START-INFO-DIR-ENTRY * automake: (automake). Making Makefile.in's END-INFO-DIR-ENTRY This file documents GNU automake 1.0 Copyright (C) 1995 Free Software Foundation, Inc. Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this manual provided the copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved on all copies. Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of this manual under the conditions for verbatim copying, provided that the entire resulting derived work is distributed under the terms of a permission notice identical to this one. Permission is granted to copy and distribute translations of this manual into another language, under the above conditions for modified versions, except that this permission notice may be stated in a translation approved by the Foundation. GNU Automake ************ This file documents the GNU Automake package for creating GNU Standards-compliant Makefiles from template files. This edition documents version 1.0. 1 Introduction ************** Automake is a tool for automatically generating 'Makefile.in's from files called 'Makefile.am'. The 'Makefile.am' is basically a series of 'make' macro definitions (with rules being thrown in occasionally). The generated 'Makefile.in's are compliant with the GNU Makefile standards. The GNU Makefile Standards Document (*note (standards.info)Makefile Conventions::) 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 maintainer). The typical Automake input files is simply a series of macro definitions. Each such file is processed to create a 'Makefile.in'. There should generally be one 'Makefile.am' per directory of a project. Automake does constrain a project in certain ways; for instance it assumes that the project uses Autoconf (*note The Autoconf Manual: (autoconf.info)Top.), and enforces certain restrictions on the 'configure.in' contents. 'Automake' requires 'perl' in order to generate the 'Makefile.in's. However, the distributions created by Automake are fully GNU standards-compliant, and do not require 'perl' in order to be built. Mail suggestions and bug reports for Automake to tromey@cygnus.com. 2 Creating a 'Makefile.in' ************************** To create all the 'Makefile.in's 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.in'; *note configure::) and generate the corresponding 'Makefile.in'. 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.in', and because 'automake' uses the knowledge that a 'Makefile.in' is in a subdirectory to change its behavior in some cases. 'automake' accepts the following options: '--amdir=DIR' Look for Automake data files in directory DIR instead of in the installation directory. This is typically used for debugging. '--foreign' An alias for '--strictness=foreign'. '--gnits' An alias for '--strictness=gnits'. '--gnu' An alias for '--strictness=gnu'. '--help' Print a summary of the command line options and exit. '--include-deps' Include all automatically generated dependency information (*note Dependencies::) in the generated 'Makefile.in'. This is generally done when making a distribution; see *note Dist::. '--add-missing' Automake requires certain common files to exist in certain situations; for instance 'config.guess' is required if 'configure.in' runs 'AC_CANONICAL_HOST'. Automake is distributed with several of these files; this option will cause the missing ones to be automatically added to the package, whenever possible. '--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 used when making distributions. '--strictness=LEVEL' Set the global strictness to LEVEL; this can be overridden in each 'Makefile.am' if required. *Note Generalities:: for more information. '--verbose' Cause Automake to print information about which files are being read or created. '--version' Print the version number of Automake and exit. 3 General ideas *************** 3.1 Depth ========= 'automake' supports three kinds of directory hierarchy: "flat", "shallow", and "deep". A "flat" package is one in which all the files are in a single directory. The 'Makefile.am' for such a package by definition lacks a 'SUBDIRS' macro. An example of such a package is 'termutils'. A "deep" package is one in which all the source lies in subdirectories; the top level directory contains mainly configuration information. GNU cpio is a good example of such a package, as is GNU 'tar'. The top level 'Makefile.am' for a deep package will contain a 'SUBDIRS' macro, but no other macros to define objects which are built. A "shallow" package is one in which the primary source resides in the top-level directory, while various parts (typically libraries) reside in subdirectories. 'automake' is one such package (as is GNU 'make', which does not currently use 'automake'). 3.2 Strictness ============== While Automake is intended to be used by maintainers of GNU packages, it does make some effort to accomodate 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" - the strictness indicating how stringently Automake should check standards conformance. The valid strictness levels are: 'foreign' Automake will check for only those things which are absolutely required for proper operations. For instance, whereas GNU standards dictate the existence of a 'NEWS' file, it will not be required in this mode. The name comes from the fact that Automake is intended to be used for GNU programs; these relaxed rules are not the standard mode of operation. 