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This is a nice start but it would be nice if experts in the field could elaborate the subject of the GNU tools, software builds, GNU style compiling and such. Please do so and make it an enjoyable and informative read for non-experts. Thanks. ---
Messybuttsecks ( talk) 13:54, 17 June 2009 (UTC) There's a lot to elaborate, but for starters I've uploaded an image that captures all the essential processes in graphical form, neatly (I hope) divided in "who does what" to make it easier to understand. Mere mortal Wikipedia users can't upload images though, so it would be nice if someone could change it from being inline and into an uploaded image that can be thumbnailed, clicked, etc.
It should be obvious that an article which contains exactly two sourced statements is in need of additional citations. In addition, the "limitations" section is completely unsourced and prescriptive, so I have tagged that too. Basically, the problem here is that too many things are being treated as trivial and obvious and thus not referenced - whereas to inexpert readers, nothing can be taken for granted here. Chris Cunningham (not at work) - talk 11:20, 23 September 2008 (UTC)
I'm not sure why "ed" is listed as the input for Makefile.am. Is that an attempt at a joke?
Also, in practice configure.ac files are almost always handwritten; "autoscan" is pretty rarely used, and even when it is used it is only run once at the inception of the project; including it in the flow diagram is probably misleading.
Finally, note that the configure script typically outputs both the Makefile and a config.h header file.
—Steven G. Johnson ( talk) 18:43, 17 June 2009 (UTC)
"This means that running the configure script is often slower than the rest of the build process combined"
This is misleading, as it is only true for extremely small projects. For almost all real projects using autotools, compiling will be much slower than running configure. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.212.9.220 ( talk) 07:29, 21 June 2009 (UTC)
The diagram does not show a link between configure.ac and automake, but Automake manual clearly states this dependency : Automake scans the package's configure.ac to determine certain information about the package. Some autoconf macros are required and some variables must be defined in configure.ac. Automake will also use information from configure.ac to further tailor its output. Automake also supplies some Autoconf macros to make the maintenance easier.
Who calls it the GNU build system? Autotools is the name I've consistently seen for automake and co. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.209.70.6 ( talk) 21:56, 8 July 2011 (UTC)
Autoscan is limited in use though still practical from the perspective of a new user to Autotools. condor ( talk) — Preceding undated comment added 14:45, 19 May 2014 (UTC)
I moved the article from "GNU build system" to "GNU Build System", because it is a proper noun, like a person's name, and because that is how its originator, the Free Software Foundation, calls it. See, e.g., https://www.gnu.org/software/automake/faq/automake.html#GNU-Build-System. — Quicksilver T @ 15:51, 12 March 2016 (UTC)
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Cheers.— cyberbot II Talk to my owner:Online 14:01, 1 April 2016 (UTC)
"...designed to assist in making source code packages portable to many Unix-like systems..." This is not quite correct, the GNU Build System a.k.a Autotools is also used to create application and other packages for other operating systems such as Windows, but the tools ar also used to create other less frequent usage such as literary writing for authors working on complex academic texts. But at minimum the text should note that the tool base is also used for Windows application development as well as for embedded RTOS-related development. SoftwareThing ( talk) 18:08, 25 May 2018 (UTC)
In all my discussions and involvement over 15+ years with this, the commonly used generic name for the combined set of automake+autoconf+libtool always seems to have been "Autotools"; I don't recall ever hearing "GNU Build System". This "Autotools" name is backed up by GNU themselves at Introduction to the Autotools and the URL itself includes this name.
Unless there are reasons against, I propose renaming in about a week (end of September 2019). Feline Hymnic ( talk) 17:01, 21 September 2019 (UTC)
This is the
talk page for discussing improvements to the
GNU Autotools article. This is not a forum for general discussion of the article's subject. |
Article policies
|
Find sources: Google ( books · news · scholar · free images · WP refs) · FENS · JSTOR · TWL |
This article is rated C-class on Wikipedia's
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This is a nice start but it would be nice if experts in the field could elaborate the subject of the GNU tools, software builds, GNU style compiling and such. Please do so and make it an enjoyable and informative read for non-experts. Thanks. ---
Messybuttsecks ( talk) 13:54, 17 June 2009 (UTC) There's a lot to elaborate, but for starters I've uploaded an image that captures all the essential processes in graphical form, neatly (I hope) divided in "who does what" to make it easier to understand. Mere mortal Wikipedia users can't upload images though, so it would be nice if someone could change it from being inline and into an uploaded image that can be thumbnailed, clicked, etc.
