aclocal
autoconf macro collector for GNU build system
TLDR
Generate aclocal.m4 from configure.ac
SYNOPSIS
aclocal [-I dir] [--output=file] [--warnings=category] [options]
DESCRIPTION
aclocal is part of the GNU Automake build system. It generates an aclocal.m4 file by scanning configure.ac (or configure.in) for macro invocations and collecting the required macro definitions from installed .m4 files.
The generated aclocal.m4 file contains all the M4 macros needed by autoconf to process configure.ac. This tool is essential for projects using the GNU build system (autotools) as it bridges Automake and Autoconf.
PARAMETERS
-I dir
Add directory to search path for .m4 files--output=file
Write output to specified file instead of aclocal.m4--print-ac-dir
Print the directory where system .m4 files are stored--warnings=category
Enable warnings: syntax, unsupported, obsolete, all, none, error--force
Always regenerate output file--verbose
Print names of files being processed--version
Print version information--help
Display help information
CAVEATS
Must be run before autoconf when building from source. The search order for .m4 files matters; local directories specified with -I are searched before system directories. Changes to configure.ac require re-running aclocal.
HISTORY
aclocal was created as part of GNU Automake by David MacKenzie and Tom Tromey, first released in 1994. It was designed to simplify the process of gathering M4 macros required for Autoconf-based build systems.
SEE ALSO
autoconf(1), automake(1), autoreconf(1), libtoolize(1)