8.3.1 GNU Tools

If you expect to work with the configuration files and/or the Makefile files, you will need to install a number of other GNU tools. In general, you should be using the latest versions of the tools, or least the same ones that the maintainer himself uses. This helps minimize the differences that the maintainer has to resolve when merging changes, and in general avoids confusion and hassle. Similarly, you should install the latest GNU documentation tools as well. The tools are described in the following list:

autoconf

GNU Autoconf processes the configure.ac files in order to generate the configure shell script and config.h.in input file. See the Autoconf home page for more information.

automake

GNU Automake processes the configure.ac and Makefile.am files to produce Makefile.in files. See the Automake home page for more information.

gettext

GNU Gettext processes the gawk source code to produce the original po/gawk.pot message template file. Normally you should not need need to do this; the maintainer usually manages this task. See the Gettext home page for more information.

libtool

GNU Libtool works with Autoconf and Automake to produce portable shared libraries. It is used for the extensions that ship with gawk, whose code is in the extensions directory. See the Libtool home page for more information.

makeinfo

The makeinfo command is used to build the Info versions of the documentation. You need to have the same version as the maintainer uses, so that when you make a change to the documentation, the corresponding change to the generated Info file will be minimal. makeinfo is part of GNU Texinfo. See the Texinfo home page for more information.