Gnu Autoconf, Automake, and Libtool

... this is your lifeline. I sit here, staring at a messy Makefile.am and let me tell you, the future is looking pretty bleak. Imagine the rainiest day, the most miserably cold weather, the most awful meal you've had to eat and say tasted great: for some, the pain of dealing with cross platform Makefiles is exponentially worse. I thank all the authors of this book every time I try to do something impossible within the constraints of GNU make syntax. This book clearly explains Makefile syntax. Then, it explains how to automate it all with GNU autotools. Then, it provides a bunch more information. I think this book is clear and well-informed, and I find myself turning to it instead of the on-line manuals. (Note, this book is available on line as well, for free. Buy it anyway.) Some of the details may be lost on people not doing serious, cross platform Unix development, but the read is still highly recommended.For those still think mulletts are cool, writing Z80 asm is "fun," that women and cooties are inseperable, and that real programmers write their own damn Makefiles, I offer my sincerest sympathies. The first step is admitting you have a problem. The second step is getting this book. Godspeed.

In the end, this book is the best on the subject. There are others but they fail miserably in cross platform support. If this is what you are looking for, then this is what you need.

Finally, there is a nice book on GNU configure stuff. If you ever intend to develop cross-platform UNIX applications, buy this book. Buy it even if you do not know what the book is all about. It will make you a more disciplined UNIX software developer.

...get this book! If you have ever downloaded some Linux / Unix source code and wanted to understand just what the "configure" script and makefiles do --- get this book!!More to the point, if you want to distribute your source code and allow users to compile it on many different systems, this book offers you a step by step understanding of what needs to be done to make that happen.I got this book because I was looking to 'cross-compile' some programs. (That is, compile a program on one machine but run it on another) Thanks to the intelligent layout - I was able to get the program compiled and going in a couple of hours.One caveat, this is not for the 'newbie' or faint-at-heart. You will need to at least understand the concepts of compilers, linkers, libraries, etc. in order to comprehend this book. However, you don't have to be a programming-guru. I think that even administrators will get alot out of this book. Particularly, helping them understand how to set the options needed to get pesky software installed.Overall, a *very* good book!

I totally agree with the reviewer: if you want to do some development in Open Source Project, this book will build a solid base for you. For one example, PHP4 is a very popular server side scripting language and it uses all these great tools to make build process straightforward.Cheers!