lfs-book/appendixa/automake-desc.xml

<sect2>
<title>Contents</title>

<para>
The Automake package contains the aclocal and automake programs
</para>

</sect2>

<sect2><title>Description</title>

<sect3><title>aclocal</title>

<para>
Automake includes a number of Autoconf macros which can be used in
packages; some of them are actually required by Automake in certain
situations. These macros must be defined in the aclocal.m4-file;
otherwise they will not be seen by autoconf.
</para>

<para>
The aclocal program will automatically generate aclocal.m4 files
based on the contents of configure.in.  This provides a convenient
way to get Automake-provided macros, without having to search around.
Also, the aclocal mechanism is extensible for use by other packages.
</para>

</sect3>

<sect3><title>automake</title>

<para>
To create all the Makefile.in's for a package, run the automake
program in the top level directory, with no arguments.  automake will
automatically find each appropriate Makefile.am (by scanning
configure.in) and generate the corresponding Makefile.in.
</para>

</sect3>

</sect2>