'gnu' Automake will check - as much as possible - for compliance to the GNU standards for packages. This is the default. '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 actually published. 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. These variables are called "primary" variables. For instance, the primary variable 'PROGRAMS' holds a list of programs which are to be compiled and linked. A different set of variables is used to decide where the built objects should be installed. These variables are named after the primary variables, but have a prefix indicating which standard directory should be used as the installation directory. The standard directory names are given in the GNU standards (*note (standards.info)Directory Variables::). 'automake' extends this list with 'pkglibdir', 'pkgincludedir', and 'pkgdatadir'; these are the same as the non-'pkg' versions, but with '@PACKAGE@' appended. For each primary, there is one additional variable named by prepending 'EXTRA_' to the primary name. This variable is used to list objects which may or may not be built, depending on what 'configure' decides. This variable is required because Automake must know the entire list of objects to be built in order to generate a 'Makefile.in' that will work in all cases. For instance, 'cpio' decides at configure time which programs are 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 = @PROGRAMS@ Defining a primary variable 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. Automake will also diagnose obvious misspellings in directory names. 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 (eg 'zar') is valid if a variable of the same name with 'dir' appended is defined (eg 'zardir'). For instance, until HTML support is part of Automake, you could use this to install raw HTML documentation: htmldir = $(prefix)/html html_DATA = automake.html The special prefix 'noinst' indicates that the objects in question should not be installed at all. The special prefix 'check' indicates that the objects in question should not be built until the 'make check' command is run. Possible primary names are 'PROGRAMS', 'LIBRARIES', 'SCRIPTS', 'DATA', 'HEADERS', 'MANS', and 'TEXINFOS'. 3.4 General Operation ===================== Automake essentially works by reading a 'Makefile.am' and generating a 'Makefile.in'. The macro definitions and targets in the 'Makefile.am' are copied into the generated file. Automake tries to group comments with adjoining targets (or variable definitions) in an intelligent way. A target defined in 'Makefile.am' generally overrides any such target 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. Automake also allows a form of comment which is _not_ copied into the output; all lines beginning with '##' 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 4 Scanning 'configure.in' ************************* Automake requires certain variables to be defined and certain macros to be used in the package 'configure.in'. One such requirement is that 'configure.in' must define the variables 'PACKAGE' and 'VERSION' with 'AC_SUBST'. 'PACKAGE' should be the name of the package as it appears when bundled for distribution. For instance, Automake definees 'PACKAGE' to be 'automake'. 'VERSION' should be the version number of the release that is being developed. We recommend that you make 'configure.in' the only place in your package where the version number is defined; this makes releases simpler. Automake requires the use of the macro 'AC_ARG_PROGRAM' if a program or script is installed. If your package is not a flat distribution, Automake requires the use of 'AC_PROG_MAKE_SET'. Automake will also recognize the use of certain macros and tailor the generated 'Makefile.in' appropriately. Currently recognized macros and their effects are: 'AC_CONFIG_HEADER' Automake will generate rules to automatically regenerate the config header. If you do use this macro, you must create the file 'stamp-h.in'. It can be empty. Also, the 'AC_OUTPUT' command in 'configure.in' must create 'stamp-h', eg: AC_OUTPUT(Makefile, [test -z "$CONFIG_HEADERS" || echo timestamp > stamp-h]) 'AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR' Automake will look for various helper scripts, such as 'mkinstalldirs', in the directory named in this macro invocation. If not seen, the scripts are looked for in their "standard" locations (either the top source directory, or in the source directory corresponding to the current 'Makefile.am', whichever is appropriate). 'AC_OUTPUT' Automake uses this to determine which files to create. 'AC_PATH_XTRA' Automake will insert definitions for the variables defined by 'AC_PATH_XTRA' into each 'Makefile.in' that builds a C program or library. 'AC_CANONICAL_HOST' 'AC_CANONICAL_SYSTEM' 'AC_CHECK_TOOL' Automake will ensure that 'config.guess' and 'config.sub' exist. 'AC_FUNC_ALLOCA' 'AC_FUNC_GETLOADAVG' 'AC_FUNC_MEMCMP' 'AC_STRUCT_ST_BLOCKS' 'fp_FUNC_FNMATCH' 'AC_FUNC_FNMATCH' 'AC_REPLACE_FUNCS' 'AC_REPLACE_GNU_GETOPT' Automake will ensure that the appropriate source files are part of the distribution, and will ensure that the appropriate dependencies are generated for these objects. *Note A Library:: for more information. Automake will also detect statements which put '.o' files into 'LIBOBJS', and will treat these additional files in a similar way. 'AC_PROG_RANLIB' This is required if any libraries are built in the package. 