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I'm trying to learn how to use autotools and I can't seem to find a good beginner-friendly answer to this question. What's the difference between autoconf and autoreconf.

audiFanatic
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autoconf generates the configure script from various input files, some of which are created using other tools like aclocal, automake, etc.

autoreconf is a helper that knows how to call all these tools in the right order

You'll usually just call autoreconf yourself and let it deal with all the lower level tools ....

Hartmut Holzgraefe
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  • And `autoconf` is a low-level tool used by `autoreconf`? – x-yuri Jun 15 '20 at 22:37
  • Maybe bad wording on my side, autoconf, automake, libtool etc are the actual work horses. autoreconf is more like a wrapper that knows what the right order to call all the others in is. It is more like an orchestrator, similar to make, but with a fixed set of rules. – Hartmut Holzgraefe Jun 16 '20 at 17:18
  • You're probably right. It's just that the naming seems weird. It seems to suggest that to generate (the first time) `configure` you run `autoconf`, but for regeneration you need `autoreconf`. – x-yuri Jun 17 '20 at 08:32
  • "autoreconf runs autoconf, autoheader, aclocal, automake, libtoolize, and autopoint (when appropriate) repeatedly to update the GNU Build System in the specified directories and their subdirectories" https://www.gnu.org/software/autoconf/manual/autoconf-2.68/html_node/autoreconf-Invocation.html It is that simple. – Victor Yarema Jul 09 '21 at 22:23