V_at= will unsilence more rules. Thus, in all: make V=1 AM_V_
GEN= AM_V_at=.
• Even this will not unsilence everything. To see the real truth of what gets executed,
resort to GNU Make’s debugging feature: make --debug=p ... otherargs .... This
reports every command being run, ignoring the @ prefix on rules (which is what si-
lences them). In the case of Automake, these commands are generally complex shell
constructs, and you’ll want to track down the source files in Automake to actually un-
derstand them; but at least you’ll have the text to search for. You may wish to include
other debugging options. See Section “Options Summary” in The GNU Make Manual.

22 When Automake Isn’t Enough

In some situations, where Automake is not up to one task, one has to resort to handwritten
rules or even handwritten Makefiles.
Chapter 22: When Automake Isn’t Enough 141

22.1 Extending Automake Rules

With some minor exceptions (for example _PROGRAMS variables, TESTS, or XFAIL_TESTS)
being rewritten to append ‘$(EXEEXT)’), the contents of a Makefile.am is copied to
Makefile.in verbatim.
These copying semantics mean that many problems can be worked around by simply
adding some make variables and rules to Makefile.am. Automake will ignore these addi-
tions.
Since a Makefile.in is built from data gathered from three different places
(Makefile.am, configure.ac, and automake itself), it is possible to have conflicting
definitions of rules or variables. When building Makefile.in the following priorities are
respected by automake to ensure the user always has the last word:
• User defined variables in Makefile.am have priority over variables AC_SUBSTed from
configure.ac, and AC_SUBSTed variables have priority over automake-defined vari-
ables.
• As far as rules are concerned, a user-defined rule overrides any automake-defined rule
for the same target.
These overriding semantics make it possible to fine tune some default settings of Au-
tomake, or replace some of its rules. Overriding Automake rules is often inadvisable, par-
ticularly in the topmost directory of a package with subdirectories. The -Woverride option
(see Chapter 5 [automake Invocation], page 27) comes in handy to catch overridden defini-
tions.
Note that Automake does not make any distinction between rules with commands and
rules that only specify dependencies. So it is not possible to append new dependencies to
an automake-defined target without redefining the entire rule.
However, various useful targets have a ‘-local’ version you can specify in your
Makefile.am. Automake will supplement the standard target with these user-supplied
targets.
The targets that support a local version are all, info, dvi, ps, pdf, html,
check, install-data, install-dvi, install-exec, install-html, install-info,
install-pdf, install-ps, uninstall, installdirs, installcheck and the various
clean targets (mostlyclean, clean, distclean, and maintainer-clean).
Note that there are no uninstall-exec-local or uninstall-data-local targets; just
use uninstall-local. It doesn’t make sense to uninstall just data or just executables.
For instance, here is one way to erase a subdirectory during ‘make clean’ (see Chapter 13
[Clean], page 101).
clean-local:
-rm -rf testSubDir
You may be tempted to use install-data-local to install a file to some hard-coded
location, but you should avoid this (see Section 26.9 [Hard-Coded Install Paths], page 161).
With the -local targets, there is no particular guarantee of execution order; typically,
they are run early, but with parallel make, there is no way to be sure of that.
In contrast, some rules also have a way to run another rule, called a hook; hooks are
always executed after the main rule’s work is done. The hook is named after the principal
Chapter 22: When Automake Isn’t Enough 142

target, with ‘-hook’ appended. The targets allowing hooks are install-data, install-
exec, uninstall, dist, and distcheck.
For instance, here is how to create a hard link to an installed program:
install-exec-hook:
ln $(DESTDIR)$(bindir)/program$(EXEEXT) \
$(DESTDIR)$(bindir)/proglink$(EXEEXT)
Although cheaper and more portable than symbolic links, hard links will not work ev-
erywhere (for instance, OS/2 does not have ln). Ideally you should fall back to ‘cp -p’
when ln does not work. An easy way, if symbolic links are acceptable to you, is to add AC_
PROG_LN_S to configure.ac (see Section “Particular Program Checks” in The Autoconf
Manual) and use ‘$(LN_S)’ in Makefile.am.
For instance, here is how you could install a versioned copy of a program using ‘$(LN_S)’:
install-exec-hook:
cd $(DESTDIR)$(bindir) && \
mv -f prog$(EXEEXT) prog-$(VERSION)$(EXEEXT) && \
$(LN_S) prog-$(VERSION)$(EXEEXT) prog$(EXEEXT)
Note that we rename the program so that a new version will erase the symbolic link, not
the real binary. Also we cd into the destination directory in order to create relative links.
When writing install-exec-hook or install-data-hook, please bear in mind that the
exec/data distinction is based on the installation directory, not on the primary used (see
Section 12.2 [The Two Parts of Install], page 100). So a foo_SCRIPTS will be installed by
install-data, and a barexec_SCRIPTS will be installed by install-exec. You should
define your hooks accordingly.

22.2 Third-Party Makefiles

In most projects all Makefiles are generated by Automake. In some cases, however, projects
need to embed subdirectories with handwritten Makefiles. For instance, one subdirectory
could be a third-party project with its own build system, not using Automake.
It is possible to list arbitrary directories in SUBDIRS or DIST_SUBDIRS provided each of
these directories has a Makefile that recognizes all the following recursive targets.
When a user runs one of these targets, that target is run recursively in all subdirectories.
This is why it is important that even third-party Makefiles support them.

all Compile the entire package. This is the default target in Automake-generated
Makefiles, but it does not need to be the default in third-party Makefiles.
distdir Copy files to distribute into ‘$(distdir)’, before a tarball is constructed. Of
course this target is not required if the no-dist option (see Chapter 17 [Op-
tions], page 127) is used.
The variables ‘$(top_distdir)’ and ‘$(distdir)’ (see Section 14.3 [The dist
Hook], page 103) will be passed from the outer package to the subpackage when
the distdir target is invoked. These two variables have been adjusted for the
directory that is being recursed into, so they are ready to use.
Chapter 22: When Automake Isn’t Enough 143

install
install-data
install-exec
uninstall
Install or uninstall files (see Chapter 12 [Install], page 99).
install-dvi
install-html
install-info
install-ps
install-pdf
Install only some specific documentation format (see Section 11.1 [Texinfo],
page 96).
installdirs
Create install directories, but do not install any files.
check
installcheck
Check the package (see Chapter 15 [Tests], page 110).
mostlyclean
clean
distclean
maintainer-clean
Cleaning rules (see Chapter 13 [Clean], page 101).
dvi
pdf
ps
info
html Build the documentation in various formats (see Section 11.1 [Texinfo],
page 96).
tags
ctags Build TAGS and CTAGS (see Section 18.1 [Tags], page 131).
If you have ever used Gettext in a project, this is a good example of how third-party
Makefiles can be used with Automake. The Makefiles that gettextize puts in the po/
and intl/ directories are handwritten Makefiles that implement all of these targets. That
way they can be added to SUBDIRS in Automake packages.
Directories that are only listed in DIST_SUBDIRS but not in SUBDIRS need only the
distclean, maintainer-clean, and distdir rules (see Section 7.2 [Conditional Subdirec-
tories], page 50).
Usually, many of these rules are irrelevant to the third-party subproject, but they are
required for the whole package to work. It’s OK to have a rule that does nothing, so if
you are integrating a third-party project with no documentation or tag support, you could
augment its Makefile as follows:
EMPTY_AUTOMAKE_TARGETS = dvi pdf ps info html tags ctags
.PHONY: $(EMPTY_AUTOMAKE_TARGETS)
Chapter 22: When Automake Isn’t Enough 144

$(EMPTY_AUTOMAKE_TARGETS):
To be clear, there is nothing special about the variable name EMPTY_AUTOMAKE_TARGETS;
the name could be anything.
Another aspect of integrating third-party build systems is whether they support VPATH
builds (see Section 2.2.6 [VPATH Builds], page 6). Obviously if the subpackage does not sup-
port VPATH builds the whole package will not support VPATH builds. This in turns means
that ‘make distcheck’ will not work, because it relies on VPATH builds. Some people can
live without this (indeed, many Automake users have never heard of ‘make distcheck’).
Other people may prefer to revamp the existing Makefiles to support VPATH. Doing so
does not necessarily require Automake; only Autoconf is needed (see Section “Build Directo-
ries” in The Autoconf Manual). The necessary substitutions: ‘@srcdir@’, ‘@top_srcdir@’,
and ‘@top_builddir@’ are defined by configure when it processes a Makefile (see Sec-
tion “Preset Output Variables” in The Autoconf Manual); they are not computed by the
Makefile like the aforementioned ‘$(distdir)’ and ‘$(top_distdir)’ variables.
It is sometimes inconvenient to modify a third-party Makefile to introduce the above
required targets. For instance, one may want to keep the third-party sources untouched to
ease upgrades to new versions.
Here are two other ideas. If GNU Make is assumed, one possibility is to add to that
subdirectory a GNUmakefile that defines the required targets and includes the third-party
Makefile. For this to work in VPATH builds, GNUmakefile must lie in the build directory;
the easiest way to do this is to write a GNUmakefile.in instead, and have it processed with
AC_CONFIG_FILES from the outer package. For example, if we assume Makefile defines all
targets except the documentation targets, and that the real check target is named test,
we could write GNUmakefile (or GNUmakefile.in) like this:
# First, include the real Makefile
include Makefile
# Then, define the other targets needed by Automake Makefiles.
.PHONY: dvi pdf ps info html check
dvi pdf ps info html:
check: test
A similar idea that does not use include is to write a proxy Makefile that dispatches
rules to the real Makefile, either with ‘$(MAKE) -f Makefile.real $(AM_MAKEFLAGS)
target’ (if it’s OK to rename the original Makefile) or with ‘cd subdir && $(MAKE)
$(AM_MAKEFLAGS) target’ (if it’s OK to store the subdirectory project one directory
deeper). The good news is that this proxy Makefile can be generated with Automake.
All we need are -local targets (see Section 22.1 [Extending], page 141) that perform the
dispatch. Of course the other Automake features are available, so you could decide to let
Automake perform distribution or installation. Here is a possible Makefile.am:
all-local:
cd subdir && $(MAKE) $(AM_MAKEFLAGS) all
check-local:
cd subdir && $(MAKE) $(AM_MAKEFLAGS) test
clean-local:
cd subdir && $(MAKE) $(AM_MAKEFLAGS) clean
Chapter 24: Automake API Versioning 145

# Assuming the package knows how to install itself

install-data-local:
cd subdir && $(MAKE) $(AM_MAKEFLAGS) install-data
install-exec-local:
cd subdir && $(MAKE) $(AM_MAKEFLAGS) install-exec
uninstall-local:
cd subdir && $(MAKE) $(AM_MAKEFLAGS) uninstall

# Distribute files from here.

EXTRA_DIST = subdir/Makefile subdir/program.c ...
Pushing this idea to the extreme, it is also possible to ignore the subproject build system
and build everything from this proxy Makefile.am. This might well be sensible if you need
VPATH builds but the subproject does not support them.

23 Distributing Makefile.ins
Automake places no restrictions on the distribution of the resulting Makefile.ins. We
encourage software authors to distribute their work under terms like those of the GPL, but
doing so is not required to use Automake.
Some of the files that can be automatically installed via the --add-missing switch do
fall under the GPL. However, these also have a special exception allowing you to distribute
them with your package, regardless of the licensing you choose.

24 Automake API Versioning

New Automake releases usually include bug fixes and new features. Unfortunately they
may also introduce new bugs and incompatibility. This makes four reasons why a package
may require a particular Automake version.
Things get worse when maintaining a large tree of packages, each one requiring a different
version of Automake. In the past, this meant that any developer (and sometimes users) had
to install several versions of Automake in different places, and switch ‘$PATH’ appropriately
for each package.
Starting with version 1.6, Automake installs versioned binaries. This means you can
install several versions of Automake in the same ‘$prefix’, and can select an arbitrary Au-
tomake version by running automake-1.6 or automake-1.7 without juggling with ‘$PATH’.
Furthermore, Makefiles generated by Automake 1.6 will use automake-1.6 explicitly in
their rebuild rules.
The number ‘1.6’ in automake-1.6 is Automake’s API version, not Automake’s version.
If a bug fix release is made, for instance Automake 1.6.1, the API version will remain 1.6.
This means that a package that works with Automake 1.6 should also work with 1.6.1; after
all, this is what people expect from bug fix releases.
If your package relies on a feature or a bug fix introduced in a release, you can pass this
version as an option to Automake to ensure older releases will not be used. For instance,
use this in your configure.ac:
AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE([1.6.1]) dnl Require Automake 1.6.1 or better.
Chapter 25: Upgrading a Package to a Newer Automake Version 146

or, in a particular Makefile.am:

AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS = 1.6.1 # Require Automake 1.6.1 or better.
Automake will print an error message if its version is older than the requested version.

