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2 An Introduction to the Autotools
**********************************

If you are new to Automake, maybe you know that it is part of a set of
tools called _The Autotools_.  Maybe you've already delved into a
package full of files named 'configure', 'configure.ac', 'Makefile.in',
'Makefile.am', 'aclocal.m4', ..., some of them claiming to be _generated
by_ Autoconf or Automake.  But the exact purpose of these files and
their relations is probably fuzzy.  The goal of this chapter is to
introduce you to this machinery, to show you how it works and how
powerful it is.  If you've never installed or seen such a package, do
not worry: this chapter will walk you through it.

   If you need some teaching material, more illustrations, or a less
'automake'-centered continuation, some slides for this introduction are
available in Alexandre Duret-Lutz's Autotools Tutorial
(http://www.lrde.epita.fr/~adl/autotools.html).  This chapter is the
written version of the first part of his tutorial.

GNU Build System

Introducing the GNU Build System

Use Cases

Use Cases for the GNU Build System

Why Autotools

How Autotools Help

Hello World

A Small Hello World Package