1Autoconf
2
3Autoconf is an extensible package of m4 macros that produce shell
4scripts to automatically configure software source code packages.
5These scripts can adapt the packages to many kinds of UNIX-like
6systems without manual user intervention.  Autoconf creates a
7configuration script for a package from a template file that lists the
8operating system features that the package can use, in the form of m4
9macro calls.
10
11Producing configuration scripts using Autoconf requires GNU m4.  You
12must install GNU m4 (version 1.1 or later, preferably 1.3 or later
13for better performance) before configuring Autoconf, so that
14Autoconf's configure script can find it.  The configuration scripts
15produced by Autoconf are self-contained, so their users do not need to
16have Autoconf (or GNU m4).
17
18Also, some optional utilities that come with Autoconf use Perl, TCL,
19and the TCL packages Expect and DejaGNU.  However, none of those
20are required in order to use the main Autoconf program.  If they are
21not present, the affected Autoconf utilities will not be installed.
22
23The file INSTALL can be distributed with packages that use
24Autoconf-generated configure scripts and Makefiles that conform to the
25GNU coding standards.  The package's README can just give an overview
26of the package, where to report bugs, and a pointer to INSTALL for
27instructions on compilation and installation.  This removes the need
28to maintain many similar sets of installation instructions.
29
30The file `acconfig.h' contains short descriptions of the C preprocessor
31variables that Autoconf can define, suitable for copying into other
32packages' configuration headers or Makefile.in files.  You can use the
33program `autoheader' to automatically create a configuration header
34from a `configure.in', based on the information in `acconfig.h'.
35
36Mail suggestions and bug reports for Autoconf to autoconf@gnu.org.
37Please include the Autoconf version number, which you can get by running
38"autoconf --version".  The current autoconf maintainer is Ben Elliston
39<bje@cygnus.com>.
40