In software development, GNU Automake is a

programming tool A programming tool or software development tool is a computer program that software developers use to create, debug, maintain, or otherwise support other programs and applications. The term usually refers to relatively simple programs, that can b ...

to automate parts of the compilation process. It eases usual compilation problems. For example, it points to needed dependencies. It automatically generates one or more ''Makefile.in'' from files called ''Makefile.am''. Each ''Makefile.am'' contains, among other things, useful variable definitions for the compiled software, such as

compiler In computing, a compiler is a computer program that translates computer code written in one programming language (the ''source'' language) into another language (the ''target'' language). The name "compiler" is primarily used for programs tha ...

and

linker Linker or linkers may refer to: Computing * Linker (computing), a computer program that takes one or more object files generated by a compiler or generated by an assembler and links them with libraries, generating an executable program or shar ...

flags, dependencies and their versions, etc. The generated "''Makefile.in''"s are portable and compliant with the Makefile conventions in the GNU Coding Standards, and may be used by

configure script A configure script is an executable script designed to aid in developing a program to be run on a wide number of different computers. It matches the libraries on the user's computer, with those required by the program before compiling it from its ...

s to generate a working

Makefile In software development, Make is a build automation tool that automatically builds executable programs and libraries from source code by reading files called ''Makefiles'' which specify how to derive the target program. Though integrated devel ...

. The

Free Software Foundation The Free Software Foundation (FSF) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization founded by Richard Stallman on October 4, 1985, to support the free software movement, with the organization's preference for software being distributed under copyleft (" ...

maintains as one of the

GNU GNU () is an extensive collection of free software (383 packages as of January 2022), which can be used as an operating system or can be used in parts with other operating systems. The use of the completed GNU tools led to the family of operat ...

programs, and as part of the

GNU build system The GNU Autotools, also known as the GNU Build System, is a suite of programming tools designed to assist in making source code packages portable to many Unix-like systems. It can be difficult to make a software program portable: the C compile ...

. It is used to build several GNU applications and libraries, such as

GTK GTK (formerly GIMP ToolKit and GTK+) is a free and open-source cross-platform widget toolkit for creating graphical user interfaces (GUIs). It is licensed under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License, allowing both free and propriet ...

, as well as non-GNU software such as XCircuit.

Process

Automake aims to allow the programmer to write a makefile in a higher-level language, rather than having to write the whole makefile manually. In simple cases, it suffices to give: * A line that declares the name of the program to build * A list of source files * A list of command-line options to be passed to the

(for example, in which directories header files will be found) * A list of command-line options to be passed to the

(which libraries the program needs and in what directories they are to be found) Automake also takes care of automatically generating the dependency information, so that when a source file is modified, the next invocation of the make command will know which source files need to be recompiled. If the compiler allows it, Automake tries to make the dependency system dynamic: whenever a source file is compiled, that file's dependencies are updated by asking the compiler to regenerate the file's dependency list. In other words, dependency tracking is a side effect of the compilation process. This attempts to avoid the problem with some static dependency systems, where the dependencies are detected only once when the programmer starts working on the project.

Design

Automake is written in

Perl Perl is a family of two high-level, general-purpose, interpreted, dynamic programming languages. "Perl" refers to Perl 5, but from 2000 to 2019 it also referred to its redesigned "sister language", Perl 6, before the latter's name was offic ...

and must be used with

GNU Autoconf GNU Autoconf is a tool for producing configure scripts for building, installing, and packaging software on computer systems where a Bourne shell is available. Autoconf is agnostic about the programming languages used, but it is often used for ...

. Automake contains the following commands: * ''aclocal'' * ''automake'' ''aclocal'', however, is a general-purpose program that can be useful to autoconf users. The

GNU Compiler Collection The GNU Compiler Collection (GCC) is an optimizing compiler produced by the GNU Project supporting various programming languages, hardware architectures and operating systems. The Free Software Foundation (FSF) distributes GCC as free softwar ...

(GCC), for example, uses ''aclocal'' even though its makefile is hand written. Like Autoconf, Automake is not entirely

backward compatible Backward compatibility (sometimes known as backwards compatibility) is a property of an operating system, product, or technology that allows for interoperability with an older legacy system, or with input designed for such a system, especially in ...

. For example, a project created with automake 1.13 will not necessarily work with automake 1.14.

References

Sources

External links

*
Online version of ''The Goat Book'' aka Autobook

Combined manual for Automake and Autoconf

Autotoolset home page
{{Perl Build automation Compiling tools Cross-platform free software Free software programmed in Perl GNU Project software Software using the GPL license

Process

Design

See also

References

Sources

External links