Documentation chapter: The GNU build system?

[Steven G. Johnson]

Is anyone working on this section of the manual?  I could have a stab at
writing a short overview for the release, just so that we have something
there.

As far as I can see, the main task should just be to explain what the
other tools are, why it is good idea to use them together, and point the
user to the appropriate places for more information.  More than a page or
so shouldn't be necessary.

As a starter, here's a fix for the introduction, which erroneously implies
that all things are being folded into Autoconf.

Steven

Index: autoconf.texi
===================================================================
RCS file: /cvs/autoconf/doc/autoconf.texi,v
retrieving revision 1.446
diff -r1.446 autoconf.texi
434,440c434,439
< @c FIXME: Tom, your cue is here.
< There are several jobs related to making portable software packages that
< Autoconf currently does not do.  Among these are automatically creating
< @file{Makefile} files with all of the standard targets, and supplying
< replacements for standard library functions and header files on systems
< that lack them.  Work is in progress to add those features in the
< future.
---
> Autoconf does not solve all problems related to making portable software
> packages---for a more complete solution, it should be used in concert
> with other GNU build tools like Automake and Libtool.  These other tools
> take on jobs like the creation of a portable, recursive @file{Makefile}
> with all of the standard targets, linking of shared libraries, and so
> on.  @xref{The GNU build system}, for more information.