GNU build system
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The GNU build system, also known as Autotools, is a suite of tools produced by the GNU project that assist in making packages portable to many UNIX-like systems. It is part of GNU toolchain.
It comprises
Other related tools include- GNU make
- GNU gettext
- pkg-config
- GNU Compiler Collection
The biggest advantage of GNU build system is that the build tools the software generates are entirely self-contained; software does not need anything else besides normal Unix tools, and libraries related to the software, to build. The tools generate shell script files that are rather portable and only depend on Make, C/C++ compiler, Bourne-compatible shell, and standard Unix tools. The biggest disadvantage is that the generated build code is very complex and often unreadable, though the user is not meant to modify it directly. To maximally utilize the three tools, the programmer has to be familiar with all of the three tools and the various different command syntaxes they use.
Sometimes programs distributed in source code form do not contain a configure file. It is then intended that the users should generate it by themselves. It is done like this:
aclocal autoconf automake ./configure
References
- GNU Autoconf, Automake and Libtool, by Gary V. Vaughan, Ben Elliston, Tom Tromey, and Ian Lance Taylor. ISBN 1-578-70190-2
- *available online at http://www.sourceware.org/autobook under the terms of the Open Publication License (with none of the options exercised).
See also
- redirect
External links
- [Using Automake and Autoconf with C++]
- The [GNU Coding Standards] (especially the chapter on The Release Process).
- The [pkg-config] package
- An [Autotools Tutorial] for beginners.
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