On Fri, 2013-05-24 at 07:25 -0700, Jordan H. wrote: > Hello, folks! > > In learning automake I keep looking at example configure.ac files and in > the tutorial someone says "oh, you can just use this here macro." I look > in the automake manual, though > (https://www.gnu.org/software/automake/manual/automake.html#Macro-Index) > and find the macro to not be found. One example is AC_CHECK_LIB that's > automatically generated by autoscan...I see very little documentation on > this macro. > > Is there a special syntax for configure.ac? This is never really > explained in any tutorial. All I see is someone pulling a variable out > from who-knows-where and a different tutorial doing the exact same thing > pulls a different macro from who-know-where. > > Thanks. Hope my question is clear. I'm still sort of a newbie with automake.
Your problem is that your confusing automake and autoconf. Automake is the tool that manages makefiles: it turns a Makefile.am file into a Makefile.in file. Autoconf is the tool that manages configuration: it turns a configure.ac file into the configure script. When your user runs the configure script, one of the things it does is convert the Makefile.in file to a normal Makefile. As a general rule, the autoconf macros that begin with "AM_" are automake macros. The macros that begin with "AC_" are autoconf macros, and you need to read the autoconf documentation to learn about those.