Re: gnu autoconf

[coryb at jawbone.csd.sgi.com (Cory Bennett)]

> What I need would be some hints on how to install autoconf/automake and
> get it running.
> Right now I have a D270 with HP-UX 10.20 available.
> But a bigger problem would be to get a good java (1.2 or 1.3) on my system
> since HP supports Java2 only for 11.x as far as I know.

I will try to create a tar file with all the files necessary and send it your
way in the next couple of days.  In theory, you should not need anything.

Once the gnu auto stuff is set up there should be little requirements from the
end user ... that is why it is so cool.  As a developer, to start a new project
you create a top-level configure.in and then a Makefile.am file for each
directory.  (Which I have already done.)  Then at the top level you run
"aclocal && autoconf && automake".  You can get autoconf and automake at
www.gnu.org, I think aclocal come in the automake package. Aclocal just makes
some macros into aclocal.m4, autoconf takes 'configure.in' and creates
'configure' and automake takes configure.in and reads all the Makefile.am files
creating Makefile.in files.   After that command is run the configure and
Makefile.in should be platform independent and ready for distribution.  (Thats
the theory). At this point the end-user does not nead autoconf or automake on
their system, just the configure and Makefile.in files.   When you run
configure as an end-user, that script will take the Makefile.in files and
create actual Makefile's dependant on your system.

So that is the gist of gnu autoconf as I know it.

> An other question came up to me, how does it affect the build.xml which is
> used by ant?

I dont know about ant yet, I will have to research the current build process.

-Cory