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(automake.info)Invoking Automake

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Creating a `Makefile.in'
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   To create all the `Makefile.in's for a package, run the `automake'
program in the top level directory, with no arguments.  `automake' will
automatically find each appropriate `Makefile.am' (by scanning
`configure.in'; Note: configure) and generate the corresponding
`Makefile.in'.  Note that `automake' has a rather simplistic view of
what constitutes a package; it assumes that a package has only one
`configure.in', at the top.  If your package has multiple
`configure.in's, then you must run `automake' in each directory holding
a `configure.in'.

   You can optionally give `automake' an argument; `.am' is appended to
the argument and the result is used as the name of the input file.
This feature is generally only used to automatically rebuild an
out-of-date `Makefile.in'.  Note that `automake' must always be run
from the topmost directory of a project, even if being used to
regenerate the `Makefile.in' in some subdirectory.  This is necessary
because `automake' must scan `configure.in', and because `automake'
uses the knowledge that a `Makefile.in' is in a subdirectory to change
its behavior in some cases.

   `automake' accepts the following options:

`-a'
`--add-missing'
     Automake requires certain common files to exist in certain
     situations; for instance `config.guess' is required if
     `configure.in' runs `AC_CANONICAL_HOST'.  Automake is distributed
     with several of these files; this option will cause the missing
     ones to be automatically added to the package, whenever possible.
     In general if Automake tells you a file is missing, try using this
     option.  By default Automake tries to make a symbolic link
     pointing to its own copy of the missing file; this can be changed
     with `--copy'.

`--amdir=DIR'
     Look for Automake data files in directory DIR instead of in the
     installation directory.  This is typically used for debugging.

`--build-dir=DIR'
     Tell Automake where the build directory is.  This option is used
     when including dependencies into a `Makefile.in' generated by `make
     dist'; it should not be used otherwise.

`-c'

`--copy'
     When used with `--add-missing', causes installed files to be
     copied.  The default is to make a symbolic link.

`--cygnus'
     Causes the generated `Makefile.in's to follow Cygnus rules, instead
     of GNU or Gnits rules.  For more information, see Note: Cygnus.

`--foreign'
     Set the global strictness to `foreign'.  For more information, see
     Note: Strictness.

`--gnits'
     Set the global strictness to `gnits'.  For more information, see
     Note: Gnits.

`--gnu'
     Set the global strictness to `gnu'.  For more information, see
     Note: Gnits.  This is the default strictness.

`--help'
     Print a summary of the command line options and exit.

`-i'
`--include-deps'
     Include all automatically generated dependency information (Note:
     Dependencies) in the generated `Makefile.in'.  This is generally
     done when making a distribution; see Note: Dist.

`--generate-deps'
     Generate a file concatenating all automatically generated
     dependency information (Note: Dependencies) into one file,
     `.dep_segment'.  This is generally done when making a
     distribution; see Note: Dist.  It is useful when maintaining a
     `SMakefile' or makefiles for other platforms (`Makefile.DOS',
     etc.)  It can only be used in conjunction with `--include-deps',
     `--srcdir-name', and `--build-dir'.  Note that if this option is
     given, no other processing is done.

`--no-force'
     Ordinarily `automake' creates all `Makefile.in's mentioned in
     `configure.in'.  This option causes it to only update those
     `Makefile.in's which are out of date with respect to one of their
     dependents.

`-o DIR'
`--output-dir=DIR'
     Put the generated `Makefile.in' in the directory DIR.  Ordinarily
     each `Makefile.in' is created in the directory of the
     corresponding `Makefile.am'.  This option is used when making
     distributions.

`--srcdir-name=DIR'
     Tell Automake the name of the source directory associated with the
     current build.  This option is used when including dependencies
     into a `Makefile.in' generated by `make dist'; it should not be
     used otherwise.

`-v'
`--verbose'
     Cause Automake to print information about which files are being
     read or created.

`--version'
     Print the version number of Automake and exit.