Guile Reference Manual: Using Autoconf Macros

Warning: This is the manual of the legacy Guile 2.0 series. You may want to read the manual of the current stable series instead.

5.8.3 Using Autoconf Macros

Using the autoconf macros is straightforward: Add the macro "calls" (actually instantiations) to configure.ac, run aclocal, and finally, run autoconf. If your system doesn’t have guile.m4 installed, place the desired macro definitions (AC_DEFUN forms) in acinclude.m4, and aclocal will do the right thing.

Some of the macros can be used inside normal shell constructs: if foo ; then GUILE_BAZ ; fi, but this is not guaranteed. It’s probably a good idea to instantiate macros at top-level.

We now include two examples, one simple and one complicated.

The first example is for a package that uses libguile, and thus needs to know how to compile and link against it. So we use PKG_CHECK_MODULES to set the vars GUILE_CFLAGS and GUILE_LIBS, which are automatically substituted in the Makefile.

In configure.ac:
 PKG_CHECK_MODULES([GUILE], [guile-2.0])
In Makefile.in:
 GUILE_CFLAGS = @GUILE_CFLAGS@
 GUILE_LIBS = @GUILE_LIBS@
 myprog.o: myprog.c
 $(CC) -o $ $(GUILE_CFLAGS) $<
 myprog: myprog.o
 $(CC) -o $ $< $(GUILE_LIBS)

The second example is for a package of Guile Scheme modules that uses an external program and other Guile Scheme modules (some might call this a "pure scheme" package). So we use the GUILE_SITE_DIR macro, a regular AC_PATH_PROG macro, and the GUILE_MODULE_AVAILABLE macro.

In configure.ac:
 GUILE_SITE_DIR
 probably_wont_work=""
 # pgtype pgtable
 GUILE_MODULE_AVAILABLE(have_guile_pg, (database postgres))
 test $have_guile_pg = no &&
 probably_wont_work="(my pgtype) (my pgtable) $probably_wont_work"
 # gpgutils
 AC_PATH_PROG(GNUPG,gpg)
 test x"$GNUPG" = x &&
 probably_wont_work="(my gpgutils) $probably_wont_work"
 if test ! "$probably_wont_work" = "" ; then
 p=" ***"
 echo
 echo "$p"
 echo "$p NOTE:"
 echo "$p The following modules probably won't work:"
 echo "$p $probably_wont_work"
 echo "$p They can be installed anyway, and will work if their"
 echo "$p dependencies are installed later. Please see README."
 echo "$p"
 echo
 fi
In Makefile.in:
 instdir = @GUILE_SITE@/my
 install:
 $(INSTALL) my/*.scm $(instdir)