1. unpack the source tarball and cd to the resulting dir

2. # autoconf  

   this reads configure.in and generates the ./configure script

3. # ./configure 

   this probes your system and then, for each "file" named

   in the AC_OUTPUT() macro near the end of configure.in,

   read "file".in and generate "file". Variables named @somevariable@

   will be substituted with literal values.

4. step (3) produces several files. These files are generated by

   configure from their respective .in file in the same directory.

   You should have a read of these generated files and diff them

   against their respective .in files to see what was substituted

   by configure.

   src/include/builddefs

   	common definitions for the build environment. This is included

	by all Makefiles, in conjunction with src/include/buildrules.

	Note that most autoconf/configure build environments generate

	Makefile (from Makefile.in) in every src dir. Instead, we

	generate builddefs, and then include it in every Makefile.

   src/include/platform_defs.h 

   	header containing conditional macros defining the C run-time

	environment discovered by the configure script.

5. read some or all of the GNU tool chain documentation

   GNU make :

       http://www.delorie.com/gnu/docs/make/make_toc.html

   autoconf :

    	http://www.delorie.com/gnu/docs/autoconf/autoconf_toc.html

   libtool :

    	http://www.delorie.com/gnu/docs/libtool/libtool_toc.html

   gcc/g++ :

    	http://www.delorie.com/gnu/docs/gcc/gcc_toc.html

6. Makefiles and build environment

   First have a look at some Makefiles

   	example using SUBDIRS :  acl/Makefile

        example static library:  acl/libacl/Makefile

        example command       :  acl/getfacl/Makefile

   All Makefiles must define TOPDIR as the root of the project. This

   allows other stuff to be found relative to $(TOPDIR).

   All Makefiles should have the following structure, which is

   much like commondefs and commonrules in the IRIX build environment, e.g.

   # ----------------------------------------------------------------------

   # TOPDIR must point to the root of the project

   # The builddefs file defines lots of things. Read it.

   TOPDIR = ..

   include $(TOPDIR)/include/builddefs

   # first rule should always be "default"

   default : sometarget

   	commands to build targets, if necessary

   # $(BUILDRULES) is defined in builddefs and includes rules for

   # descending subdirs, building targets and installation rules

   include $(BUILDRULES)

   install : default

   	$(INSTALL) sometargets somewhere

   # ----------------------------------------------------------------------

7. packaging

   # ./Makepkgs

   this script generates all of the packages supported - each has a

   subdirectory below acl/package where knowledge specific to each

   package type is maintained.

   The script produces logs of each stage of the build (this info is

   also echoed to the screen when the "verbose" option is provided):

	acl/Logs/configure	- `autoconf; ./configure' output

	acl/Logs/default	- `make default' output

	acl/Logs/dist		- `make package dist' output

   On successful completion, the script echoes the names of packages

   successfully generated.