It seems that some autoconf projects use a configure.in file to generate a configure script, and some use configure.ac.
What is the difference/advantage between using one or the other?
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Its just a matter of style. Historically autoconf files were named configure.in. Now configure.ac is the preferred naming scheme. Its also discussed in the documentation.
Mark Loeser
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14No, it's not just style. The name configure.in is deprecated. – William Pursell Jan 27 '11 at 18:43
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2Even the docs say preferred. I've never noticed a deprecation warning, but then again I think all my projects use .ac. – Mark Loeser Jan 27 '11 at 18:45
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1I just checked the docs and you are right. Not yet fully deprecated. I'm nearly certain I have seen deprecation warnings, but perhaps not in an official release. – William Pursell Jan 27 '11 at 19:12
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New projects should use configure.ac. Old projects used configure.in; if it is inconvenient to switch to the new name, they can continue to use it, but the autoconf tools will generate a warning.
Jonathan Leffler
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The current version of `autoconf` (1.13.1 as of 2013-01-01) still supports `configure.ac`, but the [release notes](http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/automake/2013-01/msg00000.html) say "_Automake 1.14 will drop support for the long-deprecated 'configure.in' name for the Autoconf input file. You are advised to start using the recommended name 'configure.ac' instead, ASAP._" – Jonathan Leffler Jan 25 '13 at 08:30
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1In my first comment, there's a typo — it should be '_still supports `configure.in` ...'_ as `configure.ac` is the future direction. – Jonathan Leffler Jan 25 '13 at 17:10