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Automatic Remaking

You can put rules like the following in the top-level `Makefile.in' for a package to automatically update the configuration information when you change the configuration files. This example includes all of the optional files, such as `aclocal.m4' and those related to configuration header files. Omit from the `Makefile.in' rules any of these files that your package does not use.

The `${srcdir}/' prefix is included because of limitations in the VPATH mechanism.

The `stamp-' files are necessary because the timestamps of `config.h.in' and `config.h' will not be changed if remaking them does not change their contents. This feature avoids unnecessary recompilation. You should include the file `stamp-h.in' your package's distribution, so make will consider `config.h.in' up to date. On some old BSD systems, touch or any command that results in an empty file does not update the timestamps, so use a command like echo as a workaround.

${srcdir}/configure: configure.in aclocal.m4
        cd ${srcdir} && autoconf

# autoheader might not change config.h.in, so touch a stamp file.
${srcdir}/config.h.in: stamp-h.in
${srcdir}/stamp-h.in: configure.in aclocal.m4 acconfig.h \
    config.h.top config.h.bot
        cd ${srcdir} && autoheader
        echo timestamp > ${srcdir}/stamp-h.in

config.h: stamp-h
stamp-h: config.h.in config.status
        ./config.status

Makefile: Makefile.in config.status
        ./config.status

config.status: configure
        ./config.status --recheck

In addition, you should pass `echo timestamp > stamp-h' in the extra-cmds argument to AC_OUTPUT, so `config.status' will ensure that `config.h' is considered up to date. See section Creating Output Files, for more information about AC_OUTPUT.

See section Recreating a Configuration, for more examples of handling configuration-related dependencies.


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