What is in the API

Automake’s programming interface is not easy to define. Basically it should include at least
all documented variables and targets that a Makefile.am author can use, any behavior
associated with them (e.g., the places where ‘-hook’’s are run), the command line interface
of automake and aclocal, . . .

What is not in the API

Every undocumented variable, target, or command line option is not part of the API. You
should avoid using them, as they could change from one version to the other (even in bug
fix releases, if this helps to fix a bug).
If it turns out you need to use such an undocumented feature, contact [email protected]
and try to get it documented and exercised by the test-suite.

25 Upgrading a Package to a Newer Automake

Version
Automake maintains three kinds of files in a package.
• aclocal.m4
• Makefile.ins
• auxiliary tools like install-sh or py-compile
aclocal.m4 is generated by aclocal and contains some Automake-supplied M4 macros.
Auxiliary tools are installed by ‘automake --add-missing’ when needed. Makefile.ins
are built from Makefile.am by automake, and rely on the definitions of the M4 macros put
in aclocal.m4 as well as the behavior of the auxiliary tools installed.
Because all of these files are closely related, it is important to regenerate all of them
when upgrading to a newer Automake release. The usual way to do that is
aclocal # with any option needed (such as -I m4)
autoconf
automake --add-missing --force-missing
or more conveniently:
autoreconf -vfi
The use of --force-missing ensures that auxiliary tools will be overridden by new
versions (see Chapter 5 [automake Invocation], page 27).
It is important to regenerate all of these files each time Automake is upgraded, even be-
tween bug fix releases. For instance, it is not unusual for a bug fix to involve changes to both
the rules generated in Makefile.in and the supporting M4 macros copied to aclocal.m4.
Presently automake is able to diagnose situations where aclocal.m4 has been generated
with another version of aclocal. However it never checks whether auxiliary scripts are
Chapter 26: Frequently Asked Questions about Automake 147

up-to-date. In other words, automake will tell you when aclocal needs to be rerun, but it
will never diagnose a missing --force-missing.
Before upgrading to a new major release, it is a good idea to read the file NEWS. This file
lists all changes between releases: new features, obsolete constructs, known incompatibility,
and workarounds.

26 Frequently Asked Questions about Automake

This chapter covers some questions that often come up on the mailing lists.

26.1 Version control and generated files

Background: distributed generated Files
Packages made with Autoconf and Automake ship with some generated files like configure
or Makefile.in. These files were generated on the developer’s machine and are distributed
so that end-users do not have to install the maintainer tools required to rebuild them.
Other generated files like Lex scanners, Yacc parsers, or Info documentation are usually
distributed on similar grounds.
Automake output generates rules in Makefiles to rebuild these files. For instance,
make will run autoconf to rebuild configure whenever configure.ac is changed. This
makes development safer by ensuring a configure is never out-of-date with respect to
configure.ac.
As generated files shipped in packages are up-to-date, and because tar preserves time-
stamps, these rebuild rules are not triggered when a user unpacks and builds a package.

Background: Version Control and Timestamps

Typically when you update files with version control commands, working files will have the
timestamp of your update, not the original timestamp of the commit. This is meant to
make sure that make notices that source files have been updated.
This timestamp shift is troublesome when both sources and generated files are kept
under version control. Because version control commands often process files in lexical
order, configure.ac will appear newer than configure after a version control command
that updates both files, even if configure was newer than configure.ac when it was
committed. Calling make will then trigger a spurious rebuild of configure.

Living with Version Control in Autoconfiscated Projects

There are basically two clans among maintainers: those who keep all distributed files under
version control, including generated files, and those who keep generated files out of version
control.

All Files under Version Control

• The repository contains all distributed files so you know exactly what is distributed,
and you can check out any prior version entirely.
• Maintainers can see how generated files evolve (for instance, you can see what happens
to your Makefile.ins when you upgrade Automake and make sure they look OK).
Chapter 26: Frequently Asked Questions about Automake 148

• Users do not need Autotools to build a check-out of the project; it works just like a
released tarball.
• If users use version control to update their copy, timestamps will likely be inaccu-
rate. Some rebuild rules will be triggered and attempt to run developer tools such as
autoconf or automake.
Calls to such tools are all wrapped into a call to the missing script discussed later (see
Section 26.2 [maintainer-mode], page 149), so that the user will see more descriptive
warnings about missing or out-of-date tools, and possible suggestions about how to
obtain them, rather than just some “command not found” error, or (worse) some
obscure message from some older version of the required tool they happen to have
installed.
Maintainers interested in keeping their package buildable from a checkout even for
those users that lack maintainer-specific tools might want to provide a helper script
(or to enhance their existing bootstrap script) to fix the timestamps after a checkout,
to prevent spurious rebuilds. In case of a project committing the Autotools-generated
files, as well as the generated .info files, such a script might look something like this:
#!/bin/sh
# fix-timestamp.sh: Prevent useless rebuilds after "git pull".
sleep 1
# aclocal-generated aclocal.m4 depends on locally-installed
# '.m4' macro files, as well as on 'configure.ac'.
touch aclocal.m4
sleep 1
# autoconf-generated 'configure' and autoheader-generated
# config.h.in both depend on aclocal.m4 and on configure.ac.
touch configure config.h.in
# Automake-generated Makefile.in files depend on Makefile.am,
# and makeinfo-generated '.info' files depend on the
# corresponding '.texi' files.
touch $(git ls-files '*/Makefile.in' '*.info')
• In distributed development, developers are likely to have different versions of the main-
tainer tools installed. In this case rebuilds triggered by clock skew can lead to spurious
changes to generated files. There are several solutions to this:
• All developers should use the same versions, so that the rebuilt files are identical
to files in the repository. (This becomes difficult when different projects on which
you are working use different versions.)
• Or people use a script to fix the timestamp after a checkout (the GCC folks have
such a script).
• Or configure.ac uses AM_MAINTAINER_MODE, which disables all of these rebuild
rules by default. This is further discussed in Section 26.2 [maintainer-mode],
page 149.
• Although we focused on spurious rebuilds, the converse can also happen. Version
control timestamp handling can also let you think an out-of-date file is up-to-date.
For instance, suppose a developer has modified Makefile.am and has rebuilt
Makefile.in, and then decides to do a last-minute change to Makefile.am right
before checking in both files (without rebuilding Makefile.in to account for the
change).
Chapter 26: Frequently Asked Questions about Automake 149

This last change to Makefile.am makes the copy of Makefile.in out-of-date. Assum-
ing version control processes files alphabetically, when another developer updates their
tree, Makefile.in will happen to be newer than Makefile.am. This other developer
will not see that Makefile.in is out-of-date.

Generated Files out of Version Control

One way to get version control and make working peacefully is to never store generated files
in version control, i.e., do not version-control files that are Makefile targets (also called
derived files).
This way developers are not annoyed by changes to generated files. It does not
matter if they all have different versions (assuming they are compatible, of course).
And finally, timestamps are not lost; changes to source files can’t be missed as in the
Makefile.am/Makefile.in example discussed earlier.
The drawback is that the repository does not contain some files that are is distributed,
so builders now need to install various development tools (maybe even specific versions)
before they can build a checkout. But, after all, the job of version control is versioning, not
distribution.
Allowing developers to use different versions of their tools can also hide bugs during
distributed development. Indeed, developers will be using (hence testing) their own gener-
ated files, instead of the generated files that will be released. The developer who prepares
the tarball might be using a version of the tool that produces bogus output (for instance
a non-portable C file), something other developers could have noticed if they weren’t using
their own versions of this tool.

Third-party Files
Another class of files not discussed here (because they do not cause timestamp issues) are
files that are shipped with a package, but maintained elsewhere. For instance, tools like
gettextize and autopoint (from Gettext) or libtoolize (from Libtool), will install or
update files in your package.
These files, whether they are kept under version control or not, raise similar concerns
about version mismatch between developers’ tools. The Gettext manual has a section about
this; see Section “Integrating with Version Control Systems” in GNU gettext tools.

26.2 missing and AM_MAINTAINER_MODE

missing
The missing script is a wrapper around several maintainer tools, designed to warn users if a
maintainer tool is required but missing. Typical maintainer tools are autoconf, automake,
bison, etc. Because files generated by these tools are shipped with the other sources of a
package, these tools shouldn’t be required during a user build and they are not checked for
in configure.
However, if for some reason a rebuild rule is triggered and involves a missing tool,
missing will notice it and warn the user, even suggesting how to obtain such a tool (at
least in case it is a well-known one, like makeinfo or bison). This is more helpful and user-
friendly than just having the rebuild rules spewing out a terse error message like ‘sh: tool:
Chapter 26: Frequently Asked Questions about Automake 150

command not found’. Similarly, missing will warn the user if it detects that a maintainer
tool it attempted to use seems too old (be warned that diagnosing this correctly is typically
more difficult than detecting missing tools, and requires cooperation from the tool itself, so
it won’t always work).
If the required tool is installed, missing will run it and won’t attempt to continue
after failures. This is correct behavior during development: developers love fixing failures.
However, users with missing or too old maintainer tools may get an error when the rebuild
rule is spuriously triggered, halting the build. This failure to let the build continue is one
of the arguments of the AM_MAINTAINER_MODE advocates.

AM_MAINTAINER_MODE
AM_MAINTAINER_MODE allows you to choose whether the so called "rebuild rules" should be
enabled or disabled. With AM_MAINTAINER_MODE([enable]), they are enabled by default;
otherwise they are disabled by default. In the latter case, if you have AM_MAINTAINER_
MODE in configure.ac, and run ‘./configure && make’, then make will *never* attempt to
rebuild configure, Makefile.ins, Lex or Yacc outputs, etc. That is, this disables build
rules for files that are usually distributed and that users should normally not have to update.
The user can override the default setting by passing either ‘--enable-maintainer-mode’
or ‘--disable-maintainer-mode’ to configure.
People use AM_MAINTAINER_MODE either because they do not want their users (or them-
selves) annoyed by clock skew (see Section 26.1 [Version Control], page 147), or because
they simply can’t stand the rebuild rules and prefer running maintainer tools explicitly.
AM_MAINTAINER_MODE also allows you to disable some custom build rules conditionally.
Some developers use this feature to disable rules that need exotic tools that users may not
have available.
Several years ago François Pinard pointed out several arguments against this
AM_MAINTAINER_MODE macro. Most of them relate to insecurity. By removing dependencies
you get non-dependable builds: changes to source files can have no effect on generated
files and this can be very confusing when unnoticed. He adds that security shouldn’t be
reserved to maintainers (what --enable-maintainer-mode suggests), on the contrary. If
one user has to modify a Makefile.am, then either Makefile.in should be updated or a
warning should be output (this is what Automake uses missing for) but the last thing you
want is that nothing happens and the user doesn’t notice it (this is what happens when
rebuild rules are disabled by AM_MAINTAINER_MODE).
Jim Meyering, the inventor of the AM_MAINTAINER_MODE macro, was swayed by François’
arguments, and got rid of AM_MAINTAINER_MODE in all of his packages.
Still many people continue to use AM_MAINTAINER_MODE, because it helps them working
on projects where all files are kept under version control, and because missing isn’t enough
if you have the wrong version of the tools.

26.3 Why doesn’t Automake support wildcards?

Developers are lazy. They would often like to use wildcards in Makefile.ams, so that
they would not need to remember to update Makefile.ams every time they add, delete, or
rename a file.
Chapter 26: Frequently Asked Questions about Automake 151

There are several objections to this:

• When using version control, developers need to remember they have to add or remove
files from version control anyway. Updating Makefile.am accordingly quickly becomes
a reflex.
Conversely, if your application doesn’t compile because you forgot to add a file in
Makefile.am, it will help you remember to add the file to version control.
• Using wildcards makes it easy to distribute files by mistake. For instance, some code
a developer is experimenting with (a test case, say) that should not be part of the
distribution.
• Using wildcards it’s easy to omit some files by mistake. For instance, one developer
creates a new file, uses it in many places, but forgets to commit it. Another developer
then checks out the incomplete project and is able to run ‘make dist’ successfully, even
though a file is missing. By listing files, ‘make dist’ will complain.
• Wildcards are not portable to some non-GNU make implementations, e.g., NetBSD
make will not expand globs such as ‘*’ in prerequisites of a target.
• Finally, it’s quite hard to forget to add a file to Makefile.am: files that are not listed
in Makefile.am are not compiled or installed, so you can’t even test them.
Still, these are philosophical objections, and as such you may disagree, or find enough
value in wildcards to dismiss all of them. Before you start writing a patch against Automake
to teach it about wildcards, let’s see the main technical issue: portability.
Although ‘$(wildcard ...)’ works with GNU make, it is not portable to other make
implementations.
The only way Automake could support $(wildcard ...) is by expanding $(wildcard
...) when automake is run. The resulting Makefile.ins would be portable since they
would list all files and not use ‘$(wildcard ...)’. However that means developers would
need to remember to run automake each time they add, delete, or rename files.
Compared to editing Makefile.am, this is a very small gain. Sure, it’s easier and faster
to type ‘automake; make’ than to type ‘emacs Makefile.am; make’. But nobody bothered
enough to write a patch to add support for this syntax. Some people use scripts to generate
file lists in Makefile.am or in separate Makefile fragments.
Even if you don’t care about portability, and are tempted to use ‘$(wildcard ...)’
anyway because you target only GNU Make, you should know there are many places where
Automake needs to know exactly which files should be processed. As Automake doesn’t
know how to expand ‘$(wildcard ...)’, you cannot use it in these places. ‘$(wildcard
...)’ is a black box comparable to AC_SUBSTed variables as far Automake is concerned.
You can get warnings about ‘$(wildcard ...’) constructs using the -Wportability
flag.