'AC_PROG_INSTALL' 'fp_PROG_INSTALL' 'fp_PROG_INSTALL' is required if any scripts (*note Scripts::) are installed by the package. Otherwise, 'AC_PROG_INSTALL' is required. 'gm_PROG_LIBTOOL' 'AC_PROG_LIBTOOL' Automake will turn on processing for 'libtool' (*note The Libtool Manual: (libtool.info)Top.). This work is still preliminary. 'ALL_LINGUAS' If Automake sees that this variable is set in 'configure.in', it will check the 'po' directory to ensure that all the named '.po' files exist, and that all the '.po' files that exist are named. 'fp_C_PROTOTYPES' This is required when using automatic de-ANSI-fication, see *note ANSI::. 'ud_GNU_GETTEXT' This macro is required for packages which use GNU gettext (FIXME xref). It is distributed with gettext. Automake uses this macro to ensure that the package meets some of gettext's requirements. 'jm_MAINTAINER_MODE' This macro adds a '--enable-maintainer-mode' option to 'configure'. If this is used, 'automake' will cause "maintainer-only" rules to be turned off by default in the generated 'Makefile.in's. The 'fp_' macros are from Franc,ois Pinard and the 'jm_' macro is from Jim Meyering. Both sets are included with Automake. 'automake' will tell where the macros can be found if they are missing. 5 The top-level 'Makefile.am' ***************************** In non-flat packages, the top level 'Makefile.am' must tell Automake which subdirectories are to be built. This is done via the 'SUBDIRS' variable. The 'SUBDIRS' macro holds a list of subdirectories in which building of various sorts can occur. Many targets (eg 'all') in the generated 'Makefile' will run both locally and in all specified subdirectories. Note that the directories listed in 'SUBDIRS' are not required to contain 'Makefile.am's; only 'Makefile's (after configuration). This allows inclusion of libraries from packages which do not use Automake (such as 'gettext'). In a deep package, the top-level 'Makefile.am' is often very short. For instance, here is the 'Makefile.am' from the textutils distribution: SUBDIRS = lib src doc man EXTRA_DIST = @README_ALPHA@ 'SUBDIRS' can contain configure substitutions (eg '@DIRS@'); Automake itself does not actually examine the contents of this variable. If 'SUBDIRS' is defined, then your 'configure.in' must include 'AC_PROG_MAKE_SET'. 6 Building Programs and Libraries ********************************* A large part of Automake's functionality is dedicated to making it easy to build C programs and libraries. 6.1 Building a program ====================== In a directory containing source that gets built into a program (as opposed to a library), the 'PROGRAMS' primary is used. Programs can be installed in 'bindir', 'sbindir', 'libexecdir', 'pkglibdir', or not at all. For instance: bin_PROGRAMS = hello In this simple case, the resulting 'Makefile.in' will contain code to generate a program named 'hello'. The variable 'hello_SOURCES' is used to specify which source files get built into an executable: hello_SOURCES = hello.c This causes 'hello.c' to be compiled into 'hello.o', and then linked to produce 'hello'. If 'prog_SOURCES' is needed, but not specified, then it defaults to the single file 'prog.c'. Id est in the example above, the definition of 'hello_SOURCES' is actually redundant. Multiple programs can be built in a single directory. Multiple programs can share a single source file. The source file must be listed in each '_SOURCES' definition. Header files listed in a '_SOURCES' definition will be ignored. Lex ('.l') and yacc ('.y') files can also be listed; support for these should work but is still preliminary. Sometimes it is useful to determine the programs that are to be built at configure time. For instance, GNU 'cpio' only builts 'mt' and 'rmt' under special circumstances. 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'. If you need to link against libraries that are not found by 'configure', you can use 'LDADD' to do so. This variable actually can be used to add any options to the linker command line. 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 the global '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 = ... It is also occasionally useful to have a program depend on some other target which is not actually part of that program. This can be done using the 'prog_DEPENDENCIES' variable. Each program depends on the contents of such a variable, but no further interpretation is done. Since program names are rewritten into Makefile macro names, program names must follow Makefile macro syntax. Sometimes it is useful to have a program whose name does not follow such rules. In these cases, Automake canonicalizes the program name. All characters in the name except for letters, numbers, and the underscore are turned into underscores when making macro references. Eg, if your program is named 'sniff-glue', you would use 'sniff_glue_SOURCES', not 'sniff-glue_SOURCES'. 6.2 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'. Each '_LIBRARIES' variable is a list of the base names of libraries to be built. For instance to create a library named 'libcpio.a', but not install it, you would write: noinst_LIBRARIES = cpio The sources that go into a library are determined exactly as they are for programs, via the '_SOURCES' variables. Note that programs and libraries share a namespace, so one cannot have a program ('lob') and a library ('liblob.a') with the same name in one directory. 