GNU gettext utilities: configure.ac

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13.4.5 configure.ac at top level

configure.ac or configure.in - this is the source from which autoconf generates the configure script.

1. Declare the package and version.

   This is done by a set of lines like these:

   PACKAGE=gettext VERSION=0.21 AC_DEFINE_UNQUOTED(PACKAGE, "$PACKAGE") AC_DEFINE_UNQUOTED(VERSION, "$VERSION") AC_SUBST(PACKAGE) AC_SUBST(VERSION)

   or, if you are using GNU automake, by a line like this:

   AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE(gettext, 0.21)

   Of course, you replace ‘gettext’ with the name of your package, and ‘0.21’ by its version numbers, exactly as they should appear in the packaged tar file name of your distribution (gettext-0.21.tar.gz, here).

2. Check for internationalization support. Here is the main m4 macro for triggering internationalization support. Just add this line to configure.ac:

   AM_GNU_GETTEXT([external])

   This call is purposely simple, even if it generates a lot of configure time checking and actions.

3. Have output files created.

   The AC_OUTPUT directive, at the end of your configure.ac file, needs to be modified in two ways:

   AC_OUTPUT([existing configuration files po/Makefile.in], [existing additional actions])

   The modification to the first argument to AC_OUTPUT asks for substitution in the po/ directory. Note the ‘.in’ suffix used for po/ only. This is because the distributed file is really po/Makefile.in.in.