Autotools

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autoconf

http://sourceware.org/autobook/autobook/autobook_toc.html

Manuals

• http://www.gnu.org/software/autoconf/manual/index.html
• http://www.gnu.org/software/automake/manual/index.html
• http://www.gnu.org/software/libtool/manual/index.html

Tutorials

• http://www.lrde.epita.fr/~adl/autotools.html (very nice set of slides)

Libraries

• includes (for the include directory): include_HEADERS = ...
• library: static lib_LIBRARIES = library.a or dynamic lib_LTLIBRARIES = library.la
• sources (internal C data structures and C++ template classes): library_X_SOURCES = library.h ..., where X = a or la

Example

Configured headers

Configured headers (created from *.h.in) must not be included into the package, that is include_HEADERS or *_SOURCES

• nodist_include_HEADERS = *.h for the configured headers as includes
• nodist_*_SOURCES = *.h or BUILT_SOURCES = *.h for the configured headers as sources

Example

Extra files

To add extra files into package, use EXTRA_DIST = *.

Example

Conditional building

• http://www.gnu.org/software/hello/manual/automake/Conditionals.html
• In the source code, use macros

#ifdef SYMBOL
...
#endif

MPI support

• Define MPI compilers/linkers in configure.ac

AC_PROG_CC([mpicc])
AC_PROG_CXX([mpic++ mpicxx])

C/C++ support

• To check C++ features, switch to C++ language in configure.ac

AC_LANG_PUSH(C++)
AC_CHECK_HEADER([header.hpp])
AC_LANG_POP(C++)

• To link C code with C++ libraries, add a non-existent C++ file dummy.cpp to sources in Makefile.am

bin_PROGRAMS = program
program_SOURCES = program.c
nodist_EXTRA_program_SOURCES = dummy.cpp
program_LDADD = cpplibrary.a

Script for downloading & installing recent versions (in March 2010) of m4, libtool, autoconf, automake

#!/bin/bash
parent_dir=$PWD
export PATH=$HOME/$ARCH/bin:$PATH
wget http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/libtool/libtool-2.2.6b.tar.gz
tar xzf libtool-2.2.6b.tar.gz
cd libtool-2.2.6b
./configure --prefix=$HOME/$ARCH
make install
cd $parent_dir
wget http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/m4/m4-1.4.14.tar.gz
tar xfz m4-1.4.14.tar.gz
cd m4-1.4.14
./configure --prefix=$HOME/$ARCH
make install
cd $parent_dir
wget http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/autoconf/autoconf-2.65.tar.bz2
tar xjf autoconf-2.65.tar.bz2
cd autoconf-2.65
./configure --prefix=$HOME/$ARCH
make install
cd $parent_dir
wget http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/automake/automake-1.10.3.tar.bz2
tar xjf automake-1.10.3.tar.bz2
cd automake-1.10.3
./configure --prefix=$HOME/$ARCH
make install
cd $parent_dir