autoconf(1)

autoconf1

Generate configuration scripts

Usage

autoconf [OPTION] ... [TEMPLATE-FILE]

Overview

Generate a configuration script from a TEMPLATE-FILE if given, or 'configure.ac' if present, or else 'configure.in'. Output is sent to the standard output if TEMPLATE-FILE is given, else into 'configure'.

Operation modes:

-h, --help

print this help, then exit

-V, --version

print version number, then exit

-v, --verbose

verbosely report processing

-d, --debug

don't remove temporary files

-f, --force

consider all files obsolete

-o, --output=FILE

save output in FILE (stdout is the default)

-W, --warnings=CATEGORY

report the warnings falling in CATEGORY (comma-separated list accepted)

Warning categories are:

cross

cross compilation issues

gnu

GNU coding standards (default in gnu and gnits modes)

obsolete

obsolete features or constructions (default)

override

user redefinitions of Automake rules or variables

portability

portability issues (default in gnu and gnits modes)

portability-recursive

nested Make variables (default with -Wportability)

extra-portability

extra portability issues related to obscure tools

syntax

dubious syntactic constructs (default)

unsupported

unsupported or incomplete features (default)

-W also understands:

all

turn on all the warnings

none

turn off all the warnings

no-CATEGORY

turn off warnings in CATEGORY

error

treat all enabled warnings as errors

Library directories:

-B, --prepend-include=DIR

prepend directory DIR to search path

-I, --include=DIR

append directory DIR to search path

Tracing:

-t, --trace=MACRO[:FORMAT]

report the list of calls to MACRO

-i, --initialization

also trace Autoconf's initialization process

In tracing mode, no configuration script is created. FORMAT defaults to '$f:$l:$n:$%'; see 'autom4te --help' for information about FORMAT.

Releases

16 releases since Debian 2.0 (Hamm); the text changed 10 times.

  1. 2.0–2.2
  2. 3.0
  3. 3.1
  4. 4.0–7
  5. 8
  6. 9
  7. 10
  8. 11
  9. 12
  10. 13
  11. Arch

--debug since Debian 8 (Jessie); --force since Debian 8 (Jessie); --help since Debian 8 (Jessie); --include since Debian 8 (Jessie); --initialization since Debian 8 (Jessie); --output since Debian 8 (Jessie); --prepend-include since Debian 8 (Jessie); --trace since Debian 8 (Jessie); --verbose since Debian 8 (Jessie); --version since Debian 8 (Jessie); --warnings since Debian 8 (Jessie); -B since Debian 8 (Jessie); -I since Debian 8 (Jessie); -V since Debian 8 (Jessie); -W since Debian 8 (Jessie); -d since Debian 8 (Jessie); -f since Debian 8 (Jessie); -h since Debian 8 (Jessie); -i since Debian 8 (Jessie); -o since Debian 8 (Jessie); -t since Debian 8 (Jessie); -v since Debian 8 (Jessie).

--autoconf-dir until Debian 3.0 (Woody); --localdir until Debian 3.0 (Woody); --macrodir until Debian 2.2 (Potato); -l until Debian 2.2 (Potato); -m until Debian 2.2 (Potato).

Author

Written by David J. MacKenzie and Akim Demaille.

Reporting bugs

Report bugs to ⟨[email protected]⟩, or via Savannah: ⟨https://savannah.gnu.org/support/?group=autoconf⟩.

From autoconf 2.73-1 in Arch Linux 2026-11-01. Parsed by carta from the page's man source.