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: cpio_LIBADD = @LIBOBJS@ @ALLOCA@ Note that Automake explicitly recognizes the use of '@LIBOBJS@' and '@ALLOCA@' in the above example, and uses this information, plus the list of 'LIBOBJS' files derived from 'configure.in' to automatically include the appropriate source files in the distribution (*note Dist::). These source files are also automatically handled in the dependency-tracking scheme, see *Note Dependencies::. 6.3 Automatic de-ANSI-fication ============================== Although the GNU standards prohibit it, some GNU programs are written in ANSI C; see FIXME. This is possible because each source file can be "de-ANSI-fied" before the actual compilation takes place. If the 'Makefile.am' variable 'AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS' (*note Options::) contains the option 'ansi2knr' then code to handle de-ANSI-fication is inserted into the generated 'Makefile.in'. This causes each source file to be treated as ANSI C. If an ANSI C compiler is available, it is used. This support requires the source files 'ansi2knr.c' and 'ansi2knr.1' to be in the same directory as the ANSI C source; these files are distributed with Automake. Also, the package 'configure.in' must call the macro 'fp_C_PROTOTYPES'. 6.4 Automatic dependency tracking ================================= As a developer it is often painful to continually update the 'Makefile.in' whenever the include-file dependencies change in a project. 'automake' supplies a way to automatically track dependency changes, and distribute the dependencies in the generated 'Makefile.in'. Currently this support requires the use of GNU 'make' and 'gcc'. It might become possible in the future to supply a different dependency generating program, if there is enough demand. This mode is enabled by default if any C program or library is defined in the current directory. When you decide to make a distribution, the 'dist' target will re-run 'automake' with the '--include-deps' option. This causes the previously generated dependencies to be inserted into the generated 'Makefile.in', and thus into the distribution. '--include-deps' also turns off inclusion of the dependency generation code. This mode can be suppressed by putting 'no-dependencies' in the variable 'AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS'. 7 Other Derived Objects *********************** Automake can handle derived objects which are not C programs. Sometimes the support for actually building such objects must be explicitly supplied, but Automake will still automatically handle installation and distribution. 7.1 Executable Scripts ====================== It is possible to define and install programs which are scripts. Such programs are listed using the 'SCRIPTS' primary name. 'automake' doesn't define any dependencies for scripts; the 'Makefile.am' should include the appropriate rules. 'automake' does not assume that scripts are derived objects; such objects are must be deleted by hand; see *note Clean:: for more information. 'automake' itself is a script that is generated at configure time from 'automake.in'. Here is how this is handled: bin_SCRIPTS = automake Since 'automake' appears in the 'AC_OUTPUT' macro, dependencies for it are automatically generated. Script objects can be installed in 'bindir', 'sbindir', 'libexecdir', or 'pkgdatadir'. 7.2 Header files ================ Header files are specified by the 'HEADERS' family of variables. Generally header files are not installed, so the 'noinst_HEADERS' variable will be the most used. All header files must be listed somewhere; missing ones will not appear in the distribution. Often it is most convenient to list uninstalled headers with the rest of the sources for a program. *Note A Program::. Headers can be installed in 'includedir', 'oldincludedir', or 'pkgincludedir'. 7.3 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', 'sysconfdir', 'sharedstatedir', 'localstatedir', or 'pkgdatadir'. All such data files are included in the distribution. Here is how 'autoconf' installs its auxiliary data files: pkgdata_DATA = clean-kr.am clean.am compile-kr.am compile-vars.am \ compile.am data.am depend.am dist-subd-top.am dist-subd-vars.am \ dist-subd.am dist-vars.am dist.am footer.am header-vars.am header.am \ libscripts.am libprograms.am libraries-vars.am libraries.am library.am \ mans-vars.am mans.am packagedata.am program.am programs.am remake-hdr.am \ remake-subd.am remake.am scripts.am subdirs.am tags.am tags-subd.am \ texinfos-vars.am texinfos.am hack-make.sed nl-remove.sed 7.4 Built sources ================= Occasionally a file which would otherwise be called "source" (eg a C '.h' file) is actually derived from some other file. Such files should be listed in the 'BUILT_SOURCES' variable. Files listed in 'BUILT_SOURCES' are built before any automatic dependency tracking is done. Built sources are included in a distribution. 8 Building documentation ************************ Currently Automake provides support for Texinfo and man pages. 8.1 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' macro is most commonly used here. Note that any Texinfo source file must end in the '.texi' extension ('.texinfo' won't work). If the '.texi' file '@include's 'version.texi', then that file will be automatically generated. 