26.4 Limitations on File Names

Automake attempts to support all kinds of file names, even those that contain unusual
characters or are unusually long. However, some limitations are imposed by the underlying
operating system and tools.
Chapter 26: Frequently Asked Questions about Automake 152

Most operating systems prohibit the use of the null byte in file names, and reserve ‘/’ as
a directory separator. Also, they require that file names are properly encoded for the user’s
locale. Automake is subject to these limits.
Portable packages should limit themselves to POSIX file names. These can contain
ASCII letters and digits, ‘_’, ‘.’, and ‘-’. File names consist of components separated by
‘/’. File name components cannot begin with ‘-’.
Portable POSIX file names cannot contain components that exceed a 14-byte limit, but
nowadays it’s normally safe to assume the more-generous XOPEN limit of 255 bytes. POSIX
limits file names to 255 bytes (XOPEN allows 1023 bytes), but you may want to limit a
source tarball to file names of 99 bytes to avoid interoperability problems with old versions
of tar.
If you depart from these rules (e.g., by using non-ASCII characters in file names, or
by using lengthy file names), your installers may have problems for reasons unrelated to
Automake. However, if this does not concern you, you should know about the limitations
imposed by Automake itself. These limitations are undesirable, but some of them seem to
be inherent to underlying tools like Autoconf, Make, M4, and the shell. They fall into three
categories: install directories, build directories, and file names.
The following characters:
newline " # $ ' `
should not appear in the names of install directories. For example, the operand of
configure’s --prefix option should not contain these characters.
Build directories suffer the same limitations as install directories, and in addition should
not contain the following characters:
& @ \
For example, the full name of the directory containing the source files should not contain
these characters.
Source and installation file names like main.c are limited even further: they should
conform to the POSIX/XOPEN rules described above. In addition, if you plan to port
to non-POSIX environments, you should avoid file names that differ only in case (e.g.,
makefile and Makefile). Nowadays it is no longer worth worrying about the 8.3 limits of
DOS file systems.

26.5 Flag Variables Ordering

What is the difference between AM_CFLAGS, CFLAGS, and
mumble_CFLAGS?
Why does automake output CPPFLAGS after
AM_CPPFLAGS on compile lines? Shouldn’t it be the converse?
My configure adds some warning flags into CXXFLAGS. In
one Makefile.am I would like to append a new flag, however if I
put the flag into AM_CXXFLAGS it is prepended to the other
flags, not appended.
Chapter 26: Frequently Asked Questions about Automake 153

Compile Flag Variables

This section attempts to answer all the above questions. We will mostly discuss CPPFLAGS
in our examples, but the answer holds for all the compile flags used in Automake:
CCASFLAGS, CFLAGS, CPPFLAGS, CXXFLAGS, FCFLAGS, FFLAGS, GCJFLAGS, LDFLAGS, LFLAGS,
LIBTOOLFLAGS, OBJCFLAGS, OBJCXXFLAGS, RFLAGS, UPCFLAGS, and YFLAGS.
CPPFLAGS, AM_CPPFLAGS, and mumble_CPPFLAGS are three variables that can be used to
pass flags to the C preprocessor ( these variables are also used for other languages like C++
or preprocessed Fortran). CPPFLAGS is the user variable (see Section 3.6 [User Variables],
page 23), AM_CPPFLAGS is the Automake variable, and mumble_CPPFLAGS is the variable
specific to the mumble target (we call this a per-target variable, see Section 8.4 [Program
and Library Variables], page 67).
Automake always uses two of these variables when compiling C sources files. When
compiling an object file for the mumble target, the first variable will be mumble_CPPFLAGS
if it is defined, or AM_CPPFLAGS otherwise. The second variable is always CPPFLAGS.
In the following example,
bin_PROGRAMS = foo bar
foo_SOURCES = xyz.c
bar_SOURCES = main.c
foo_CPPFLAGS = -DFOO
AM_CPPFLAGS = -DBAZ
xyz.o will be compiled with ‘$(foo_CPPFLAGS) $(CPPFLAGS)’, (because xyz.o is part of the
foo target), while main.o will be compiled with ‘$(AM_CPPFLAGS) $(CPPFLAGS)’ (because
there is no per-target variable for target bar).
The difference between mumble_CPPFLAGS and AM_CPPFLAGS being clear enough, let’s
focus on CPPFLAGS. CPPFLAGS is a user variable, i.e., a variable that users are entitled to
modify in order to compile the package. This variable, like many others, is documented at
the end of the output of ‘configure --help’.
For instance, someone who needs to add /home/my/usr/include to the C compiler’s
search path would configure a package with
./configure CPPFLAGS='-I /home/my/usr/include'
and this flag would be propagated to the compile rules of all Makefiles.
It is also not uncommon to override a user variable at make-time. Many installers do this
with prefix, but this can be useful with compiler flags too. For instance, while debugging
a C++ project, if you need to disable optimization in one specific object file, you can run
something like
rm file.o
make CXXFLAGS=-O0 file.o
make
The reason ‘$(CPPFLAGS)’ appears after ‘$(AM_CPPFLAGS)’ or ‘$(mumble_CPPFLAGS)’
in the compile command is that users should have the last say. In the example above,
the desire is for the ‘CXXFLAGS=-O0’ to supersede any other switch from AM_CXXFLAGS or
mumble_CXXFLAGS.
It’s true that not all options to all programs can be overridden. So in general, users could
conceivably want to place options at arbitrary places in the command line, but Automake
Chapter 26: Frequently Asked Questions about Automake 154

does not support this. It would be difficult to make such generality comprehensible. Being
able to specify the final options commonly suffices.
Thus, you should never redefine a user variable such as CPPFLAGS in Makefile.am. Use
‘automake -Woverride’ to diagnose such mistakes. Even something like
CPPFLAGS = -DDATADIR=\"$(datadir)\" @CPPFLAGS@
is erroneous. Although this preserves configure’s value of CPPFLAGS, the definition of
DATADIR will disappear if a user attempts to override CPPFLAGS from the make command
line.
AM_CPPFLAGS = -DDATADIR=\"$(datadir)\"
is all that is needed here if no per-target flags are used.
You should not add options to these user variables within configure either, for the same
reason. Occasionally you need to modify these variables to perform a test, but you should
reset their values afterwards. In contrast, it is OK to modify the ‘AM_’ variables within
configure if you AC_SUBST them, but it is rather rare that you need to do this, unless you
want to change the default definitions of the ‘AM_’ variables in all Makefiles.
What we recommend is that you define extra flags in separate variables. For instance, you
may write an Autoconf macro that computes a set of warning options for the C compiler, and
AC_SUBST them in WARNINGCFLAGS; you may also have an Autoconf macro that determines
which compiler and which linker flags should be used to link with library libfoo, and AC_
SUBST these in LIBFOOCFLAGS and LIBFOOLDFLAGS. Then, a Makefile.am could use these
variables as follows:
AM_CFLAGS = $(WARNINGCFLAGS)
bin_PROGRAMS = prog1 prog2
prog1_SOURCES = ...
prog2_SOURCES = ...
prog2_CFLAGS = $(LIBFOOCFLAGS) $(AM_CFLAGS)
prog2_LDFLAGS = $(LIBFOOLDFLAGS)
In this example both programs will be compiled with the flags substituted into
‘$(WARNINGCFLAGS)’, and prog2 will additionally be compiled with the flags required to
link with libfoo.
Note that listing AM_CFLAGS in a per-target CFLAGS variable is a common idiom to ensure
that AM_CFLAGS applies to every target in a Makefile.in.
Using variables like this gives you full control over the ordering of the flags. For instance,
if there is a flag in $(WARNINGCFLAGS) that you want to negate for a particular target,
you can use something like ‘prog1_CFLAGS = $(AM_CFLAGS) -no-flag’. If all of these flags
had been forcefully appended to CFLAGS, there would be no way to disable one flag. Yet
another reason to leave user variables to users.
Finally, we have avoided naming the variable of the example LIBFOO_LDFLAGS (with an
underscore) because that would cause Automake to think that this is a per-target variable
(like mumble_LDFLAGS) for some non-declared LIBFOO target.

Other Variables
There are other variables in Automake that follow similar principles to allow user options.
For instance, Texinfo rules (see Section 11.1 [Texinfo], page 96) use MAKEINFOFLAGS and
Chapter 26: Frequently Asked Questions about Automake 155

AM_MAKEINFOFLAGS. Similarly, DejaGnu tests (see Section 15.5 [DejaGnu Tests], page 125)
use RUNTESTFLAGS and AM_RUNTESTFLAGS. The tags and ctags rules (see Section 18.1 [Tags],
page 131) use ETAGSFLAGS, AM_ETAGSFLAGS, CTAGSFLAGS, and AM_CTAGSFLAGS. Java rules
(see Section 10.4 [Java], page 92) use JAVACFLAGS and AM_JAVACFLAGS. None of these rules
support per-target flags (yet).
To some extent, even AM_MAKEFLAGS (see Section 7.1 [Subdirectories], page 49) obeys this
naming scheme. The slight difference is that MAKEFLAGS is passed to sub-makes implicitly
by make itself.
ARFLAGS (see Section 8.2 [A Library], page 59) is usually defined by Automake and has
neither an AM_ nor a per-target cousin.
Finally you should not think that the existence of a per-target variable implies the
existence of an AM_ variable or of a user variable. For instance, the mumble_LDADD per-
target variable overrides the makefile-wide LDADD variable (which is not a user variable),
and mumble_LIBADD exists only as a per-target variable. See Section 8.4 [Program and
Library Variables], page 67.

26.6 Why are object files sometimes renamed?

This happens when per-target compilation flags are used. Object files need to be renamed
just in case they would clash with object files compiled from the same sources, but with
different flags. Consider the following example.
bin_PROGRAMS = true false
true_SOURCES = generic.c
true_CPPFLAGS = -DEXIT_CODE=0
false_SOURCES = generic.c
false_CPPFLAGS = -DEXIT_CODE=1
Obviously the two programs are built from the same source, but it would be bad if they
shared the same object, because generic.o cannot be built with both ‘-DEXIT_CODE=0’
and ‘-DEXIT_CODE=1’. Therefore automake outputs rules to build two different objects:
true-generic.o and false-generic.o.
Automake doesn’t actually determine whether source files are shared to decide if it must
rename objects. It just renames all objects of a target as soon as it sees that per-target
compilation flags are used.
It’s OK to share object files when per-target compilation flags are not used. For instance,
true and false will both use version.o in the following example.
AM_CPPFLAGS = -DVERSION=1.0
bin_PROGRAMS = true false
true_SOURCES = true.c version.c
false_SOURCES = false.c version.c
Note that the renaming of objects is also affected by the _SHORTNAME variable (see
Section 8.4 [Program and Library Variables], page 67).

