Autoconf, Automake and Libtool are packages for making your
software more portable and to simplify building it--usually on
someone else's system. Software portability and effective build
systems are crucial aspects of modern software engineering
practice. It is unlikely that a software project would be
started today with the expectation that the software would run
on only one platform. Hardware constraints may change the choice
of platform, new customers with different kinds of systems may
emerge or your vendor might introduce incompatible changes in
newer versions of their operating system. In addition, tools
that make building software easier and less error prone are
valuable. Autoconf is a tool that makes your packages more
portable by performing tests to discover system characteristics
before the package is compiled. Your source code can then adapt
to these differences. Automake is a tool for generating
`Makefile's--descriptions of what to build--that conform to a
number of standards. Automake substantial