'version.texi' defines three Texinfo macros you can reference: 'EDITION', 'VERSION', and 'UPDATED'. The first two hold the version number of your package (but are kept separate for clarity); the last is the date the primary file was last modified. The 'version.texi' support requires the 'mdate-sh' program; this program is supplied with Automake. Sometimes an info file actually depends on more than one '.texi' file. For instance, in the 'xdvik' distribution, 'kpathsea.texi' includes the files 'install.texi', 'copying.texi', and 'freedom.texi'. You can tell Automake about these dependencies using the 'texi_TEXINFOS' variable. Here is how 'xdvik' could do it: info_TEXINFOS = kpathsea.texi kpathsea_TEXINFOS = install.texi copying.texi freedom.texi Automake will warn if a directory containing Texinfo source does not also contain the file 'texinfo.tex'. This file is supplied with Automake. Automake generates an 'install-info' target; some people apparently use this. 8.2 Man pages ============= A package can also include man pages. (Though see the GNU standards on this matter, *note (standards.info)Man Pages::.) Man pages are declared using the 'MANS' primary. Generally the 'man_MANS' macro is used. Man pages are automatically installed in the correct subdirectory of 'mandir', based on the file extension. 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'. Here is how the documentation is handled in GNU 'cpio' (which includes both Texinfo documentation and man pages): info_TEXINFOS = cpio.texi man_MANS = cpio.1 mt.1 Texinfo source, info pages and man pages are all considered to be source for the purposes of making a distribution. 9 What Gets Installed ********************* Naturally, Automake handles the details of actually installing your program once it has been built. All 'PROGRAMS', 'SCRIPTS', 'LIBRARIES', 'DATA' and 'HEADERS' are automatically installed in the appropriate places. Automake also handles installing any specified info and man pages. Automake generates separate 'install-data' and 'install-exec' targets, in case the installer is installing on multiple machines which share directory structure - these targets allow the machine-independent parts to be installed only once. The 'install' target depends on both of these targets. Automake also generates an 'uninstall' target, and an 'installdirs' target. It is possible to extend this mechanism by defining an 'install-exec-local' or 'install-data-local' target. If these targets exist, they will be run at 'make install' time. 10 What Gets Cleaned ******************** The GNU Makefile Standards specify a number of different clean rules. Generally the files that can 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'. In Automake, the 'automake' program is not automatically removed, because it is an executable script. So this code in 'Makefile.am' causes it to be removed by 'make clean': CLEANFILES = automake 11 What Goes in a Distribution ****************************** The 'dist' target in the generated 'Makefile.in' can be used to generate a gzip'd 'tar' file for distribution. The tar file is named based on the PACKAGE and VERSION variables. 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's and 'Makefile.in's. Automake also has a built-in list of commonly used files which, if present in the current directory, are automatically included. This list is printed by 'automake --help'. Also, files which are read by 'configure' (ie, the source files corresponding to the files specified in the 'AC_OUTPUT' invocation) are automatically distributed. Still, sometimes there are files which must be distributed, but which are not covered in the automatic rules. These files should be listed in the 'EXTRA_DIST' variable. Occasionally it is useful to be able to change the distribution before it is packaged up. If the 'dist-hook' target exists, it is run after the distribution directory is filled, but before the actual tar (or shar) file is created. One way to use this is for distributing file in subdirectories for which a new 'Makefile.am' is overkill: dist-hook: mkdir $(distdir)/random cp -p random/a1 random/a2 $(distdir)/random Automake also generates a 'distcheck' target which can be help to ensure that a given distribution will actually work. 'distcheck' makes a distribution, and then tries to do a 'VPATH' build. 12 Support for test suites ************************** Automake supports a two forms of test suite. If the variable 'TESTS' is defined, its value is taken to be a list of programs to run in order to do the testing. The programs can either be derived objects or source objects; the generated rule will look both in SRCDIR and '.'. The number of failures will be printed at the end of the run. If 'dejagnu' appears in 'AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS', then the a 'dejagnu'-based test suite is assumed. The value of the variable 'DEJATOOL' is passed as the '--tool' argument to 'runtest'; it defaults to the name of the package. The variables 'EXPECT', 'RUNTEST' and 'RUNTESTFLAGS' 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. In either case, the testing is done via 'make check'. 13 Changing Automake's Behavior ******************************* Various features of Automake can be controlled by options in the 'Makefile.am'. Such options are listed in a special variable named 'AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS'. Currently understood options are: 'gnits' 'gnu' 'foreign' The same as the corresponding '--strictness' option. '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. 