26.7 Per-Object Flags Emulation

One of my source files needs to be compiled with different flags. How
do I do that?
Chapter 26: Frequently Asked Questions about Automake 156

Automake supports per-program and per-library compilation flags (see Section 8.4 [Pro-
gram and Library Variables], page 67, and Section 26.5 [Flag Variables Ordering], page 152).
With this you can define compilation flags that apply to all files compiled for a target. For
instance, in
bin_PROGRAMS = foo
foo_SOURCES = foo.c foo.h bar.c bar.h main.c
foo_CFLAGS = -some -flags
foo-foo.o, foo-bar.o, and foo-main.o will all be compiled with ‘-some -flags’. (If you
wonder about the names of these object files, see Section 26.6 [Renamed Objects], page 155.)
Note that foo_CFLAGS gives the flags to use when compiling all the C sources of the program
foo; it has nothing to do with foo.c or foo-foo.o specifically.
What if foo.c needs to be compiled into foo.o using some specific flags, that none
of the other files requires? Obviously per-program flags are not directly applicable here.
Something like per-object flags are expected, i.e., flags that would be used only when cre-
ating foo-foo.o. Automake does not support that; however this is easy to simulate using
a library that contains only that object, and compiling this library with per-library flags.
bin_PROGRAMS = foo
foo_SOURCES = bar.c bar.h main.c
foo_CFLAGS = -some -flags
foo_LDADD = libfoo.a
noinst_LIBRARIES = libfoo.a
libfoo_a_SOURCES = foo.c foo.h
libfoo_a_CFLAGS = -some -other -flags
Here foo-bar.o and foo-main.o will all be compiled with ‘-some -flags’, while
libfoo_a-foo.o will be compiled using ‘-some -other -flags’. Eventually, all three
objects will be linked to form foo.
This trick can also be achieved using Libtool convenience libraries, for instance
‘noinst_LTLIBRARIES = libfoo.la’ (see Section 8.3.5 [Libtool Convenience Libraries],
page 62).
Another tempting idea to implement per-object flags is to override the compile rules
automake would output for these files. Automake will not define a rule for a target you
have defined, so you could think about defining the ‘foo-foo.o: foo.c’ rule yourself. We
recommend against this, because this is error prone. For instance, if you add such a rule to
the first example, it will break the day you decide to remove foo_CFLAGS (because foo.c
will then be compiled as foo.o instead of foo-foo.o, see Section 26.6 [Renamed Objects],
page 155). Also in order to support dependency tracking, the two .o/.obj extensions, and
all the other flags variables involved in a compilation, you will end up modifying a copy of
the rule previously output by automake for this file. If a new release of Automake generates
a different rule, your copy will need to be updated by hand.

26.8 Handling Tools that Produce Many Outputs

This section describes a make idiom that can be used when a tool produces multiple output
files. It is not specific to Automake and can be used in ordinary Makefiles.
First, however: GNU make is able to express rules with multiple output files using pattern
rules (see Section “Pattern Rule Examples” in The GNU Make Manual). We do not discuss
Chapter 26: Frequently Asked Questions about Automake 157

pattern rules here because they are not portable, but if you’re able to assume GNU make,
they are typically more convenient than any of the below approaches.
Suppose we have a program called foo that will read one file called data.foo and produce
two files named data.c and data.h. We want to write a Makefile rule that captures this
one-to-two dependency.
The naive rule is incorrect:
# This is incorrect.
data.c data.h: data.foo
foo data.foo
What the above rule says is that data.c and data.h each depend on data.foo, and can
each be built by running ‘foo data.foo’. In other words it is equivalent to:
# We do not want this.
data.c: data.foo
foo data.foo
data.h: data.foo
foo data.foo
which means that foo can be run twice. Usually it will not be run twice, because make
implementations are smart enough to check for the existence of the second file after the
first one has been built; they will therefore detect that it already exists. However there are
a few situations where it can run twice anyway:
• The most worrying case is when running a parallel make. If data.c and data.h are
built in parallel, two ‘foo data.foo’ commands will run concurrently. This is harmful.
• Another case is when the dependency (here data.foo) is (or depends upon) a phony
target.
Ideally, we want a scheme that will support any number of output files, and that works
with parallel make invocations, and that does nothing when ‘make -n’ is run. It is apparently
not possible to achieve a perfect solution. Even an acceptable solution for the majority of
cases gets complicated, so we will take it step by step.
One idea is to write the following:
# There is still a problem with this one.
data.c: data.foo
foo data.foo
data.h: data.c
The idea is that ‘foo data.foo’ is run only when data.c needs to be updated, but we
further state that data.h depends upon data.c. That way, if data.h is required and
data.foo is out of date, the dependency on data.c will trigger the build.
This is almost perfect, but suppose we have built data.h and data.c, and then we erase
data.h. Then, running ‘make data.h’ will not rebuild data.h. The above rules just state
that data.c must be up-to-date with respect to data.foo, and this is already the case.
What we need is a rule that forces a rebuild when data.h is missing. Here it is:
# More or less works, but not easy to generalize.
data.c: data.foo
foo data.foo
Chapter 26: Frequently Asked Questions about Automake 158

data.h: data.c
## Recover from the removal of $@
@test -f $@ || rm -f data.c
@test -f $@ || $(MAKE) $(AM_MAKEFLAGS) data.c
It is tempting to use a single test as follows:
# This breaks make -n.
data.h: data.c
## Recover from the removal of $@
@if test -f $@; then :; else \
rm -f data.c; \
$(MAKE) $(AM_MAKEFLAGS) data.c; \
fi
but that would break ‘make -n’: at least GNU make and Solaris make execute recipes con-
taining the ‘$(MAKE)’ string even when they are running in dry mode. So if we didn’t break
the recipe above in two invocations, the file data.c would be removed even upon ‘make -n’.
Not nice.
The above scheme can be extended to handle more outputs and more inputs. One of the
outputs is selected to serve as a witness to the successful completion of the command, it
depends upon all inputs, and all other outputs depend upon it. For instance, if foo should
additionally read data.bar and also produce data.w and data.x, we would write:
data.c: data.foo data.bar
foo data.foo data.bar
data.h data.w data.x: data.c
## Recover from the removal of $@
@test -f $@ || rm -f data.c
@test -f $@ || $(MAKE) $(AM_MAKEFLAGS) data.c
However there are now three problems in this setup. One is related to the timestamp
ordering of data.h, data.w, data.x, and data.c. A second is a race condition if a parallel
make attempts to run multiple instances of the recover block at once. Finally, the recursive
rule breaks ‘make -n’ when run with GNU make (as well as some other make implemen-
tations), as it may remove data.h even when it should not (see Section “How the MAKE
Variable Works” in The GNU Make Manual).
Let us deal with the first problem. foo outputs four files, but we do not know in which
order these files are created. Suppose that data.h is created before data.c. Then we have
a weird situation. The next time make is run, data.h will appear older than data.c, the
second rule will be triggered, a shell will be started to execute the ‘if...fi’ command, but
it will just execute the then branch, that is: nothing. In other words, because the witness
we selected is not the first file created by foo, make will start a shell to do nothing each
time it is run.
A simple riposte is to fix the timestamps when this happens.
data.c: data.foo data.bar
foo data.foo data.bar
data.h data.w data.x: data.c
@test ! -f $@ || touch $@
## Recover from the removal of $@
Chapter 26: Frequently Asked Questions about Automake 159

@test -f $@ || rm -f data.c
@test -f $@ || $(MAKE) $(AM_MAKEFLAGS) data.c
Another solution is to use a different and dedicated file as witness, rather than using
any of foo’s outputs.
data.stamp: data.foo data.bar
@rm -f data.tmp
@touch data.tmp
foo data.foo data.bar
@mv -f data.tmp $@
data.c data.h data.w data.x: data.stamp
## Recover from the removal of $@
@test -f $@ || rm -f data.stamp
@test -f $@ || $(MAKE) $(AM_MAKEFLAGS) data.stamp
data.tmp is created before foo is run, so it has a timestamp older than output files
output by foo. It is then renamed to data.stamp after foo has run, because we do not
want to update data.stamp if foo fails.
This solution still suffers from the second problem: the race condition in the recover rule.
If, after a successful build, a user erases data.c and data.h, and runs ‘make -j’, then make
may start both recover rules in parallel. If the two instances of the rule execute ‘$(MAKE)
$(AM_MAKEFLAGS) data.stamp’ concurrently the build is likely to fail (for instance, the two
rules will create data.tmp, but only one can rename it).
Admittedly, such a weird situation does not arise during ordinary builds. It occurs only
when the build tree is mutilated. Here data.c and data.h have been explicitly removed
without also removing data.stamp and the other output files. make clean; make will always
recover from these situations even with parallel makes, so you may decide that the recover
rule is solely to help non-parallel make users and leave things as-is. Fixing this requires some
locking mechanism to ensure only one instance of the recover rule rebuilds data.stamp. One
could imagine something along the following lines.
data.c data.h data.w data.x: data.stamp
## Recover from the removal of $@
@if test -f $@; then :; else \
trap 'rm -rf data.lock data.stamp' 1 2 13 15; \
## mkdir is a portable test-and-set
if mkdir data.lock 2>/dev/null; then \
## This code is being executed by the first process.
rm -f data.stamp; \
$(MAKE) $(AM_MAKEFLAGS) data.stamp; \
result=$$?; rm -rf data.lock; exit $$result; \
else \
## This code is being executed by the follower processes.
## Wait until the first process is done.
while test -d data.lock; do sleep 1; done; \
## Succeed if and only if the first process succeeded.
test -f data.stamp; \
fi; \
Chapter 26: Frequently Asked Questions about Automake 160

fi
Using a dedicated witness, like data.stamp, is very handy when the list of output files
is not known beforehand. As an illustration, consider the following rules to compile many
*.el files into *.elc files in a single command. It does not matter how ELFILES is defined
(as long as it is not empty: empty targets are not accepted by POSIX).
ELFILES = one.el two.el three.el ...
ELCFILES = $(ELFILES:=c)

elc-stamp: $(ELFILES)
@rm -f elc-temp
@touch elc-temp
$(elisp_comp) $(ELFILES)
@mv -f elc-temp $@

$(ELCFILES): elc-stamp
@if test -f $@; then :; else \
## Recover from the removal of $@
trap 'rm -rf elc-lock elc-stamp' 1 2 13 15; \
if mkdir elc-lock 2>/dev/null; then \
## This code is being executed by the first process.
rm -f elc-stamp; \
$(MAKE) $(AM_MAKEFLAGS) elc-stamp; \
rmdir elc-lock; \
else \
## This code is being executed by the follower processes.
## Wait until the first process is done.
while test -d elc-lock; do sleep 1; done; \
## Succeed if and only if the first process succeeded.
test -f elc-stamp; exit $$?; \
fi; \
fi
These solutions all still suffer from the third problem, namely that they break the promise
that ‘make -n’ should not cause any actual changes to the tree. For those solutions that do
not create lock files, it is possible to split the recover rules into two separate recipe com-
mands, one of which does all work but the recursion, and the other invokes the recursive
‘$(MAKE)’. The solutions involving locking could act upon the contents of the ‘MAKEFLAGS’
variable, but parsing that portably is not easy (see Section “The Make Macro MAKE-
FLAGS” in The Autoconf Manual). Here is an example:
ELFILES = one.el two.el three.el ...
ELCFILES = $(ELFILES:=c)

elc-stamp: $(ELFILES)
@rm -f elc-temp
@touch elc-temp
$(elisp_comp) $(ELFILES)
@mv -f elc-temp $@
Chapter 26: Frequently Asked Questions about Automake 161

$(ELCFILES): elc-stamp
## Recover from the removal of $@
@dry=; for f in x $$MAKEFLAGS; do \
case $$f in \
*=*|--*);; \
*n*) dry=:;; \
esac; \
done; \
if test -f $@; then :; else \
$$dry trap 'rm -rf elc-lock elc-stamp' 1 2 13 15; \
if $$dry mkdir elc-lock 2>/dev/null; then \
## This code is being executed by the first process.
$$dry rm -f elc-stamp; \
$(MAKE) $(AM_MAKEFLAGS) elc-stamp; \
$$dry rmdir elc-lock; \
else \
## This code is being executed by the follower processes.
## Wait until the first process is done.
while test -d elc-lock && test -z "$$dry"; do \
sleep 1; \
done; \
## Succeed if and only if the first process succeeded.
$$dry test -f elc-stamp; exit $$?; \
fi; \
fi

26.9 Installing to Hard-Coded Locations

My package needs to install some configuration file. I tried to use
the following rule, but ‘make distcheck’ fails. Why?

# Do not do this.
install-data-local:
$(INSTALL_DATA) $(srcdir)/afile $(DESTDIR)/etc/afile

My package needs to populate the installation directory of another

package at install-time. I can easily compute that installation
directory in configure, but if I install files therein,
‘make distcheck’ fails. How else should I do it?

