GNU Make macros can&#x27;t really replace &quot;configure&quot;.<p>They <i>can</i> replace &quot;automake&quot;.  I&#x27;ve never understood why anyone thought automake was useful &#x2F; sane.  Going back 20 years, a few carefully written GNU Make rules were (a) simple, (b) understandable, and (c) portable.<p>Automake was <i>more work</i> for me than just writing GNU Make rules.