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
  • library.h is like a precompiled header (contains common headers and symbols), which is to be included in most of source files of the library (there is no need in real precompiled headers for small projects in C)

For example, http://hcl.ucd.ie/repos/CPM/trunk/MPIBlib/benchmarks/Makefile.am

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

For example, http://hcl.ucd.ie/repos/CPM/trunk/MPIBlib/collectives/Makefile.am

Extra files

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

For example, http://hcl.ucd.ie/repos/CPM/trunk/MPIBlib/tools/Makefile.am

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