These two setups share their symptoms: ‘make distcheck’ fails because they are in-
stalling files to hard-coded paths. In the latter case the path is not hard-coded in the
package, but we can consider it to be hard-coded in the system (or in whichever tool
that supplies the path). As long as the path does not use any of the standard directory
variables (‘$(prefix)’, ‘$(bindir)’, ‘$(datadir)’, etc.), the effect will be the same: user-
installations are impossible.
Chapter 26: Frequently Asked Questions about Automake 162

As a (non-root) user who wants to install a package, you usually have no right to install
anything in /usr or /usr/local. So you do something like ‘./configure --prefix ~/usr’
to install a package in your own ~/usr tree.
If a package attempts to install something to some hard-coded path (e.g., /etc/afile),
regardless of this --prefix setting, then the installation will fail. ‘make distcheck’ per-
forms such a --prefix installation, hence it will fail too.
Now, there are some easy solutions.
The above install-data-local example for installing /etc/afile would be better
replaced by
sysconf_DATA = afile
By default sysconfdir will be ‘$(prefix)/etc’, because this is what the GNU Standards
require. When such a package is installed on an FHS compliant system, the installer will
have to set ‘--sysconfdir=/etc’. As the maintainer of the package you should not be con-
cerned by such site policies: use the appropriate standard directory variable to install your
files so that the installer can easily redefine these variables to match their site conventions.
Installing files that should be used by another package is slightly more involved. Let’s
take an example and assume you want to install a shared library that is a Python extension
module. If you ask Python where to install the library, it will answer something like this:
% python -c 'from distutils import sysconfig;
print sysconfig.get_python_lib(1,0)'
/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages
If you indeed use this absolute path to install your shared library, non-root users will
not be able to install the package; hence distcheck fails.
Let’s do better. The ‘sysconfig.get_python_lib()’ function accepts a third argument
that will replace Python’s installation prefix.
% python -c 'from distutils import sysconfig;
print sysconfig.get_python_lib(1,0,"${exec_prefix}")'
${exec_prefix}/lib/python2.5/site-packages
You can also use this new path. If you do
• root users can install your package with the same --prefix as Python (you get the
behavior of the previous attempt)
• non-root users can install your package too; they will have the extension module in a
place that is not searched by Python but they can work around this using environment
variables (and if you installed scripts that use this shared library, it’s easy to tell Python
where to look in the beginning of your script, so the script works in both cases).
The AM_PATH_PYTHON macro uses similar commands to define ‘$(pythondir)’ and
‘$(pyexecdir)’ (see Section 10.5 [Python], page 93).
Of course not all tools are as advanced as Python regarding that substitution of prefix.
So another strategy is to figure out the part of the installation directory that must be
preserved. For instance, here is how AM_PATH_LISPDIR (see Section 10.1 [Emacs Lisp],
page 91) computes ‘$(lispdir)’:
$EMACS -batch -no-site-file -eval '(while load-path
(princ (concat (car load-path) "\n"))
Chapter 26: Frequently Asked Questions about Automake 163

(setq load-path (cdr load-path)))' >conftest.out

lispdir=`sed -n
-e 's,/$,,'
-e '/.*\/lib\/x*emacs\/site-lisp$/{
s,.*/lib/\(x*emacs/site-lisp\)$,${libdir}/\1,;p;q;
}'
-e '/.*\/share\/x*emacs\/site-lisp$/{
s,.*/share/\(x*emacs/site-lisp\),${datarootdir}/\1,;p;q;
}'
conftest.out`
That is, it just picks the first directory that looks like */lib/*emacs/site-lisp or
*/share/*emacs/site-lisp in the search path of emacs, and then substitutes ‘${libdir}’
or ‘${datadir}’ appropriately.
The emacs case looks complicated because it processes a list and expects two possible
layouts; otherwise it’s easy, and the benefits for non-root users are worth the extra sed
invocation.

26.10 Debugging Make Rules

The rules and dependency trees generated by automake can get rather complex, and leave
the developer head-scratching when things don’t work as expected. Besides the debug
options provided by the make command (see Section “Options Summary” in The GNU Make
Manual), here’s a couple of further hints for debugging makefiles generated by automake
effectively:
• If less verbose output has been enabled in the package with the use of silent rules (see
Section 21.3 [Automake Silent Rules], page 137), you’ll probably want undo that and
see the actual commands being run: see Section 21.4 [Unsilencing Automake], page 140.
• make -n can help show what would be done without actually doing it. However, this
still executes commands prefixed with ‘+’, and, when using GNU make, commands
that contain the strings ‘$(MAKE)’ or ‘${MAKE}’ (see Section “Instead of Execution”
in The GNU Make Manual). Typically, this is helpful to show what recursive rules
would do, but it means that, in your own rules, you should not mix such recursion with
actions that change any files.6 Furthermore, GNU make will update prerequisites for
the Makefile file itself even with -n (see Section “Remaking Makefiles” in The GNU
Make Manual).
• make SHELL="/bin/bash -vx" can help debug complex rules. See Section “The Make
Macro SHELL” in The Autoconf Manual, for some portability quirks associated with
this construct.
• echo 'print: ; @echo "$(VAR)"' | make -f Makefile -f - print can be handy to
examine the expanded value of variables. You may need to use a target other than
‘print’ if that is already used or a file with that name exists.
• http://bashdb.sourceforge.net/remake/ provides a modified GNU make command
called remake that copes with complex GNU make-specific Makefiles and allows tracing
execution, examining variables, and calling rules interactively, much like a debugger.
6
Automake’s ‘dist’ and ‘distcheck’ rules had a bug in this regard in that they created directories even
with -n, but this has been fixed in Automake 1.11.
Chapter 26: Frequently Asked Questions about Automake 164

26.11 Reporting Bugs

Most nontrivial software has bugs. Automake is no exception. We cannot promise we can
or will fix a bug, and we might not even agree that it is a bug, but we want to hear about
problems you encounter. Often we agree they are bugs and want to fix them.
So, to make it possible for us to fix a bug, please report it. If you can, though, it is
helpful if you check if it is already known. You can look at the GNU Bug Tracker (https://
debbugs.gnu.org/) and the bug-automake mailing list archives (https://lists.gnu.org/
archive/html/bug-automake/) for previous bug reports. (We previously used a Gnats
database for bug tracking, but it is no longer online.)
If the bug is not already known, it should be reported. To report bugs in a way
that is useful and efficient, please read How to Report Bugs Effectively (https://www.
chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/bugs.html) and How to Ask Questions the Smart
Way (http://catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html). Good bug reports save time
for everyone.
For a bug report, a feature request or other suggestions, please send email to
[email protected]. This will then open a new bug in the bug tracker (https://
debbugs.gnu.org/automake). Be sure to include the versions of Autoconf and Automake
that you use and the kind of system you’re on. Ideally, post a minimal Makefile.am and
configure.ac that reproduces the problem you encounter. If you have encountered test
suite failures, please attach the test-suite.log file.
Appendix A: Copying This Manual 165

Appendix A Copying This Manual

A.1 GNU Free Documentation License

Version 1.3, 3 November 2008
Copyright c 2000–2024 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
https://fsf.org/

Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies

of this license document, but changing it is not allowed.
0. PREAMBLE
The purpose of this License is to make a manual, textbook, or other functional and
useful document free in the sense of freedom: to assure everyone the effective freedom
to copy and redistribute it, with or without modifying it, either commercially or non-
commercially. Secondarily, this License preserves for the author and publisher a way
to get credit for their work, while not being considered responsible for modifications
made by others.
This License is a kind of “copyleft”, which means that derivative works of the document
must themselves be free in the same sense. It complements the GNU General Public
License, which is a copyleft license designed for free software.
We have designed this License in order to use it for manuals for free software, because
free software needs free documentation: a free program should come with manuals
providing the same freedoms that the software does. But this License is not limited to
software manuals; it can be used for any textual work, regardless of subject matter or
whether it is published as a printed book. We recommend this License principally for
works whose purpose is instruction or reference.
1. APPLICABILITY AND DEFINITIONS
This License applies to any manual or other work, in any medium, that contains a
notice placed by the copyright holder saying it can be distributed under the terms
of this License. Such a notice grants a world-wide, royalty-free license, unlimited in
duration, to use that work under the conditions stated herein. The “Document”,
below, refers to any such manual or work. Any member of the public is a licensee, and
is addressed as “you”. You accept the license if you copy, modify or distribute the work
in a way requiring permission under copyright law.
A “Modified Version” of the Document means any work containing the Document or
a portion of it, either copied verbatim, or with modifications and/or translated into
another language.
A “Secondary Section” is a named appendix or a front-matter section of the Document
that deals exclusively with the relationship of the publishers or authors of the Document
to the Document’s overall subject (or to related matters) and contains nothing that
could fall directly within that overall subject. (Thus, if the Document is in part a
textbook of mathematics, a Secondary Section may not explain any mathematics.) The
relationship could be a matter of historical connection with the subject or with related
matters, or of legal, commercial, philosophical, ethical or political position regarding
them.
Appendix A: Copying This Manual 166

The “Invariant Sections” are certain Secondary Sections whose titles are designated, as
being those of Invariant Sections, in the notice that says that the Document is released
under this License. If a section does not fit the above definition of Secondary then it is
not allowed to be designated as Invariant. The Document may contain zero Invariant
Sections. If the Document does not identify any Invariant Sections then there are none.
The “Cover Texts” are certain short passages of text that are listed, as Front-Cover
Texts or Back-Cover Texts, in the notice that says that the Document is released under
this License. A Front-Cover Text may be at most 5 words, and a Back-Cover Text may
be at most 25 words.
A “Transparent” copy of the Document means a machine-readable copy, represented
in a format whose specification is available to the general public, that is suitable for
revising the document straightforwardly with generic text editors or (for images com-
posed of pixels) generic paint programs or (for drawings) some widely available drawing
editor, and that is suitable for input to text formatters or for automatic translation to
a variety of formats suitable for input to text formatters. A copy made in an otherwise
Transparent file format whose markup, or absence of markup, has been arranged to
thwart or discourage subsequent modification by readers is not Transparent. An image
format is not Transparent if used for any substantial amount of text. A copy that is
not “Transparent” is called “Opaque”.
Examples of suitable formats for Transparent copies include plain ASCII without
markup, Texinfo input format, LaTEX input format, SGML or XML using a publicly
available DTD, and standard-conforming simple HTML, PostScript or PDF designed
for human modification. Examples of transparent image formats include PNG, XCF
and JPG. Opaque formats include proprietary formats that can be read and edited
only by proprietary word processors, SGML or XML for which the DTD and/or pro-
cessing tools are not generally available, and the machine-generated HTML, PostScript
or PDF produced by some word processors for output purposes only.
The “Title Page” means, for a printed book, the title page itself, plus such following
pages as are needed to hold, legibly, the material this License requires to appear in the
title page. For works in formats which do not have any title page as such, “Title Page”
means the text near the most prominent appearance of the work’s title, preceding the
beginning of the body of the text.
The “publisher” means any person or entity that distributes copies of the Document
to the public.
A section “Entitled XYZ” means a named subunit of the Document whose title either
is precisely XYZ or contains XYZ in parentheses following text that translates XYZ in
another language. (Here XYZ stands for a specific section name mentioned below, such
as “Acknowledgements”, “Dedications”, “Endorsements”, or “History”.) To “Preserve
the Title” of such a section when you modify the Document means that it remains a
section “Entitled XYZ” according to this definition.
The Document may include Warranty Disclaimers next to the notice which states that
this License applies to the Document. These Warranty Disclaimers are considered to
be included by reference in this License, but only as regards disclaiming warranties:
any other implication that these Warranty Disclaimers may have is void and has no
effect on the meaning of this License.
Appendix A: Copying This Manual 167

2. VERBATIM COPYING
You may copy and distribute the Document in any medium, either commercially or
noncommercially, provided that this License, the copyright notices, and the license
notice saying this License applies to the Document are reproduced in all copies, and
that you add no other conditions whatsoever to those of this License. You may not use
technical measures to obstruct or control the reading or further copying of the copies
you make or distribute. However, you may accept compensation in exchange for copies.
If you distribute a large enough number of copies you must also follow the conditions
in section 3.
You may also lend copies, under the same conditions stated above, and you may publicly
display copies.
3. COPYING IN QUANTITY
If you publish printed copies (or copies in media that commonly have printed covers) of
the Document, numbering more than 100, and the Document’s license notice requires
Cover Texts, you must enclose the copies in covers that carry, clearly and legibly, all
these Cover Texts: Front-Cover Texts on the front cover, and Back-Cover Texts on
the back cover. Both covers must also clearly and legibly identify you as the publisher
of these copies. The front cover must present the full title with all words of the title
equally prominent and visible. You may add other material on the covers in addition.
Copying with changes limited to the covers, as long as they preserve the title of the
Document and satisfy these conditions, can be treated as verbatim copying in other
respects.
If the required texts for either cover are too voluminous to fit legibly, you should put
the first ones listed (as many as fit reasonably) on the actual cover, and continue the
rest onto adjacent pages.
If you publish or distribute Opaque copies of the Document numbering more than 100,
you must either include a machine-readable Transparent copy along with each Opaque
copy, or state in or with each Opaque copy a computer-network location from which
the general network-using public has access to download using public-standard network
protocols a complete Transparent copy of the Document, free of added material. If
you use the latter option, you must take reasonably prudent steps, when you begin
distribution of Opaque copies in quantity, to ensure that this Transparent copy will
remain thus accessible at the stated location until at least one year after the last time
you distribute an Opaque copy (directly or through your agents or retailers) of that
edition to the public.
It is requested, but not required, that you contact the authors of the Document well
before redistributing any large number of copies, to give them a chance to provide you
with an updated version of the Document.
4. MODIFICATIONS
You may copy and distribute a Modified Version of the Document under the conditions
of sections 2 and 3 above, provided that you release the Modified Version under precisely
this License, with the Modified Version filling the role of the Document, thus licensing
distribution and modification of the Modified Version to whoever possesses a copy of
it. In addition, you must do these things in the Modified Version:
Appendix A: Copying This Manual 168