'ansi2knr' Turn on automatic de-ANSI-fication. 'dist-shar' Generate a 'dist-shar' target as well as the ordinary 'dist' target. 'dist-zip' Generate a 'dist-zip' target as well as the ordinary 'dist' target. 'no-dependencies' This is similar to using '--include-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 *Note Dependencies::. In this case the effect is to effectively disable automatic dependency tracking. VERSION A version number (eg '0.30') can be specified. If Automake is not newer than the version specified, creation of the 'Makefile.in' will be suppressed. Unrecognized options are diagnosed by 'automake'. 14 Miscellaneous Rules ********************** There are a few rules and variables that didn't fit anywhere else. 14.1 Interfacing to 'etags' =========================== 'automake' will generate rules to generate 'TAGS' files for use with GNU Emacs under some circumstances. If any C source code or headers are present, then a 'tags' target will be generated for the directory. At the topmost directory of a multi-directory package, a 'tags' target file will be generated which, when run, will generate a 'TAGS' file that includes by reference all 'TAGS' files from subdirectories. Also, if the variable 'ETAGS_ARGS' is defined, a 'tags' target will be generated. This variable is intended for use in directories which contain taggable source that 'etags' does not understand. 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 Automake will also generate an 'ID' target which will run 'mkid' on the source. This is only supported on a directory-by-directory basis. 14.2 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. If this is done, you must notify GNU Make of the new suffixes. This can be done by putting a list of new suffixes in the 'SUFFIXES' variable. 14.3 Built sources ================== FIXME write this 15 When Automake Isn't Enough ***************************** Sometimes 'automake' isn't enough. Then you just lose. Actually, 'automake's implicit copying semantics means that many problems can be worked around by simply adding some 'make' targets and rules to 'Makefile.in'. 'automake' will ignore these additions. There are some caveats to doing this. Although you can overload a target already used by 'automake', it is often inadvisable, particularly in the topmost directory of a non-flat package. However, various useful targets have a '-local' version you can specify in your 'Makefile.in'. Automake will supplement the standard target with these user-supplied targets. The targets that support a local version are 'all', 'info', 'dvi', 'check', 'install-data', 'install-exec', and 'uninstall'. For instance, here is how to install a file in '/etc': install-data-local: $(INSTALL_DATA) $(srcdir)/afile /etc/afile Some targets also have a way to run another target, called a "hook", after their work is done. The hook is named after the principal target, with '-hook' appended. The targets allowing hooks are 'install-data', 'install-exec', and 'dist'. For instance, here is how to create a hard link to an installed program: install-exec-hook: $(LN) $(bindir)/program $(bindir)/proglink 16 Distributing 'Makefile.in's ****************************** Automake places no restrictions on the distribution of the resulting 'Makefile.in's. We still 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; examine each file to see. 17 Some example packages ************************ Here are some examples of how Automake can be used. 17.1 The simplest GNU program ============================= 'hello' is renowned for its classic simplicity and versatility. What better place to begin a tour? The below shows what could be used as the Hello distribution's 'Makefile.am'. bin_PROGRAMS = hello hello_SOURCES = hello.c version.c getopt.c getopt1.c getopt.h hello_LDADD = @ALLOCA@ info_TEXINFOS = hello.texi hello_TEXINFOS = gpl.texi EXTRA_DIST = testdata check-local: hello @echo expect no output from diff ./hello > test.out diff -c $(srcdir)/testdata test.out rm -f test.out Of course, Automake also requires some minor changes to 'configure.in'. The new 'configure.in' would read: dnl Process this file with autoconf to produce a configure script. AC_INIT(hello.c) VERSION=1.3 AC_SUBST(VERSION) PACKAGE=hello AC_SUBST(PACKAGE) AC_PROG_CC AC_PROG_CPP AC_PROG_INSTALL AC_STDC_HEADERS AC_HAVE_HEADERS(string.h fcntl.h sys/file.h) AC_ALLOCA AC_OUTPUT(Makefile) If Hello were really going to use Automake, the 'version.c' file would probably be deleted, or changed so as to be automatically generated. 17.2 A tricker example ====================== Here is another, trickier example. It shows how to generate two programs ('ctags' and 'etags') from the same source file ('etags.c'). The difficult part is that each compilation of 'etags.c' requires different 'cpp' flags. bin_PROGRAMS = etags ctags ctags_SOURCES = ctags_LDADD = ctags.o ctags_DEPENDENCIES = ctags.o etags.o: $(COMPILE) -DETAGS_REGEXPS etags.c ctags.o: $(COMPILE) -DCTAGS -o ctags.o etags.c Note that 'ctags_SOURCES' is defined to be empty - that way no implicit value is substituted. The implicit value, however, is used to generate 'etags' from 'etags.o'. 'ctags_LDADD' is used to get 'ctags.o' into the link line, while 'ctags_DEPENDENCIES' exists to make sure that 'ctags.o' gets built in the first place. This is a somewhat pathological example. 