Each subdirectory in a distribution that contains something to be
compiled or installed should come with a file `Makefile.in', from
which configure
will create a `Makefile' in that directory.
To create a `Makefile', configure
performs a simple variable
substitution, replacing occurrences of `@variable@' in
`Makefile.in' with the value that configure
has determined
for that variable. Variables that are substituted into output files in
this way are called output variables. They are ordinary shell
variables that are set in configure
. To make configure
substitute a particular variable into the output files, the macro
AC_SUBST
must be called with that variable name as an argument.
Any occurrences of `@variable@' for other variables are
left unchanged. See section Setting Output Variables, for more information on
creating output variables with AC_SUBST
.
A software package that uses a configure
script should be
distributed with a file `Makefile.in', but no `Makefile'; that
way, the user has to properly configure the package for the local system
before compiling it.
See section `Makefile Conventions' in The GNU Coding Standards, for more information on what to put in `Makefile's.
Go to the first, previous, next, last section, table of contents.