GNU Automake

GNU Automake is a tool for automatically generating Makefile.in files compliant with the GNU Coding Standards. Automake requires the use of GNU Autoconf.

New volunteers to help maintain Automake are needed. Please help if you can.

Table of contents

Downloads

  • Stable releases are available on the main GNU download server (HTTPS, FTP) and its mirrors. Please use a mirror if possible.
  • Unstable versions (DO NOT use in production):

    Test releases can be found on the GNU “alpha” server (HTTPS, FTP) and its mirrors. These releases have a version number (and git tag) whose last part is 90 or higher, such as 1.18.90. Trying out test releases is always greatly appreciated.

    The latest development sources can be fetched through git from Savannah.

Documentation

The Automake manual can be read in HTML or PDF; other formats are also available. If you have installed Automake on your system, you may also find more information about it by looking at your local documentation; for example, you might run info automake at the shell prompt.

Older versions of the Automake manual are also available.

For anyone interested, a brief history of Automake (up to roughly 2007) is available; again, other formats are available.

Mailing lists

Automake has several public mailing lists, each of which is archived.

You can subscribe to any Automake mailing list via the associated web interfaces, linked above. Or you can send an empty mail with a Subject: header line of just “subscribe” to the corresponding -request address.

Getting involved

Development of Automake, and GNU in general, is a volunteer effort, and your contribution would be welcome. For general information, please read How to help GNU. If you'd like to get involved with Automake, it's a good idea to join the discussion mailing list (see above).

Development
For consolidated development information, please see the Automake project page at savannah.gnu.org.

There are numerous longstanding bugs in the Automake bug tracker which need attention. (They are tagged “confirmed”. Help with any of the other outstanding bugs is welcome also.) If you have time and inclination, please pick any and give it a whirl; no one is working on them. The HACKING file in the repository provides information about getting started with the development sources. Thanks!

Maintainer
Automake is currently maintained by Jim Meyering, Kamila Szewczyk, and Karl Berry. Please use the mailing lists for contact.

Bug reports

For bugs in Automake, please see the Bug Reporting section of the manual.

Automake depends on other projects; it's best for everyone if bug reports are directed to the correct place. To cite two common cases: 1) if your bug is in Autoconf (AC_* or AS_* macros), please see the Savannah page for Autoconf; 2) if your bug is in the config.guess or config.sub scripts, please email config-patches@gnu.org. Thanks.