Re: Setting up auto conf

[Eric Blake]

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According to Dan Smithers on 1/5/2009 5:01 AM:
> My goal is to be able to set up parallel debug and release builds for
> the different architectures.

Yes, that is provided by VPATH builds, provided by Automake.

> I would like to be able to build and link
> without having to "install" until I'm happy with the work.

Yes, that is possible with DESTDIR support, also provided by using Automake.

> 
> I would also like to be able to build the complete project from the top
> level and also build sub-projects individually.

Yes, that is provided by Autoconf.

> 
> I think that autotools will be able to do all this, but get a bit
> puzzled from time to time.

Perhaps reading this tutorial will help:
http://www.gnu.org/software/automake/manual/automake.html#Autotools-Introduction

> 
> I would also like to avoid having auto-generatable files in revision
> control as much as possible. What are the minimum files needed for this?

Keep configure.ac, Makefile.am, and COPYING under control, everything else
is generated.  (Technically, Automake can generate a default COPYING with
the latest GPL, but it also issues a warning, as that is not always the
right action; you are better off providing an explicit COPYING, which
Automake will never overwrite).

> 
> the project structure is
> 
> my_proj/build_<arch>_<debug>
>        /configure.in

Use configure.ac, not configure.in.

>        /Makefile.in

generated from Makefile.am by automake.

>        /Makefile.am
>        /sub_proj1/configure.in

configure.ac...

> 
> Sometimes it seems to use Makefile.in and others Makefile.am. What is
> the difference? and can I set it to use the same skeleton file for all uses?

Makefile.in is the input to Autoconf.  It can either be hand-written or
generated from Makefile.am by Automake; if you plan on using all the
autotools rather than just Autoconf, I'd recommend the latter.

- --
Don't work too hard, make some time for fun as well!

Eric Blake             address@hidden
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