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Creating a `Makefile.in'

To create all the `Makefile.in's for a package, run the automake program in the top level directory, with no arguments. automake will automatically find each appropriate `Makefile.am' (by scanning `configure.in'; see section Scanning `configure.in') and generate the corresponding `Makefile.in'. Note that automake has a rather simplistic view of what constitutes a package; it assumes that a package has only one `configure.in', at the top. If your package has multiple `configure.in's, then you must run automake in each directory holding a `configure.in'.

You can optionally give automake an argument; `.am' is appended to the argument and the result is used as the name of the input file. This feature is generally only used to automatically rebuild an out-of-date `Makefile.in'. Note that automake must always be run from the topmost directory of a project, even if being used to regenerate the `Makefile.in' in some subdirectory. This is necessary because automake must scan `configure.in', and because automake uses the knowledge that a `Makefile.in' is in a subdirectory to change its behavior in some cases.

automake accepts the following options:

`-a'

`--add-missing'

Automake requires certain common files to exist in certain situations; for instance `config.guess' is required if `configure.in' runs AC_CANONICAL_HOST. Automake is distributed with several of these files; this option will cause the missing ones to be automatically added to the package, whenever possible. In general if Automake tells you a file is missing, try using this option. By default Automake tries to make a symbolic link pointing to its own copy of the missing file; this can be changed with --copy.

`--amdir=dir'

Look for Automake data files in directory dir instead of in the installation directory. This is typically used for debugging.

`--build-dir=dir'

Tell Automake where the build directory is. This option is used when including dependencies into a `Makefile.in' generated by make dist; it should not be used otherwise.

`-c'

`--copy'

When used with --add-missing, causes installed files to be copied. The default is to make a symbolic link.

`--cygnus'

Causes the generated `Makefile.in's to follow Cygnus rules, instead of GNU or Gnits rules. For more information, see section The effect of --cygnus.

`--foreign'

Set the global strictness to `foreign'. For more information, see section Strictness.

`--gnits'

Set the global strictness to `gnits'. For more information, see section The effect of --gnu and --gnits.

`--gnu'

Set the global strictness to `gnu'. For more information, see section The effect of --gnu and --gnits. This is the default strictness.

`--help'

Print a summary of the command line options and exit.

`-i'

`--include-deps'

Include all automatically generated dependency information (see section Automatic dependency tracking) in the generated `Makefile.in'. This is generally done when making a distribution; see section What Goes in a Distribution.

`--generate-deps'

Generate a file concatenating all automatically generated dependency information (see section Automatic dependency tracking) into one file, `.dep_segment'. This is generally done when making a distribution; see section What Goes in a Distribution. It is useful when maintaining a `SMakefile' or makefiles for other platforms (`Makefile.DOS', etc.) It can only be used in conjunction with `--include-deps', `--srcdir-name', and `--build-dir'. Note that if this option is given, no other processing is done.

`--no-force'

Ordinarily automake creates all `Makefile.in's mentioned in `configure.in'. This option causes it to only update those `Makefile.in's which are out of date with respect to one of their dependents.

`-o dir'

`--output-dir=dir'

Put the generated `Makefile.in' in the directory dir. Ordinarily each `Makefile.in' is created in the directory of the corresponding `Makefile.am'. This option is used when making distributions.

`--srcdir-name=dir'

Tell Automake the name of the source directory associated with the current build. This option is used when including dependencies into a `Makefile.in' generated by make dist; it should not be used otherwise.

`-v'

`--verbose'

Cause Automake to print information about which files are being read or created.

`--version'

Print the version number of Automake and exit.

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