A. Use in the Title Page (and on the covers, if any) a title distinct from that of the
Document, and from those of previous versions (which should, if there were any,
be listed in the History section of the Document). You may use the same title as
a previous version if the original publisher of that version gives permission.
B. List on the Title Page, as authors, one or more persons or entities responsible for
authorship of the modifications in the Modified Version, together with at least five
of the principal authors of the Document (all of its principal authors, if it has fewer
than five), unless they release you from this requirement.
C. State on the Title page the name of the publisher of the Modified Version, as the
publisher.
D. Preserve all the copyright notices of the Document.
E. Add an appropriate copyright notice for your modifications adjacent to the other
copyright notices.
F. Include, immediately after the copyright notices, a license notice giving the public
permission to use the Modified Version under the terms of this License, in the form
shown in the Addendum below.
G. Preserve in that license notice the full lists of Invariant Sections and required Cover
Texts given in the Document’s license notice.
H. Include an unaltered copy of this License.
I. Preserve the section Entitled “History”, Preserve its Title, and add to it an item
stating at least the title, year, new authors, and publisher of the Modified Version
as given on the Title Page. If there is no section Entitled “History” in the Docu-
ment, create one stating the title, year, authors, and publisher of the Document
as given on its Title Page, then add an item describing the Modified Version as
stated in the previous sentence.
J. Preserve the network location, if any, given in the Document for public access to
a Transparent copy of the Document, and likewise the network locations given in
the Document for previous versions it was based on. These may be placed in the
“History” section. You may omit a network location for a work that was published
at least four years before the Document itself, or if the original publisher of the
version it refers to gives permission.
K. For any section Entitled “Acknowledgements” or “Dedications”, Preserve the Title
of the section, and preserve in the section all the substance and tone of each of the
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M. Delete any section Entitled “Endorsements”. Such a section may not be included
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N. Do not retitle any existing section to be Entitled “Endorsements” or to conflict in
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O. Preserve any Warranty Disclaimers.
If the Modified Version includes new front-matter sections or appendices that qualify
as Secondary Sections and contain no material copied from the Document, you may at
Appendix A: Copying This Manual 169

your option designate some or all of these sections as invariant. To do this, add their
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titles must be distinct from any other section titles.
You may add a section Entitled “Endorsements”, provided it contains nothing but
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5. COMBINING DOCUMENTS
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The combined work need only contain one copy of this License, and multiple identical
Invariant Sections may be replaced with a single copy. If there are multiple Invariant
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In the combination, you must combine any sections Entitled “History” in the vari-
ous original documents, forming one section Entitled “History”; likewise combine any
sections Entitled “Acknowledgements”, and any sections Entitled “Dedications”. You
must delete all sections Entitled “Endorsements.”
6. COLLECTIONS OF DOCUMENTS
You may make a collection consisting of the Document and other documents released
under this License, and replace the individual copies of this License in the various
documents with a single copy that is included in the collection, provided that you
follow the rules of this License for verbatim copying of each of the documents in all
other respects.
You may extract a single document from such a collection, and distribute it individu-
ally under this License, provided you insert a copy of this License into the extracted
document, and follow this License in all other respects regarding verbatim copying of
that document.
Appendix A: Copying This Manual 170

7. AGGREGATION WITH INDEPENDENT WORKS

A compilation of the Document or its derivatives with other separate and independent
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8. TRANSLATION
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If a section in the Document is Entitled “Acknowledgements”, “Dedications”, or “His-
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9. TERMINATION
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Moreover, your license from a particular copyright holder is reinstated permanently if
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Termination of your rights under this section does not terminate the licenses of parties
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same material does not give you any rights to use it.
Appendix A: Copying This Manual 171

10. FUTURE REVISIONS OF THIS LICENSE

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Documentation License from time to time. Such new versions will be similar in spirit
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“Incorporate” means to publish or republish a Document, in whole or in part, as part
of another Document.
An MMC is “eligible for relicensing” if it is licensed under this License, and if all works
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or invariant sections, and (2) were thus incorporated prior to November 1, 2008.
The operator of an MMC Site may republish an MMC contained in the site under
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Appendix A: Copying This Manual 172

ADDENDUM: How to use this License for your documents

To use this License in a document you have written, include a copy of the License in the
document and put the following copyright and license notices just after the title page:
Copyright (C) year your name.
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, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover
Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled ``GNU
Free Documentation License''.
If you have Invariant Sections, Front-Cover Texts and Back-Cover Texts, replace the
“with. . . Texts.” line with this:
with the Invariant Sections being list their titles, with
the Front-Cover Texts being list, and with the Back-Cover Texts
being list.
If you have Invariant Sections without Cover Texts, or some other combination of the
three, merge those two alternatives to suit the situation.
If your document contains nontrivial examples of program code, we recommend releasing
these examples in parallel under your choice of free software license, such as the GNU
General Public License, to permit their use in free software.
Appendix B: Indices 173

Appendix B Indices

B.1 Macro Index

AM_COND_IF . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35, 135
_AM_DEPENDENCIES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 AM_CONDITIONAL. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35, 134
AM_DEP_TRACK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
AM_GNU_GETTEXT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
AM_GNU_GETTEXT_INTL_SUBDIR. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
A AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31, 45
AC_CANONICAL_BUILD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 AM_MAINTAINER_MODE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125, 150
AC_CANONICAL_HOST . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 AM_MAINTAINER_MODE([default-mode]) . . . . . . . . . 35
AC_CANONICAL_TARGET. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 AM_MAKE_INCLUDE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33, 53 AM_MISSING_PROG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
AC_CONFIG_FILES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31, 102 AM_OUTPUT_DEPENDENCY_COMMANDS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
AC_CONFIG_HEADERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 AM_PATH_LISPDIR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
AC_CONFIG_LIBOBJ_DIR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33, 72 AM_PATH_PYTHON . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
AC_CONFIG_LINKS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 AM_PROG_AR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53, 104 AM_PROG_AS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
AC_DEFUN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 AM_PROG_CC_C_O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
AC_F77_LIBRARY_LDFLAGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 AM_PROG_GCJ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
AC_FC_SRCEXT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 AM_PROG_INSTALL_STRIP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
AC_INIT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 AM_PROG_LEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
AC_LIBOBJ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34, 64, 72 AM_PROG_MKDIR_P . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
AC_LIBSOURCE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34, 72 AM_PROG_UPC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
AC_LIBSOURCES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 AM_PROG_VALAC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
AC_OUTPUT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 AM_SANITY_CHECK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
AC_PREREQ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 AM_SET_DEPDIR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
AC_PROG_CXX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 AM_SILENT_RULES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
AC_PROG_F77 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 AM_SUBST_NOTMAKE(var) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
AC_PROG_FC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 AM_WITH_DMALLOC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
AC_PROG_LEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35, 47
AC_PROG_LIBTOOL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
AC_PROG_OBJC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 L
AC_PROG_OBJCXX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 LT_INIT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
AC_PROG_RANLIB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
AC_PROG_YACC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
AC_REQUIRE_AUX_FILE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 M
AC_SUBST . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 m4_include . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36, 102

B.2 Variable Index

_PROGRAMS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21, 55
_DATA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 _PYTHON . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
_HEADERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86 _SCRIPTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
_LIBRARIES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 _SOURCES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55, 71
_LISP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 _TEXINFOS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96, 97
_LOG_COMPILE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
_LOG_COMPILER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
_LOG_DRIVER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
_LOG_DRIVER_FLAGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
_LOG_FLAGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
_LTLIBRARIES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
_MANS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Appendix B: Indices 174

A B
ACLOCAL_AUTOMAKE_DIR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 bin_PROGRAMS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
ACLOCAL_PATH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 bin_SCRIPTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
ALLOCA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64, 72 build_triplet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
AM_CCASFLAGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 BUILT_SOURCES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
AM_CFLAGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 BUILT_SOURCES, and ‘dist’ target . . . . . . . . . . . 128
AM_COLOR_TESTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112 BZIP2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
AM_CPPFLAGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74, 78
AM_CXXFLAGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
AM_DEFAULT_SOURCE_EXT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 C
AM_DEFAULT_V . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139 CC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
AM_DEFAULT_VERBOSITY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139 CCAS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47, 78
AM_DISTCHECK_CONFIGURE_FLAGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105 CCASFLAGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47, 78
AM_DISTCHECK_DVI_TARGET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105 CFLAGS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
AM_ETAGSFLAGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132 check_. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
AM_ext_LOG_DRIVER_FLAGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118 check_LTLIBRARIES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
AM_ext_LOG_FLAGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115 check_PROGRAMS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55, 71, 112
AM_FCFLAGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 check_SCRIPTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
AM_FFLAGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 CLASSPATH_ENV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
AM_GCJFLAGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 CLEANFILES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
AM_INSTALLCHECK_STD_OPTIONS_EXEMPT . . . . . . . 130 COMPILE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
AM_JAVACFLAGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 CONFIG_STATUS_DEPENDENCIES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
AM_LDFLAGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56, 74 CONFIGURE_DEPENDENCIES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
AM_LFLAGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 CPPFLAGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73, 78
AM_LIBTOOLFLAGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 CSCOPE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
AM_LOG_DRIVER_FLAGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118 CSCOPE_ARGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
AM_LOG_FLAGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115 CSCOPEFLAGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
AM_MAKEFLAGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 CTAGS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
AM_MAKEINFOFLAGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98 CTAGS_ARGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
AM_MAKEINFOHTMLFLAGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98 CTAGSFLAGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
AM_OBJCFLAGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 CXX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
AM_OBJCXXFLAGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 CXXCOMPILE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
AM_RFLAGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 CXXFLAGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
CXXLINK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77, 81
AM_RUNTESTFLAGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
AM_TESTS_ENVIRONMENT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
AM_TESTS_FD_REDIRECT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
AM_TESTSUITE_SUMMARY_HEADER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112 D
AM_TEXI2FLAGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98 data_DATA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
AM_UPCFLAGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 DATA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22, 87
AM_UPDATE_INFO_DIR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97 DEFS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
AM_V . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139 DEJATOOL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
AM_V_at . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139 DESTDIR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10, 100
AM_V_GEN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139 DISABLE_HARD_ERRORS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
AM_VALAFLAGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 dist_ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53, 103
AM_YFLAGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 dist_lisp_LISP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
AR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 dist_noinst_LISP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
AUTOCONF . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 DIST_SUBDIRS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51, 103
AUTOM4TE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 DISTCHECK_CONFIGURE_FLAGS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
AUTOMAKE_JOBS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 distcleancheck_listfiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106, 108
AUTOMAKE_LIBDIR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 DISTCLEANFILES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101, 106
AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45, 84, 127 distdir . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104, 142
distuninstallcheck_listfiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
doc_DATA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
DVIPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Appendix B: Indices 175