It should be obvious that an article which contains exactly two sourced statements is in need of additional citations. In addition, the "limitations" section is completely unsourced and prescriptive, so I have tagged that too. Basically, the problem here is that too many things are being treated as trivial and obvious and thus not referenced - whereas to inexpert readers, nothing can be taken for granted here. Chris Cunningham (not at work) - talk 11:20, 23 September 2008 (UTC)
I'm not sure why "ed" is listed as the input for Makefile.am. Is that an attempt at a joke?
Also, in practice configure.ac files are almost always handwritten; "autoscan" is pretty rarely used, and even when it is used it is only run once at the inception of the project; including it in the flow diagram is probably misleading.
Finally, note that the configure script typically outputs both the Makefile and a config.h header file.
—Steven G. Johnson ( talk) 18:43, 17 June 2009 (UTC)
"This means that running the configure script is often slower than the rest of the build process combined"
This is misleading, as it is only true for extremely small projects. For almost all real projects using autotools, compiling will be much slower than running configure. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.212.9.220 ( talk) 07:29, 21 June 2009 (UTC)
The diagram does not show a link between configure.ac and automake, but Automake manual clearly states this dependency : Automake scans the package's configure.ac to determine certain information about the package. Some autoconf macros are required and some variables must be defined in configure.ac. Automake will also use information from configure.ac to further tailor its output. Automake also supplies some Autoconf macros to make the maintenance easier.
Who calls it the GNU build system? Autotools is the name I've consistently seen for automake and co. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.209.70.6 ( talk) 21:56, 8 July 2011 (UTC)
Autoscan is limited in use though still practical from the perspective of a new user to Autotools. condor ( talk) — Preceding undated comment added 14:45, 19 May 2014 (UTC)
I moved the article from "GNU build system" to "GNU Build System", because it is a proper noun, like a person's name, and because that is how its originator, the Free Software Foundation, calls it. See, e.g., https://www.gnu.org/software/automake/faq/automake.html#GNU-Build-System. — Quicksilver T @ 15:51, 12 March 2016 (UTC)
Hello fellow Wikipedians,
I have just modified one external link on GNU Build System. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
When you have finished reviewing my changes, please set the checked parameter below to true or failed to let others know (documentation at {{
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).
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After February 2018, "External links modified" talk page sections are no longer generated or monitored by InternetArchiveBot. No special action is required regarding these talk page notices, other than
regular verification using the archive tool instructions below. Editors
have permission to delete these "External links modified" talk page sections if they want to de-clutter talk pages, but see the
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(last update: 18 January 2022).
Cheers.— cyberbot II Talk to my owner:Online 14:01, 1 April 2016 (UTC)
"...designed to assist in making source code packages portable to many Unix-like systems..." This is not quite correct, the GNU Build System a.k.a Autotools is also used to create application and other packages for other operating systems such as Windows, but the tools ar also used to create other less frequent usage such as literary writing for authors working on complex academic texts. But at minimum the text should note that the tool base is also used for Windows application development as well as for embedded RTOS-related development. SoftwareThing ( talk) 18:08, 25 May 2018 (UTC)
In all my discussions and involvement over 15+ years with this, the commonly used generic name for the combined set of automake+autoconf+libtool always seems to have been "Autotools"; I don't recall ever hearing "GNU Build System". This "Autotools" name is backed up by GNU themselves at Introduction to the Autotools and the URL itself includes this name.
Unless there are reasons against, I propose renaming in about a week (end of September 2019). Feline Hymnic ( talk) 17:01, 21 September 2019 (UTC)