Greetings.

Can someone recommend a good *typeset* book (i.e., profesionally
printed, or produced with something nice like LaTeX which I can print
out and bind myself) covering the GNU autotools (particularly Automake
and Autoconf)?

The official documentation available from http://www.gnu.org/ is nice
but a bit too terse and reference-like for casual reading.  I'm looking
for something more tutorial-like with lots of helpful, mutually
independent examples.

There is a printed book, "GNU Autoconf, Automake, and Libtool" (Vaughan
et al., 2000), which, from browsing the HTML version at http:/
sources.redhat.com/autobook/, seems a bit disorganized but nevertheless
reads much better.  I note it has a lot of negative reviews on Amazon,
though, some of which point out that it's incomplete, out of date, and
due to the single running example can't be easily read out of order.

Comments on the above works or recommendations for a different one would
be most welcome.  For instance, have Autoconf and Automake changed so
much since 2000 that the Vaughan book is a bad starting point?  Or can
I read through it and then refer to the GNU manuals to fill in the
gaps?

Regards,
Tristan

--
_
_V.-o  Tristan Miller [en,(fr,de,ia)]  ><  Space is limited
/ |`-'  -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=  <>  In a haiku, so it's hard
(7_\\    http://www.nothingisreal.com/   ><  To finish what you

[ Post a follow-up to this message ]

Tristan Miller <psychonaut@nothingisreal.com> writes:
quote:

> Greetings.
>
> Can someone recommend a good *typeset* book (i.e., profesionally
> printed, or produced with something nice like LaTeX which I can print
> out and bind myself) covering the GNU autotools (particularly Automake
> and Autoconf)?
>
> The official documentation available from http://www.gnu.org/ is nice
> but a bit too terse and reference-like for casual reading.  I'm looking
> for something more tutorial-like with lots of helpful, mutually
> independent examples.
>
> There is a printed book, "GNU Autoconf, Automake, and Libtool" (Vaughan
> et al., 2000), which, from browsing the HTML version at http:/
> sources.redhat.com/autobook/, seems a bit disorganized but nevertheless
> reads much better.  I note it has a lot of negative reviews on Amazon,
> though, some of which point out that it's incomplete, out of date, and
> due to the single running example can't be easily read out of order.
>
> Comments on the above works or recommendations for a different one would
> be most welcome.  For instance, have Autoconf and Automake changed so
> much since 2000 that the Vaughan book is a bad starting point?  Or can
> I read through it and then refer to the GNU manuals to fill in the
> gaps?


I highly recommend the (Goat) book you mention above. I own a copy,
it's about two years old, and yes, it is bit outdated, but it is the
best starting point. It's been about six months since I've worked with
any of the autotools, but back then there had been some major changes
to the last minor automake release, but most of these were necessary
and are working to improve the software.

The book is by know means an easy read, but once you get through it
you will have a pretty good understanding of the Autotools, chances
are you'll get so used to them you'll never hand write a Makefile for
C or C++ again.

--
(incf *yankees-world-series-losses*)

[ Post a follow-up to this message ]