what is the meaning of Makefile,Makefile.am,Makefile.in

cynthia_thomas · 12-08-2005, 12:36 AM

hi,
I am new to Linux. I have a source code for a particular tool, there are files like Makefile, Makefile.in, makefile.am.
What are they for? How can I understand the meaning of those files?

Please reply me

thanks and regards
cynthia

reddazz · 12-08-2005, 03:11 AM

The contain information about how a program should build, its dependencies etc. As to how you can understand them, I think you need a bit of knowledge about scripting and programming.

mr_demilord · 12-08-2005, 03:19 AM

The makefile.in contains the information of the program it also counts for makefile.am but I'm not 100% sure.
if you run configure it modifies/creates the MAKEFILE which also contains your system specifics like gcc version glibc version etc etc.. the MAKEFILE is being used when you execute the command make

T.Hsu · 12-08-2005, 05:00 AM

Basically,

Makefile.am -- a user input file to automake
configure.in -- a user input file to autoconf

autoconf generates configure from configure.in
automake gererates Makefile.in from Makefile.am

configure generates Makefile from Makefile.in

The real process is much more complicated, of cource.

Correct me if I am wrong.

A great resource for learning GNU autotools.