Getting started with autotools

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Anyone recommend how a person could get started with autotools in building a C project?

Mutism answered 17/11, 2009 at 1:57 Comment(0)

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Follow the autotools tutorial.

You can also get the autobook. Chapter 4 covers a minimal GNU autotools project.

Clarino answered 17/11, 2009 at 2:1 Comment(5)

Really, I dislike the autobook - I found Alexandre Duret-Lutz's tutorial more helpful and actually has the form of a tutorial, just my 2 cents. – Nix 7/12, 2009 at 21:7

Agreed, adl's tutorial is way better, but checking out the autobook does not hurt. – Clarino 7/12, 2009 at 21:44

Am i missing something or is this 'tutorial' a set of power-point-style slides? – Midgut 21/6, 2010 at 20:33

The first link gives me a "This Connection is Untrusted" error. – Flavor 7/11, 2013 at 10:21

Yeah, looks like their certificate is now signed by their own self-signed certificate. Ignore the warning and proceed. The tutorial is still there :-) – Clarino 7/11, 2013 at 14:10

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Alexandre Duret-Lutz's tutorial is my resource of choice.

There are also:

To me, the autobook is not up to date anymore and more difficult to read. However it still contains interesting chapters like Writing Portable Bourne Shell.

Also, consider learning about non-recursive automake which addresses the concerns raised by Peter Miller in his Recursive Make Considered Harmful article.

EDIT: for reference, there is also Autotools Tutorial for Beginners.

Nix answered 21/11, 2009 at 14:9 Comment(3)

seriously? I got -1 for my answer while being the most exhaustive one... you can't be serious – Nix 23/6, 2010 at 10:58

Well, ten months later, you get a +1 for being, as far as I'm concerned, the best answer. – Monoplane 31/8, 2010 at 19:8

Another +1 for the reference to the online version of practitioner's guide. I have the book at home, but sometimes need the info at work as well. – Stace 17/8, 2011 at 10:40

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Follow the autotools tutorial.

You can also get the autobook. Chapter 4 covers a minimal GNU autotools project.

Clarino answered 17/11, 2009 at 2:1 Comment(5)

Really, I dislike the autobook - I found Alexandre Duret-Lutz's tutorial more helpful and actually has the form of a tutorial, just my 2 cents. – Nix 7/12, 2009 at 21:7

Agreed, adl's tutorial is way better, but checking out the autobook does not hurt. – Clarino 7/12, 2009 at 21:44

Am i missing something or is this 'tutorial' a set of power-point-style slides? – Midgut 21/6, 2010 at 20:33

The first link gives me a "This Connection is Untrusted" error. – Flavor 7/11, 2013 at 10:21

Yeah, looks like their certificate is now signed by their own self-signed certificate. Ignore the warning and proceed. The tutorial is still there :-) – Clarino 7/11, 2013 at 14:10

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I would recommend this tutorial and get the book when it's released. The tutorial really helped me a lot, it even contains a step by step conversion of an existing (non trivial) project to autotools.

Lashay answered 17/11, 2009 at 6:2 Comment(0)

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This is a good place to start:

http://www.dwheeler.com/autotools/ - video tutorial: Introduction to the Autotools (2012-03-05)

He makes a very good point "Beware any documentation written before 2006 is probably out of date."

After that:

http://www.lrde.epita.fr/~adl/autotools.html - autotools tutorial (556 slides) http://www.openismus.com/documents/linux/automake/automake - Using Automake and Autoconf with C++

Gamboge answered 15/10, 2012 at 4:56 Comment(0)

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I found this tutorial given by Thomas Petazzoni at the Embedded Linux Conference 2016 very helpful to start learning autotools: Autotools: A Demystification Tutorial

Here are the associated slides: GNU Autotools Tutorial Slides

He gives demonstrations and good examples that are in my opinion a good start before going further with the already mentioned A. Duret-Lutz tutorial.

Preter answered 16/3, 2017 at 14:23 Comment(0)

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