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There are automake, autoconf, autoscan, autoheader and maybe others that I don't know about. If I want to understand and use these tools, which should be the learning order? Which should be learned first? I read the man and info page, but those pages don't give me any clear clue. I can't grab the big picture from those pages.

Can anyone give me a simple explanation (maybe with example) regarding the learning order (assuming I understand C code and a little of Makefile)?

Eugeniu Rosca
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Mas Bagol
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  • Have you looked at the official documentation for any of the tools? Not the man pages or info pages (though the info pages might be useful I haven't looked recently)? Pages like [Automake](https://www.gnu.org/software/automake/manual/automake.html) or [Autoconf](https://www.gnu.org/software/autoconf/manual/)? They have lots of information in them. Specifically that automake page also links to [this](https://www.lrde.epita.fr/~adl/autotools.html) Autotools Tutorial that looks like it might be useful (if potentially a bit out of date at this point). – Etan Reisner Jul 27 '15 at 14:15
  • @EtanReisner I overwhelmed by those pages. Not that I won't read them, I will. But, I need a brief example to get a big picture to get me understand those pages when reading. I'm neither educated nor professional programmer. Just a self-taught beginner, that want to learn more and more. You know what I mean ... (My english is not so good) – Mas Bagol Jul 27 '15 at 14:29
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    They are certainly overwhelming. The Automake manual looked (at a quick glance) like a better start then the Autoconf manual but the tutorial [I linked before](https://www.lrde.epita.fr/~adl/autotools.html) looked (at an even quicker glance) like it was probably an even better start. You could also look at the [Autotools Mythbuster](https://autotools.io/index.html) site. I've read a bit of that and it was pretty good but I don't recall offhand how new-user friendly it was. – Etan Reisner Jul 27 '15 at 14:31

1 Answers1

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If you understand autoconf/automake and have a basic idea about libtool you don't need to know the rest.

Apart from the sites Etan mentioned there is a book (https://www.sourceware.org/autobook/ ), it is quite dated but still a useful tutorial-like introduction.

I also suggest to look at existing projects that uses autotools.

arved
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