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Center
Master Program
Learn Automake

Swe03
In these exercises you learn to use the Makefile abstractions provided
by automake applied to the interpreter package. Make a new version of
the package to do these exercises with (i.e., make a tag for the trunk after
finishing LearnAutoconf.)

Online documentation for automake is available in the info pages (command =info automake=).

A simple example of the use of automake is provided in the following package:

   * [[http://www.cs.uu.nl/docs/vakken/swe/software/hello-4.0.tar.gz][hello-4.0.tar.gz]]

Unpack and build it using the following commands:
<verbatim>
  gtar zxf hello-4.0.tar.gz
  cd hello-4.0
  ./reconf
  ./configure --prefix=/tmp/hello-4.0
  make
  make install
  make dist
  make rpm
</verbatim>

Study the files in the package to see how automake is used.

Note that the Makefile.in is generated from Makefile.am and that routine targets
for deployment (install, dist, ...) are now generated by automake from
declarations. 
Have a look at Makefile.in to get an impression of the complexity of a complete Makefile.in.
The reconf script calls the relevant autotools.
The hello.spec file for RPM uses variables to refer to the installation target directories
to make it more generic.

----+++ Exercises

Now change the interpreter package to make use of automake.

<ol>

<li> Extend =configure.in= to use automake (=AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE=). </li>

<li> Promote the =Makefile.in= from the previous exercise to a
=Makefile.am=. Make use of automake macro definitions such as for
=bin_PROGRAMS= to abbreviate the =Makefile=.  </li>

<li> Remove the =dist=, =install=, =uninstall=, and =clean= targets
and make sure that they are generated by automake.

<li> (Optional.)  Turn the package into a hierarchical directory structure with =src/=, =doc/=, and =config/= subdirectories. Distribute the code over the subdirectories as appropriate. Extend the configure.in and Makefile.am to support the new structure.

</ol>