Help with differing build environments

[Geoffrey Huang]

Hi there,

I have a question on how to use autotools in differing build environments.

I'm working on a project that's meant to be a portable library.  On some 
systems, I'll be using a set of APIs provided by the platform.  In these 
cases, I want autotools to look for the system's header files for the 
API's.  Likewise, I want autotools to look for the system-provided 
.c-files for these API's.

On other targets, the system doesn't provide the API's, so I want 
autotools to use the code I've implemented in the portable library itself.

How would I go about doing this?  I've considered using the 
AC_CANONICAL_SYSTEM statement in configure.in to get me the target 
system.  However, that directive only seems to recognize standard gnu 
platforms.  Some of my platforms aren't standard.

Then I considered using the AM_CONDITIONAL test to specify the system 
type directly to the configure script, but I have doubts that this is 
the best way.

Anyhoo, I'd appreciate any help.

-g