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Autoconf

Autoconf is an extensible package of M4 macros that produce shell

scripts to automatically configure software source code packages.

These scripts can adapt the packages to many kinds of UNIX-like

systems without manual user intervention.  Autoconf creates a

configuration script for a package from a template file that lists the

operating system features that the package can use, in the form of M4

macro calls.

Producing configuration scripts using Autoconf requires GNU M4 and

Perl.  You should install GNU M4 (version 1.4.6 or later is required;

1.4.14 or later is recommended) and Perl (5.006 or later) before

configuring Autoconf, so that Autoconf's configure script can find

them.  The configuration scripts produced by Autoconf are

self-contained, so their users do not need to have Autoconf (or GNU

M4, Perl, etc.).

You can get GNU M4 here:

ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/m4/

The file INSTALL should be distributed with packages that use

Autoconf-generated configure scripts and Makefiles that conform to the

GNU coding standards.  The package's README can just give an overview

of the package, where to report bugs, and a pointer to INSTALL for

instructions on compilation and installation.  This removes the need

to maintain many similar sets of installation instructions.

Be sure to read BUGS and INSTALL.

Mail suggestions to autoconf@gnu.org, report bugs to

bug-autoconf@gnu.org, and submit patches to autoconf-patches@gnu.org.

All changes can be tracked at the read-only autoconf-commit@gnu.org.

Always include the Autoconf version number, which you can get by

running `autoconf --version'.  Archives of bug-autoconf@gnu.org can be

found in <http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-autoconf/>, and

similarly for the other mailing lists.

Licensing

Autoconf is released under the General Public License version 3 (GPLv3+).

Additionally, Autoconf includes a licensing exception in some of its

source files; see the respective copyright notices for how your

project is impacted by including scripts generated by Autoconf, and the

COPYING.EXCEPTION file for the exception in terms of the Additional

Permissions as described in section 7 of GPLv3.

For more licensing information, see

<http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html> and

<http://www.gnu.org/licenses/exceptions.html>.

For any copyright year range specified as YYYY-ZZZZ in this package

note that the range specifies every single year in that closed interval.

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Copyright (C) 1992-1994, 1998, 2000-2012 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

Copying and distribution of this file, with or without modification,

are permitted in any medium without royalty provided the copyright

notice and this notice are preserved.  This file is offered as-is,

without warranty of any kind.