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shortcomings of some "do-all" (except what I want) tool function. This is simply not an issue with the
Autotools. As someone mentioned earlier in this thread, you can drop shell script into a configure.ac file, and make script into a Makefile.am file. That is the very definition of transparency. No other tool in existence allows this level of flexibility.
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The
Autotools are actually more transparent than any other build tools out there. All these other tools' (cmake, maven, etc) - that purport to be so much simpler because they insulate the user from the underlying details of the build process - these tool's primary failure is that this very insulation
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The idea is that the configure script performs approximately 200 automated tests, so that the user is not burdened with configuring libtool manually. This is a horribly bad idea, already much criticized back in the 1980s when it appeared, as it allows source code to pretend to be portable behind the
315:
differs from system to system; certain library functions are missing on some systems; header files may have different names; shared libraries may be compiled and installed in different ways. One way to handle platform differences is to write conditional code, with code blocks selected by means of
785:
Anyone who has nothing but good things to say about this aspect of cmake, maven, gradle, or whatever, has simply not worked on a project that requires them to move far enough away from the defaults. I've used them all and I've spent hours in frustration trying to determine how to work around the
693:
script for the end-user, occasionally the user may wish to re-generate the configure script itself. Such working might be necessary if the user wishes to amend the source code itself. Such users would need to have
Autotools installed, and to use components such as its
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output. It also performs automatic dependency tracking; every time a source file is compiled, the list of dependencies (e.g., C header files) is recorded. Later, any time make is run and a dependency appears to have changed, the dependent files will be rebuilt.
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Although critics of the
Autotools frequently advocate for alternatives that provide greater simplicity to their users, some have argued that this is not necessarily a good thing. John Calcote, author of the
832:
646:
Cross-compiling software to run on a
Windows host from a Linux or other Unix-like build system is also possible, using MinGW, however native compilation is often desirable on operating systems (such as the
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software and make it available to a much wider user community, including in its source code form to those users who wish to build the software themselves. In most cases users simply run the supplied
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can be slow because it executes programs such as a C compiler many times in order to test whether various libraries, header files, and language features are present. This particularly affects
320:); but because of the wide variety of build environments this approach quickly becomes unmanageable. Autotools is designed to address this problem more manageably.
840:
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family of systems) that cannot run Bourne shell scripts on their own. This makes building such software on the
Windows operating system a bit harder than on a
682:, and other software that provides a nearly complete Unix-like system within Windows; MSYS also provides GNU make and other tools designed to work with the
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veneer of the configure script, rather than actually having the quality of portability to begin with. It is a travesty that the configure idea survived.
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exist, even though the Unixen, which lacked them, had neither sufficient memory to execute libtool nor disks big enough for its 16-MB source code.
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keeps users from being able to make the changes they need to accomplish their unique project-specific build goals.
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The complexity of
Autotools reflects the variety of circumstances under which a body of source code may be built.
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Kamp sketches the history of the build system in the portability problems inherent in the
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If the body of source code is copied to another computer then it is sufficient to re-run
460:, which only re-compiles that part of the body of the source code affected by the change.
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The GNU Build System makes it possible to build many programs using a two-step process:
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program. They do not need to have the
Autotools themselves installed on the computer.
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Autotools, 2nd
Edition: A Practitioner's Guide to GNU Autoconf, Automake, and Libtool
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system which provides the Bourne shell as a standard component. One can install the
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It can be used both for building native programs on the build machine and also for
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the library-creation process, hiding differences between various systems (e.g.
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script, when run, scans the build environment and generates a subordinate
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1052:"Autotools, 2nd Edition by John Calcote | Penguin Random House Canada"
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script which, in turn, converts other input files and most commonly
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file, which characterizes a particular body of source code. The
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files need to be changed and all subsequent steps also followed.
390:. Other related tools frequently used alongside it include GNU
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script (which has no dependencies other than the presence of a
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If the body of source code is changed more fundamentally, then
833:"Savannah Git Hosting - autoconf.git/blob - COPYING.EXCEPTION"
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To process files, autoconf uses the GNU implementation of the
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29:
562:, which is used by the configure script to generate the file
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It can be difficult to make a software program portable: the
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If a source code file is changed then it suffices to re-run
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the 31,085 lines of configure for libtool still check if
713:, may execute configure scripts considerably slower than
752:, and bemoans the need for such build systems to exist:
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with special license exceptions permitting its use with
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Autoconf comes with several auxiliary programs such as
987:"Robert Ögren - Slow shell script execution on Cygwin"
887:"The GNU configure and build system - Introduction"
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245:
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60:. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.
449:to generate executable programs from source code.
