Re: Makefile.am and Makefile.in?

[Rick Stevens <rstevens vitalstream com>]

Mike wrote:
> what does it mean when these two files are present in a directory and there
> is NO regular Makefile?  how can the project be built from these
> Makefile.am/in files?  There are also present a configure exec, a
> config.h.in, config.in, aclocal.m4, and stamp-h.in, all of which I have not
> seen before inside a project directory.  Was this project made by some linux
> IDE type environment and these are all generated files or something like
> that?  if these files are not necessary or important I would like to get rid
> of them and strip things down to just the usual essentials like the .h,.c,
> and Makefile...

The presence of a config.in file indicates that the project is
built by the Gnu configure tool.  Enter the directory and type in
"./configure".  The configure script then sorts out compiler options,
libraries, headers, etc. for YOUR system, uses the Makefile.xx,
config.xx and other files to build the appropriate headers, libs,
and Makefile for your installation.  Once configure is done, you
run make as normal.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
- Rick Stevens, SSE, VitalStream, Inc.      rstevens vitalstream com -
- 949-743-2010 (Voice)                    http://www.vitalstream.com -
-                                                                    -
-                    I doubt, therefore I might be.                  -
----------------------------------------------------------------------