E L
EMACS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 LDADD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
EMPTY_AUTOMAKE_TARGETS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143 LDFLAGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
ETAGS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132 LFLAGS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
ETAGS_ARGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132 lib_LIBRARIES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
ETAGSFLAGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132 lib_LTLIBRARIES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
EXPECT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125 libexec_PROGRAMS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
ext_LOG_COMPILE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115 libexec_SCRIPTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
ext_LOG_COMPILER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115 LIBOBJS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34, 64, 72
ext_LOG_DRIVER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118 LIBRARIES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
ext_LOG_DRIVER_FLAGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118 LIBS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
ext_LOG_FLAGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115 LIBTOOLFLAGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
EXTRA_DIST . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103 LINK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74, 81
EXTRA_maude_DEPENDENCIES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56, 69 lisp_DATA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
EXTRA_maude_SOURCES. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 lisp_LISP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
EXTRA_PROGRAMS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 lispdir . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
LISP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
localstate_DATA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
F LOG_COMPILE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
F77 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 LOG_COMPILER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
F77COMPILE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 LOG_DRIVER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
F77LINK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 LOG_DRIVER_FLAGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
FC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 LOG_FLAGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
FCCOMPILE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 LTALLOCA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64, 72
FCFLAGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 LTLIBOBJS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64, 72
FCLINK. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 LTLIBRARIES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
FFLAGS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 LZIP_OPT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
FLIBS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
FLINK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
M
MAINTAINERCLEANFILES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
G MAKE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
GCJ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 MAKEINFO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
GCJFLAGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47, 82 MAKEINFOFLAGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
GCJLINK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 MAKEINFOHTML . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
GTAGS_ARGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132 man_MANS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
GZIP_ENV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 MANS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
maude_AR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
maude_CCASFLAGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
H maude_CFLAGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
maude_CPPFLAGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
HEADERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
maude_CXXFLAGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
host_triplet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
maude_DEPENDENCIES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56, 69
maude_FFLAGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
maude_GCJFLAGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
I maude_LDADD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56, 68
IGNORE_SKIPPED_LOGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114 maude_LDFLAGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56, 69
include_HEADERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86 maude_LFLAGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
INCLUDES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 maude_LIBADD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59, 68
info_TEXINFOS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96 maude_LIBTOOLFLAGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64, 69
maude_LINK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
maude_OBJCFLAGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
J maude_OBJCXXFLAGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
JAVA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 maude_RANLIB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
JAVAC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 maude_RFLAGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
JAVACFLAGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 maude_SHORTNAME . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
JAVAROOT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 maude_SOURCES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
maude_UPCFLAGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Appendix B: Indices 176

maude_YFLAGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 R
MISSING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 RECHECK_LOGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
mkdir_p . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 RFLAGS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
MKDIR_P . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 RUNTEST . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
MOSTLYCLEANFILES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 RUNTESTDEFAULTFLAGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
RUNTESTFLAGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
N
nobase_ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 S
nodist_ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53, 103
sbin_PROGRAMS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
noinst_ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
sbin_SCRIPTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
noinst_HEADERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
SCRIPTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22, 85
noinst_LIBRARIES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
sharedstate_DATA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
noinst_LISP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
SOURCES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55, 71
noinst_LTLIBRARIES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
SUBDIRS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49, 103
noinst_PROGRAMS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
SUFFIXES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
noinst_SCRIPTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
sys.exec_prefix Python variable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
notrans_ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
sys.platform Python variable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
sys.prefix Python variable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
sys.version_info Python variable . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
O sysconf_DATA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
OBJC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
OBJCCOMPILE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
OBJCFLAGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 T
OBJCLINK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77, 81
OBJCXX. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 TAGS_DEPENDENCIES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
OBJCXXCOMPILE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 target_triplet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
OBJCXXFLAGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 TAR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
OBJCXXLINK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78, 81 TAR_OPTIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
oldinclude_HEADERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86 TEST_EXTENSIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
TEST_LOGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
TEST_SUITE_LOG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
P TESTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112, 114
TESTS_ENVIRONMENT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
PACKAGE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102 TEXI2DVI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
pkgdata_DATA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 TEXI2PDF . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
pkgdata_SCRIPTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 TEXINFO_TEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
pkgdatadir . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 TEXINFOS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22, 97
pkginclude_HEADERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
top_distdir . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104, 142
pkgincludedir . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
pkglib_LIBRARIES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
pkglib_LTLIBRARIES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
pkglibdir . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 U
pkglibexec_PROGRAMS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 UPC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47, 78
pkglibexec_SCRIPTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 UPCCOMPILE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
pkglibexecdir . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 UPCFLAGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
pkgpyexecdir . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94 UPCLINK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78, 81
pkgpythondir . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
PROGRAMS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21, 22
pyexecdir . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94 V
PYTHON . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22, 93
PYTHON_EXEC_PREFIX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94 V . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
PYTHON_PLATFORM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94 VALAC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
PYTHON_PREFIX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94 VALAFLAGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
PYTHON_VERSION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 VERBOSE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
pythondir . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94 VERSION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Appendix B: Indices 177

W Y
WARNINGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30, 38 YACC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
WITH_DMALLOC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 YFLAGS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

X Z
XFAIL_TESTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111 ZSTD_CLEVEL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
XZ_OPT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 ZSTD_OPT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

B.3 General Index

# --prefix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
## (special Automake comment). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 --print-ac-dir . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
#serial syntax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 --print-libdir . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
--program-prefix=prefix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
--program-suffix=suffix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
$ --program-transform-name=program . . . . . . . . . . . 10
--system-acdir . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
‘$(LIBOBJS)’ and empty libraries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 --target=target . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
--verbose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29, 38
--version . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29, 38
+ --version check . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
+= . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 --warnings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29, 38
--with-dmalloc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
--with-python-sys-prefix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
– --with-python_exec_prefix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
--aclocal-path . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37, 40 --with-python_prefix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
--add-missing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 -a . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
--always-make GNU Make option . . . . . . . . . . . . 126 -c . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
--automake-acdir . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 -f . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
--build=build . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 -hook targets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
--copy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 -i . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
--diff. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 -I . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
--disable-dependency-tracking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 -l and LDADD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
--disable-maintainer-mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 -local targets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
--disable-silent-rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139 -module, libtool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
--dry-run . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 -o . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
--enable-debug, example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134 -v . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
--enable-dependency-tracking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 -W . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29, 38
--enable-maintainer-mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 -Wall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
--enable-silent-rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139 -Werror . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
--force . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
--force-missing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
--foreign . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20, 28 .
--gnits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20, 28 .la suffix, defined . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
--gnu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20, 29 .log files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
--help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29, 37 .pyc, .pyo files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
--help check . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130 .texi.in file, read . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
--help=recursive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 .trs files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
--host=host . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
--include-deps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
--install . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 :
--libdir . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 :copy-in-global-log: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
--no-force . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 :recheck: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
--output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 :test-global-result: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
--output-dir . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 :test-result: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
Appendix B: Indices 178

AM_LFLAGS and LFLAGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153

_DATA primary, defined . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 AM_LIBTOOLFLAGS and LIBTOOLFLAGS . . . . . . . . . . 153
_DEPENDENCIES, defined . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 AM_MAINTAINER_MODE, purpose. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
_HEADERS primary, defined . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86 AM_OBJCFLAGS and OBJCFLAGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
_JAVA primary, defined . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 AM_OBJCXXFLAGS and OBJXXCFLAGS . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
_LDFLAGS, defined . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 AM_RFLAGS and RFLAGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
_LDFLAGS, libtool. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 AM_UPCFLAGS and UPCFLAGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
_LIBADD, libtool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 AM_YFLAGS and YFLAGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
_LIBRARIES primary, defined . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 amhello-1.0.tar.gz, creation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
_LIBTOOLFLAGS, libtool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 amhello-1.0.tar.gz, location . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
_LISP primary, defined . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
amhello-1.0.tar.gz, use cases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
_LTLIBRARIES primary, defined . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Append operator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
_MANS primary, defined . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
_PROGRAMS primary variable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 ar-lib. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
_PYTHON primary, defined . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 ARG MAX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
_SCRIPTS primary, defined . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 autogen.sh and autoreconf . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
_SOURCES and header files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 autom4te . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
_SOURCES primary, defined . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 Automake constraints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
_SOURCES, default . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 automake options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
_SOURCES, empty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 Automake parser, limitations of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
_TEXINFOS primary, defined . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96 Automake requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1, 31
Automake targets, no-op . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
automake, invocation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
@ automake, invoking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
‘@setfilename’ Texinfo directive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96 Automake, recursive operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Automatic dependency tracking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
A Automatic linker selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
autoreconf and libtoolize . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
AC_CONFIG_FILES, conditional . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135 autoreconf, example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
AC_SUBST and SUBDIRS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
autoscan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
acinclude.m4, defined . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Autotools, introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
aclocal and serial numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
aclocal program, introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Autotools, purpose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
aclocal search path . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 autoupdate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
aclocal’s scheduled death . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 Auxiliary programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
aclocal, extending . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Avoiding man page renaming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
aclocal, Invocation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 Avoiding path stripping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
aclocal, Invoking. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
aclocal, Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
aclocal, using . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
aclocal.m4, preexisting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
ACLOCAL_PATH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
B
Adding new SUFFIXES. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132 Binary package . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
all . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4, 141 bootstrap and autoreconf . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
all-local . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141 Bugs, reporting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
ALLOCA, and Libtool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 build tree and source tree . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
ALLOCA, example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 built-in suffix and pattern rules, disabled . . . . . . 133
ALLOCA, special handling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 BUILT_SOURCES, defined . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
AM_CCASFLAGS and CCASFLAGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
bzip2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
AM_CFLAGS and CFLAGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
AM_CONDITIONAL and SUBDIRS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
AM_CPPFLAGS and CPPFLAGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
AM_CXXFLAGS and CXXFLAGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
AM_FCFLAGS and FCFLAGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
AM_FFLAGS and FFLAGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
AM_GCJFLAGS and GCJFLAGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE, example use . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
AM_LDFLAGS and LDFLAGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
Appendix B: Indices 179

C dependencies and distributed files . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106

C++ support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 Dependency tracking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11, 83
canonicalizing Automake variables. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Dependency tracking, disabling. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
CCASFLAGS and AM_CCASFLAGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153 directory variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
CFLAGS and AM_CFLAGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153 dirlist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
cfortran . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 Disabling dependency tracking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
check . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4, 110, 141 Disabling hard errors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
check-local . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141 dist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4, 102
check-news . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127 dist-all . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
‘check_’ primary prefix, definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 dist-bzip2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109, 128
check_PROGRAMS example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 dist-gzip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
clean . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4, 141 dist-hook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103, 141
clean-local . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101, 141 dist-lzip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109, 128
Colorized testsuite output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112 dist-packages Python directory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
command line length limit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 dist-shar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109, 128
Comment, special to Automake . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 dist-tarZ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109, 128
Compilation of Java to bytecode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 dist-xz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109, 128
Compilation of Java to native code . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 dist-zip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109, 128
compile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 dist-zstd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109, 128
Compile Flag Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153 dist_ and nobase_ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Complete example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 dist_ and notrans_ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
compress . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 DIST_SUBDIRS, explained . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Conditional example, --enable-debug . . . . . . . . 134 distcheck . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15, 104
Conditional for dependency tracking . . . . . . . . . . . 84 distcheck better than dist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
conditional libtool libraries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 distcheck example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Conditional programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 distcheck-hook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Conditional subdirectories. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 distclean . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4, 106, 141
Conditional SUBDIRS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 distclean, diagnostic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Conditionals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134 distclean-local . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101, 141
config.guess . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24, 28 distcleancheck . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
config.site example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 distdir . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
config.sub . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Distinction between errors and failures in
configuration variables, overriding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 testsuites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
Configuration, basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Distributions, preparation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Configure substitutions in TESTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115 distuninstallcheck . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
configure.ac, Hello World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 dmalloc, support for . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
configure.ac, scanning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 do-nothing Automake targets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
conflicting definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141 dvi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96, 105, 141
Constraints of Automake . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 dvi-local . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
convenience libraries, libtool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 DVI output using Texinfo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
copying semantics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
cpio example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
CPPFLAGS and AM_CPPFLAGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153 E
cross-compilation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 EDITION Texinfo flag . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
cross-compilation example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 else . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
CXXFLAGS and AM_CXXFLAGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153 empty _SOURCES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
empty Automake targets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Empty libraries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
D Empty libraries and ‘$(LIBOBJS)’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
DATA primary, defined . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 endif. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
debug build, example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 eps images, and distcheck . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
debugging rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163 Example conditional --enable-debug . . . . . . . . . 134
default _SOURCES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 Example conditional AC_CONFIG_FILES . . . . . . . . 135
default source, libtool modules example . . . . . . . . 71 Example Hello World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
default verbosity for silent rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139 Example of recursive operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
definitions, conflicts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141 Example of shared libraries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
dejagnu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125, 127 Example, EXTRA_PROGRAMS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
depcomp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24, 83 Example, false and true . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Appendix B: Indices 180

Example, mixed language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 H

Executable extension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84 hard error . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
Exit status 77, special interpretation . . . . . . . . . . 111 Header files in _SOURCES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Exit status 99, special interpretation . . . . . . . . . . 111 HEADERS primary, defined . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
expected failure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110 HEADERS, installation directories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
expected test failure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110 Hello World example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Expected test failure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111 help2man . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Extending aclocal. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 help2man, and ‘dist’ target . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
Extending list of installation directories . . . . . . . . 21 hook targets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Extension, executable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84 HP-UX 10, lex problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Extra files distributed with Automake . . . . . . . . . . 28 html . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96, 141
EXTRA_, prepending . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 html-local . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
EXTRA_prog_SOURCES, defined . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 HTML output using Texinfo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
EXTRA_PROGRAMS, defined . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21, 58

