GNU build system
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The GNU build system 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
- The pkg-config tool
- GNU Compiler Collection
The GNU build system is widely used in many free software and open source packages. While the tools comprising the GNU build system themselves are GPL-ed free software, there are no restrictions in using them in making non-free software portable.
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
External links
- The book GNU Autoconf, Automake and Libtool, by Gary V. Vaughan, Ben Elliston, Tom Tromey, and Ian Lance Taylor.
- ISBN 1578701902
- available online at http://sources.redhat.com/autobook under the terms of the Open Publication License (with none of the options exercised).
- The GNU Coding Standards (http://www.gnu.org/prep/standards.html) (especially the chapter on The Release Process).
- The pkg-config (http://www.freedesktop.org/software/pkgconfig/) package