.\" Copyright (C) 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
.\" Copyright (C) 1998 Ben Pfaff.
.\"
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.\" are preserved on all copies.
.\" 
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.\" manual under the conditions for verbatim copying, provided that the entire
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.\"
.TH ACLOCAL 1 "Automake"
.SH NAME
aclocal - automatically generate aclocal.m4 from configure.in
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B aclocal
[
.BR --acdir= DIR
] [
.B --help
] [
.B -I
DIR ] [
.BR --output= FILE
] [
.B --verbose
] [
.B --version
]
.SH DESCRIPTION
.PP
Automake includes a number of Autoconf macros which can be used in
your package; some of them are actually required by Automake in certain
situations.  These macros must be defined in your 
.BR aclocal.m4 ;
otherwise they will not be seen by 
.BR autoconf .
.PP
The 
.B aclocal
program will automatically generate 
.B aclocal.m4
files based on the contents of 
.BR configure.in .  
This provides a convenient way to get Automake-provided macros,
without having to search around.  Also, the 
.B aclocal
mechanism is extensible for use by other packages.
.PP
At startup, 
.B aclocal
scans all the 
.B .m4
files it can find, looking for macro definitions.  Then it scans
.BR configure.in .  
Any mention of one of the macros found in the first step causes that
macro, and any macros it in turn requires, to be put into
.BR aclocal.m4 .
.PP
The contents of 
.BR acinclude.m4 , 
if it exists, are also automatically included in 
.BR aclocal.m4 .  
This is useful for incorporating local macros into 
.BR configure .
.PP
.B aclocal
accepts the following options:
.TP
.BI --acdir=\fRDIR
Look for the macro files in DIR instead of the installation
directory.  This is typically used for debugging.
.TP
.BI --help
Print a summary of the command line options and exit.
.TP
.BI -I\fR\ DIR
Add the directory DIR to the list of directories searched for
.B .m4
files.
.TP
.BI --output=\fRFILE
Cause the output to be put into FILE instead of 
.BR aclocal.m4 .
.TP
.BI --verbose
Print the names of the files it examines.
.TP
.BI --version
Print the version number of Automake and exit.
.PP
.SH "SEE ALSO"
.BR automake (1),
and the Texinfo documentation for automake
.SH AUTHORS
Automake was written primarily by David Mackenzie and Tom Tromey.
This manpage written by Ben Pfaff <pfaffben@pilot.msu.edu> for the
Debian GNU/Linux
.B automake
package.