F I
id . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
false Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
if . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
FCFLAGS and AM_FCFLAGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
include . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102, 133
Features of the GNU Build System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
include, distribution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
FFLAGS and AM_FFLAGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
Including Makefile fragment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
file names, limitations on . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
indentation in Makefile.am . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
filename-length-max=99 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
info . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129, 141
Files distributed with Automake . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
info-in-builddir . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
First line of Makefile.am . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
info-local . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Flag variables, ordering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
install . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4, 100, 141
Flag Variables, Ordering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
Install hook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
FLIBS, defined . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Install, two parts of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
foreign . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16, 127
install-data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8, 100, 141
foreign strictness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
install-data-hook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Fortran 77 support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
install-data-local . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100, 141
Fortran 77, mixing with C and C++ . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
install-dvi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96, 141
Fortran 77, Preprocessing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
install-dvi-local . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Fortran 9x support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
install-exec . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8, 100, 141
install-exec-hook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
G install-exec-local . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100, 141
install-html . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96, 141
GCJFLAGS and AM_GCJFLAGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153 install-html-local . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
generated files and version control . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147 install-info . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97, 129, 141
generated files, distributed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147 install-info target . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Gettext support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 install-info-local . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
git-dist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 install-man . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99, 129
git-dist, non-standard example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 install-man target . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
gnits. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127 install-pdf . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96, 141
gnits strictness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 install-pdf-local . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
gnu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127 install-ps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96, 141
gnu strictness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 install-ps-local . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
GNU Build System, basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 install-sh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
GNU Build System, features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 install-strip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4, 101
GNU Build System, introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Installation directories, extending list . . . . . . . . . . . 21
GNU Build System, use cases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Installation support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
GNU Coding Standards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Installation, basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
GNU Gettext support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 installcheck . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4, 141
GNU Make extensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 installcheck-local . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
GNU Make, required by Vala . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 installdirs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101, 141
GNU Makefile standards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 installdirs-local . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
GNUmakefile including Makefile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144 Installing headers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
gzip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 Installing scripts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Appendix B: Indices 181

installing versioned binaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142 M

Interfacing with third-party packages . . . . . . . . . . 142 m4_include, distribution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Invocation of aclocal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 Macro search path . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Invocation of automake . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 macro serial numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Invoking aclocal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 Macros Automake recognizes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Invoking automake . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 maintainer-clean-local . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
make check . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
‘make clean’ support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
‘make dist’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
J ‘make distcheck’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
Java support with gcj . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 ‘make distclean’, diagnostic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Java to bytecode, compilation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 ‘make distcleancheck’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Java to native code, compilation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 ‘make distuninstallcheck’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
JAVA primary, defined . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 ‘make install’ support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
JAVA restrictions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 ‘make installcheck’, testing --help and
--version . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
Make rules, overriding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Make targets, overriding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
L Makefile fragment, including . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
lazy test execution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116 Makefile.am, first line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
LDADD and -l . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 Makefile.am, Hello World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
LDFLAGS and AM_LDFLAGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153 Man page renaming, avoiding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
lex problems with HP-UX 10 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 man pages, generating and distributing . . . . . . . . 107
MANS primary, defined . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
lex, multiple lexers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
many outputs, rules with . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
LFLAGS and AM_LFLAGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
mdate-sh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24, 96
libltdl, introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
MinGW cross-compilation example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
LIBOBJS, and Libtool. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 missing program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
LIBOBJS, example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 missing, purpose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
LIBOBJS, special handling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 Mixed language example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
LIBRARIES primary, defined . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 Mixing Fortran 77 with C and C++ . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
libtool convenience libraries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 Mixing Fortran 77 with C and/or C++ . . . . . . . . . . 80
libtool libraries, conditional . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 mkdir -p, macro check . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Libtool library used but ‘LIBTOOL’ is undefined . 65 mkinstalldirs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
libtool library, definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 modules, libtool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
libtool modules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 mostlyclean . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
libtool modules, default source example . . . . . . . . 71 mostlyclean-local . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101, 141
libtool, introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 multiple configurations, example. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
‘LIBTOOL’ is undefined . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 Multiple configure.ac files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
LIBTOOLFLAGS and AM_LIBTOOLFLAGS . . . . . . . . . . 153 Multiple lex lexers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
libtoolize and autoreconf . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 multiple outputs, rules with . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
libtoolize, no longer run by automake . . . . . . . . 65 Multiple yacc parsers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Limitations of automake parser. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Linking Fortran 77 with C and C++ . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Linking multiple yacc parsers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 N
LISP primary, defined . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 Nested packages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
LN_S example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142 Nesting packages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
local targets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141 no-define . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46, 128
LTALLOCA, special handling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 no-dependencies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84, 128
LTLIBOBJS, special handling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 no-dist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
LTLIBRARIES primary, defined . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 no-dist-built-sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
ltmain.sh not found . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 no-dist-gzip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
lzip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 no-exeext . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
no-installinfo. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97, 129
no-installinfo option . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
no-installman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99, 129
no-installman option . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
no-op Automake targets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Appendix B: Indices 182

no-texinfo.tex . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129 Options, std-options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130

nobase_ and dist_ or nodist_ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 Options, subdir-objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
nobase_ prefix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 Ordering flag variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
nodist_ and nobase_ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 Overriding make rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
nodist_ and notrans_ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99 Overriding make targets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
‘noinst_’ primary prefix, definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Overriding make variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Non-GNU packages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 overriding rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Non-standard targets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 overriding semantics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
nostdinc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129 Overriding testsuite environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
notrans_ and dist_ or nodist_ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
notrans_ prefix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
P
PACKAGE, directory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
O PACKAGE, prevent definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
OBJCFLAGS and AM_OBJCFLAGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153 Packages, nested . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
OBJCXXFLAGS and AM_OBJCXXFLAGS . . . . . . . . . . . . 153 Packages, preparation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Objective C support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 Parallel build trees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Objective C++ support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 parallel-tests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Objects in subdirectory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 Path stripping, avoiding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
obsolete macros . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 pattern rules of GNU Make, disabled . . . . . . . . . . 133
optimized build, example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 pax format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
Option, --warnings=category . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131 pdf . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96, 141
Option, -Wcategory. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131 pdf-local . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Option, check-news. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127 PDF output using Texinfo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Option, dejagnu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127 Per-object flags, emulated . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
Option, dist-bzip2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128 per-target compilation flags, defined . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Option, dist-lzip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128 pkgdatadir, defined. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Option, dist-shar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128 pkgincludedir, defined . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Option, dist-tarZ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128 pkglibdir, defined . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Option, dist-xz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128 pkglibexecdir, defined . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Option, dist-zip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128 posix. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Option, dist-zstd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128 Preparing distributions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Option, filename-length-max=99 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128 Preprocessing Fortran 77 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Option, foreign . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127 Primary variable, DATA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Option, gnits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127 Primary variable, defined . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Option, gnu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127 Primary variable, HEADERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Option, info-in-builddir . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128 Primary variable, JAVA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Option, no-define . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128 Primary variable, LIBRARIES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Option, no-dependencies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128 Primary variable, LISP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Option, no-dist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128 Primary variable, LTLIBRARIES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Option, no-dist-built-sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128 Primary variable, MANS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Option, no-dist-gzip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129 Primary variable, PROGRAMS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Option, no-exeext . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129 Primary variable, PYTHON . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Option, no-installinfo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97, 129 Primary variable, SCRIPTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Option, no-installman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99, 129 Primary variable, SOURCES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Option, no-texinfo.tex . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129 Primary variable, TEXINFOS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Option, nostdinc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129 prog_LDADD, defined. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Option, parallel-tests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129 Programs, auxiliary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Option, posix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129 Programs, conditional . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Option, readme-alpha . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129 Programs, renaming during installation . . . . . . . . . . 9
Option, serial-tests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129 PROGRAMS primary variable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Option, tar-pax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130 PROGRAMS, bindir . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Option, tar-ustar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130 Proxy Makefile for third-party packages . . . . . . 144
Option, tar-v7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130 ps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96, 141
Option, version . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131 ps-local . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Option, warnings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131 PS output using Texinfo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
py-compile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Options, aclocal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
PYTHON primary, defined . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Options, automake . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Appendix B: Indices 183

R subdir-objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
Ratfor programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 Subdirectories, building conditionally . . . . . . . . . . . 50
read-only source tree . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Subdirectories, configured conditionally . . . . . . . . 52
readme-alpha . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129 Subdirectories, not distributed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
README-alpha . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Subdirectory, objects in . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
rebuild rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125, 147 SUBDIRS and AC_SUBST . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
recheck . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116 SUBDIRS and AM_CONDITIONAL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Recognized macros by Automake . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 SUBDIRS, conditional . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Recursive operation of Automake. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 SUBDIRS, explained . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
recursive targets and third-party Makefiles . . . 142 Subpackages. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12, 53
Register test case result . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120 suffix .la, defined . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Register test result . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120 suffix .lo, defined . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Renaming programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 suffix rules of Make, disabled . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
Reporting bugs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164 SUFFIXES, adding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
Requirements of Automake . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Support for C++ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Requirements, Automake . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Support for Fortran 77 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Restrictions for JAVA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 Support for Fortran 9x . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
reStructuredText field, :copy-in-global-log: . 120 Support for GNU Gettext . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
reStructuredText field, :recheck: . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120 Support for Java with gcj . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
reStructuredText field, :test-global-result: . 120 Support for Objective C . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
reStructuredText field, :test-result: . . . . . . . . 120 Support for Objective C++ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
RFLAGS and AM_RFLAGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153 Support for Unified Parallel C . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
rules with multiple outputs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156 Support for Vala . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
rules, conflicting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
rules, debugging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
rules, overriding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141 T
tags . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
TAGS support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
S tar formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
Scanning configure.ac . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 tar-pax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
SCRIPTS primary, defined . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 tar-ustar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
SCRIPTS, installation directories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 tar-v7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
Selecting the linker automatically . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 Target, install-info . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
serial number and --install . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 Target, install-man . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
serial numbers in macros . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 targets, making into no-op . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
serial-tests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129 test case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
serial-tests, Using. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113 Test case result, registering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
shar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 test failure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
Shared libraries, support for . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 test harness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
Silencing make . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136 test metadata . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
Silent make . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136 test pass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
Silent make rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136 Test result, registering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
Silent rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136 test skip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
silent rules and libtool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138 Test suites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
site-packages Python directory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94 test-driver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
site.exp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125 Tests, expected failure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
source tree and build tree . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Testsuite environment overrides . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
source tree, read-only . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 testsuite harness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
SOURCES primary, defined . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 Testsuite progress on console . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
Special Automake comment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Texinfo flag, EDITION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Staged installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Texinfo flag, UPDATED . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
std-options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130 Texinfo flag, UPDATED-MONTH. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Strictness, command line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Texinfo flag, VERSION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Strictness, defined . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Texinfo support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Strictness, foreign . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 texinfo.tex . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25, 97
Strictness, gnits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 TEXINFOS primary, defined . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Strictness, gnu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 third-party files and version control . . . . . . . . . . . 149
su, before make install . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Third-party packages, interfacing with . . . . . . . . 142
Appendix B: Indices 184

timestamps and version control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147 version control and third-party files . . . . . . . . . . . 149
Transforming program names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 version control and timestamps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
trees, source vs. build . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 version.m4, example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
true Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 version.sh, example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
VERSION Texinfo flag . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
VERSION, prevent definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
U versioned binaries, installing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
underquoted AC_DEFUN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 VPATH builds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
unexpected pass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
unexpected test pass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
Unified Parallel C support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Uniform naming scheme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
W
uninstall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4, 101, 141 wildcards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
uninstall-hook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141 Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
uninstall-local . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Unit tests. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
Unpacking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 X
unsilencing Automake . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
UPCFLAGS and AM_UPCFLAGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153 xfail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
UPDATED Texinfo flag . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96 xpass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
UPDATED-MONTH Texinfo flag . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96 xz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Use Cases for the GNU Build System. . . . . . . . . . . . 2
user variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Using aclocal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Y
ustar format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
yacc, multiple parsers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
YFLAGS and AM_YFLAGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
V ylwrap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25, 75
v7 tar format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
Vala support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
variables, conflicting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Variables, overriding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Z
variables, reserved for the user . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 zardoz example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
verbose output from Automake . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140 zip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
version control and generated files . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147 zstd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109