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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.  You
must install GNU M4 (version 1.4 or later) before configuring
Autoconf, so that Autoconf's configure script can find it.  The
configuration scripts produced by Autoconf are self-contained, so
their users do not need to have Autoconf (or GNU M4).

Some optional utilities that come with Autoconf, autoscan and
autoupdate, use Perl 5.5.  However, it is not required in order to use
the main Autoconf programs.  If it is not present, the affected
Autoconf utilities will not be installed.

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 (especially if this Autoconf is not an official
release) and INSTALL.

This version of the package Autoconf uses a fixed version of Automake
1.4.  If ever you alter some Makefile.am (i.e., if you hack Autoconf
itself), you'll have to use either a more recent release of Automake,
or download the patch from

   http://packages.debian.org/stable/devel/automake.html

Mail suggestions to autoconf@gnu.org, bug reports to
autoconf-bugs@gnu.org, and patches to autoconf-patches@gnu.org.
Please include the Autoconf version number, which you can get by
running `autoconf --version'.