17.3 Automake uses itself ========================= Automake, of course, uses itself to generate its 'Makefile.in'. Since Automake is a shallow package, it has more than one 'Makefile.am'. Here is the top-level 'Makefile.am': ## Process this file with automake to create Makefile.in AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS = gnits MAINT_CHARSET = latin1 PERL = @PERL@ SUBDIRS = tests bin_SCRIPTS = automake info_TEXINFOS = automake.texi pkgdata_DATA = clean-kr.am clean.am compile-kr.am compile-vars.am \ compile.am data.am depend.am \ dist-vars.am footer.am header.am header-vars.am \ kr-vars.am libraries-vars.am \ libraries.am library.am mans-vars.am \ program.am programs.am remake-hdr.am \ remake-subd.am remake.am scripts.am subdirs.am tags.am tags-subd.am \ tags-clean.am \ texi-version.am texinfos-vars.am texinfos.am \ libraries-clean.am programs-clean.am data-clean.am \ COPYING INSTALL texinfo.tex \ ansi2knr.c ansi2knr.1 \ aclocal.m4 ## These must all be executable when installed. pkgdata_SCRIPTS = config.guess config.sub install-sh mdate-sh mkinstalldirs CLEANFILES = automake # The following requires a fixed version of the Emacs 19.30 etags. ETAGS_ARGS = automake.in --lang=none \ --regex='/^@node[ \t]+\([^,]+\)/\1/' automake.texi ## `test -x' is not portable. So we use Perl instead. If Perl ## doesn't exist, then this test is meaningless anyway. # Check to make sure some installed files are executable. installcheck-local: $(PERL) -e "exit ! -x '$(pkgdatadir)/config.guess';" $(PERL) -e "exit ! -x '$(pkgdatadir)/config.sub';" $(PERL) -e "exit ! -x '$(pkgdatadir)/install-sh';" $(PERL) -e "exit ! -x '$(pkgdatadir)/mdate-sh';" $(PERL) -e "exit ! -x '$(pkgdatadir)/mkinstalldirs';" # Some simple checks: # * syntax check with perl4 and perl5. # * make sure the scripts don't use 'true' # * expect no instances of '${...}' # These are only really guaranteed to work on my machine. maintainer-check: automake check $(PERL) -c -w automake @if grep '^[^#].*true' $(srcdir)/[a-z]*.am; then \ echo "can't use 'true' in GNU Makefile" 1>&2; \ exit 1; \ else :; fi @if test `fgrep '$${' $(srcdir)/[a-z]*.am | wc -l` -ne 0; then \ echo "found too many uses of '\$${'" 1>&2; \ exit 1; \ fi if $(SHELL) -c 'perl4.036 -v' >/dev/null 2>&1; then \ perl4.036 -c -w automake; \ else :; fi # Tag before making distribution. Also, don't make a distribution if # checks fail. Also, make sure the NEWS file is up-to-date. cvs-dist: maintainer-check @if sed 1q NEWS | grep -e "$(VERSION)" > /dev/null; then :; else \ echo "NEWS not updated; not releasing" 1>&2; \ exit 1; \ fi cvs tag `echo "Release-$(VERSION)" | sed 's/\./-/g'` $(MAKE) dist As you can see, Automake defines many of its own rules, to make the maintainer's job easier. For instance the 'cvs-dist' rule automatically tags the current version in the CVS repository, and then makes a standard distribution. Automake consists primarily of one program, 'automake', and a number of auxiliary scripts. Automake also installs a number of programs which are possibly installed via the '--add-missing' option; these scripts are listed in the 'pkgdata_SCRIPTS' variable. Automake also has a 'tests' subdirectory, as indicated in the 'SUBDIRS' variable above. Here is 'tests/Makefile.am': ## Process this file with automake to create Makefile.in AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS = gnits TESTS = mdate.test vtexi.test acoutput.test instexec.test checkall.test \ acoutnoq.test acouttbs.test libobj.test proginst.test acoutqnl.test \ confincl.test spelling.test prefix.test badprog.test depend.test EXTRA_DIST = defs This is where all the tests are really run. 'defs' is an initialization file used by each test script; it is explicitly mentioned because 'automake' has no way of automatically finding it. 17.4 A deep hierarchy ===================== The GNU textutils are a collection of programs for manipulating text files. They are distributed as a deep package. The textutils have only recently been modified to use Automake; the examples come from a prerelease. Here is the top-level 'Makefile.am': SUBDIRS = lib src doc man In the 'lib' directory, a library is built which is used by each textutil. Here is 'lib/Makefile.am': noinst_LIBRARIES = tu EXTRA_DIST = rx.c regex.c tu_SOURCES = error.h getline.h getopt.h linebuffer.h \ long-options.h md5.h regex.h rx.h xstrtod.h xstrtol.h xstrtoul.h \ error.c full-write.c getline.c getopt.c getopt1.c \ linebuffer.c long-options.c md5.c memchr.c safe-read.c \ xmalloc.c xstrtod.c xstrtol.c xstrtoul.c tu_LIBADD = @REGEXOBJ@ @LIBOBJS@ @ALLOCA@ The 'src' directory contains the source for all the textutils - 23 programs in all. The 'Makefile.am' for this directory also includes some simple checking code, and constructs a 'version.c' file on the fly: bin_PROGRAMS = cat cksum comm csplit cut expand fmt fold head join md5sum \ nl od paste pr sort split sum tac tail tr unexpand uniq wc noinst_HEADERS = system.h version.h DISTCLEANFILES = stamp-v version.c INCLUDES = -I$(top_srcdir)/lib LDADD = version.o ../lib/libtu.a $(PROGRAMS): version.o ../lib/libtu.a AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS = ansi2knr version.c: stamp-v stamp-v: Makefile rm -f t-version.c echo '#include ' > t-version.c echo '#include "version.h"' >> t-version.c echo 'const char *version_string = "'GNU @PACKAGE@ @VERSION@'";' \ >> t-version.c if cmp -s version.c t-version.c; then \ rm t-version.c; \ else \ mv t-version.c version.c; \ fi echo timestamp > $@ check: md5sum ./md5sum \ --string="" \ --string="a" \ --string="abc" \ --string="message digest" \ --string="abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz" \ --string="ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789" \ --string="12345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890" \ | diff -c $(srcdir)/md5-test.rfc - The 'doc' directory builds the info documentation for the textutils: info_TEXINFOS = textutils.texi And, last, the 'man' directory installs the man pages for all the textutils: man_MANS = cat.1 cksum.1 comm.1 csplit.1 cut.1 expand.1 fmt.1 fold.1 head.1 \ join.1 md5sum.1 nl.1 od.1 paste.1 pr.1 sort.1 split.1 sum.1 tac.1 tail.1 \ tr.1 unexpand.1 uniq.1 wc.1 You can now see how easy it is to handle even a largish project using Automake. 18 Some ideas for the future **************************** Here are some things that might happen in the future: * HTML support. * The output will be cleaned up. For instance, only variables which are actually used will appear in the generated 'Makefile.in'. * There will be support for automatically recoding a distribution. The intent is to allow a maintainer to use whatever character set is most convenient locally, but for all distributions to be Unicode or ISO 10646 with the UTF-8 encoding. Index of Variables ****************** * Menu: * _LDADD: A Program. (line 463) * _LIBADD: A Library. (line 517) * _SOURCES: A Program. (line 433) * _TEXINFOS: Texinfo. (line 675) * AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS: ANSI. (line 535) * AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS <1>: Dependencies. (line 569) * AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS <2>: Options. (line 812) * BUILT_SOURCES: Sources. (line 643) * CLEANFILES: Clean. (line 743) * DATA: Generalities. (line 247) * DATA <1>: Data. (line 621) * DEJATOOL: Tests. (line 803) * DISTCLEANFILES: Clean. (line 743) * EXPECT: Tests. (line 803) * EXTRA_DIST: Dist. (line 769) * EXTRA_PROGRAMS: A Program. (line 452) * HEADERS: Generalities. (line 247) * HEADERS <1>: Headers. (line 607) * info_TEXINFOS: Texinfo. (line 661) * LDADD: A Program. (line 456) * LIBADD: A Library. (line 517) * LIBRARIES: Generalities. (line 247) * MAINTAINERCLEANFILES: Clean. (line 743) * MANS: Generalities. (line 247) * MANS <1>: Man pages. (line 694) * man_MANS: Man pages. (line 694) * MOSTLYCLEANFILES: Clean. (line 743) * PROGRAMS: Generalities. (line 191) * PROGRAMS <1>: Generalities. (line 247) * RUNTEST: Tests. (line 803) * RUNTESTFLAGS: Tests. (line 803) * SCRIPTS: Generalities. (line 247) * SCRIPTS <1>: Scripts. (line 585) * SOURCES: A Program. (line 433) * SUBDIRS: Generalities. (line 135) * SUBDIRS <1>: Top level. (line 382) * SUFFIXES: Suffixes. (line 885) * TEXINFOS: Generalities. (line 247) * TEXINFOS <1>: Texinfo. (line 661) * TEXINFOS <2>: Texinfo. (line 675) Index of Configure Variables and Macros *************************************** * Menu: * AC_ARG_PROGRAM: configure. (line 287) * AC_CANONICAL_HOST: configure. (line 322) * AC_CANONICAL_SYSTEM: configure. (line 322) * AC_CHECK_TOOL: configure. (line 322) * AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR: configure. (line 309) * AC_CONFIG_HEADER: configure. (line 302) * AC_FUNC_ALLOCA: configure. (line 335) * AC_FUNC_FNMATCH: configure. (line 335) * AC_FUNC_GETLOADAVG: configure. (line 335) * AC_FUNC_MEMCMP: configure. (line 335) * AC_OUTPUT: configure. (line 312) * AC_PATH_XTRA: configure. (line 317) * AC_PROG_INSTALL: configure. (line 347) * AC_PROG_LIBTOOL: configure. (line 352) * AC_PROG_MAKE_SET: configure. (line 290) * AC_PROG_RANLIB: configure. (line 341) * AC_REPLACE_FUNCS: configure. (line 335) * AC_REPLACE_GNU_GETOPT: configure. (line 335) * AC_STRUCT_ST_BLOCKS: configure. (line 335) * ALL_LINGUAS: configure. (line 357) * fp_C_PROTOTYPES: configure. (line 361) * fp_C_PROTOTYPES <1>: ANSI. (line 545) * fp_FUNC_FNMATCH: configure. (line 335) * fp_PROG_INSTALL: configure. (line 347) * gm_PROG_LIBTOOL: configure. (line 352) * jm_MAINTAINER_MODE: configure. (line 371) * LIBOBJS: configure. (line 339) * PACKAGE: Generalities. (line 200) * PACKAGE <1>: configure. (line 279) * PACKAGE <2>: Dist. (line 756) * ud_GNU_GETTEXT: configure. (line 366) * VERSION: configure. (line 279) * VERSION <1>: Dist. (line 756) Index of Targets **************** * Menu: * all: Extending. (line 909) * check: Extending. (line 909) * dist: Dependencies. (line 562) * dist <1>: Dist. (line 756) * dist-hook: Extending. (line 919) * dist-shar: Options. (line 829) * dist-zip: Options. (line 833) * distcheck: Dist. (line 783) * dvi: Extending. (line 909) * id: Tags. (line 877) * info: Extending. (line 909) * install: Install. (line 726) * install-data: Install. (line 726) * install-data <1>: Extending. (line 909) * install-data-hook: Extending. (line 919) * install-data-local: Install. (line 733) * install-exec: Install. (line 726) * install-exec <1>: Extending. (line 909) * install-exec-hook: Extending. (line 919) * install-exec-local: Install. (line 733) * install-man: Man pages. (line 701) * install-man <1>: Options. (line 822) * installdirs: Install. (line 729) * tags: Tags. (line 860) * uninstall: Install. (line 729) * uninstall <1>: Extending. (line 909)