593:operating systems. Libtool accomplishes this by
689:Although the developer is expected to provide a
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754:
741:
8:
467:file has changed then it suffices to re-run
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674:scripts to run. Cygwin also provides the
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120:Learn how and when to remove this message
550:s, which are in turn processed with the
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824:
961:"Cross Compilation with GNU Autotools"
663:system on top of Windows to provide a
709:, which, due to its lack of a native
370:Flow diagram of autoconf and automake
7:
912:"Learning the GNU development tools"
805:Free and open-source software portal
58:adding citations to reliable sources
335:packages. Its component tools are
421:script based on the contents of a
25:
1012:"A Generation Lost in the Bazaar"
813:List of build automation software
739:criticized the GNU Build System:
1073:"Re: Future plans for Autotools"
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750:multitude of 1980s Unix variants
554:utility. It takes its input as
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34:
520:, which is used to help manage
45:needs additional citations for
1131:Software using the GPL license
1:
578:helps manage the creation of
294:designed to assist in making
936:"automake: GNU Build System"
27:GNU software packaging tools
1010:Kamp, Poul-Henning (2012).
916:Autotoolset.sourceforge.net
862:"libtool.git - GNU Libtool"
327:and is widely used in many
1152:
374:Autotools consists of the
341:GNU General Public License
252:GNU General Public License
546:helps to create portable
323:Autotools is part of the
316:preprocessor directives (
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168:
137:
643:to other architectures.
163:Free Software Foundation
1029:10.1145/2346916.2349257
701:The autoconf-generated
676:GNU Compiler Collection
404:GNU Compiler Collection
1136:Unix programming tools
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193:M4 (computer language)
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339:, licensed under the
1126:GNU Project software
866:Git.savannah.gnu.org
837:Git.savannah.gnu.org
558:, and turns it into
345:proprietary software
286:, also known as the
232:GNU Operating System
54:improve this article
967:on October 13, 2008
670:, though, allowing
668:compatibility layer
615:software developers
437:into output files (
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759:<sys/stat.h>
725:In his column for
613:Autotools assists
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148:Original author(s)
737:Poul-Henning Kamp
649:Microsoft Windows
627:Bourne-compatible
292:programming tools
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16:(Redirected from
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71: –
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65:Find sources:
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49:
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43:This article
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37:
32:
31:
19:
1076:. Retrieved
1067:
1055:. Retrieved
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1022:(8): 20–23.
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994:. Retrieved
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969:. Retrieved
965:the original
955:
944:. Retrieved
942:. 2014-12-31
939:
930:
919:. Retrieved
915:
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895:. Retrieved
893:. 1998-07-01
890:
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870:. Retrieved
868:. 2005-01-08
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845:. Retrieved
841:the original
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482:(which runs
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423:configure.ac
417:generates a
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354:followed by
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238:Available in
179:Multiple
158:Developer(s)
116:
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90:
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52:Please help
47:verification
44:
1078:January 22,
1057:January 22,
595:abstracting
589:on various
560:Makefile.in
556:Makefile.am
494:generates.)
435:Makefile.in
333:open source
296:source code
1110:Categories
996:2016-04-01
991:Cygwin.com
946:2016-04-01
921:2016-04-01
897:2016-04-01
872:2016-04-01
847:2016-04-01
819:References
777:, opined:
735:developer
696:autoreconf
518:autoheader
402:, and the
400:pkg-config
378:utilities
362:Components
313:C compiler
223:and others
189:Written in
80:newspapers
1016:ACM Queue
728:ACM Queue
721:Criticism
703:configure
691:configure
672:configure
665:Unix-like
653:Unix-like
623:configure
617:to write
591:Unix-like
587:libraries
492:configure
480:configure
427:configure
419:configure
352:configure
308:systems.
306:Unix-like
272:/software
270:/software
254:version 2
152:Community
18:Autotools
1038:11656592
891:Airs.com
791:See also
680:GNU make
564:Makefile
548:Makefile
544:Automake
539:Automake
529:autoscan
501:and the
447:Makefile
439:Makefile
415:Autoconf
410:Autoconf
384:Automake
380:Autoconf
304:to many
302:portable
299:packages
216:Platform
940:Gnu.org
733:FreeBSD
603:Solaris
584:dynamic
576:Libtool
571:Libtool
533:ifnames
406:(GCC).
396:gettext
388:Libtool
259:Website
247:License
241:English
94:scholar
1036:
707:Cygwin
657:Cygwin
580:static
486:) and
394:, GNU
386:, and
318:#ifdef
96:
89:
82:
75:
67:
1034:S2CID
715:Linux
684:MinGW
630:shell
609:Usage
599:Linux
463:If a
274:.html
101:JSTOR
87:books
1080:2021
1059:2021
973:2008
762:and
661:MSYS
634:make
582:and
552:make
488:make
473:make
471:and
458:make
443:make
392:make
356:make
331:and
282:The
268:.org
266:.gnu
73:news
1024:doi
659:or
605:).
503:.in
465:.in
376:GNU
264:www
221:GNU
56:by
1112::
1032:.
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1018:.
1014:.
989:.
938:.
914:.
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835:.
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511:m4
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975:.
949:.
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900:.
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850:.
522:C
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197:C
123:)
117:(
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108:(
98:·
91:·
84:·
77:·
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20:)
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