autoconf macro collector for GNU build system
Generate aclocal.m4 from configure.ac
aclocal
Search for macros in additional directories
aclocal -I [m4/]
Print macro search directories
aclocal --print-ac-dir
Generate with warnings for obsolete macros
aclocal --warnings=obsolete
Install third-party macros to local m4 directory
aclocal -I [m4/] --install
aclocal [-I dir] [--output=file] [--warnings=category] [options]
aclocal is part of the GNU Automake build system. It generates an aclocal.m4 file by scanning configure.ac (or configure.in) for macro invocations and collecting the required macro definitions from installed .m4 files.
The generated aclocal.m4 file contains all the M4 macros needed by autoconf to process configure.ac. This tool is essential for projects using the GNU build system (autotools) as it bridges Automake and Autoconf.
-I dir
Add directory to search path for .m4 files
--output=file
Write output to specified file instead of aclocal.m4
--print-ac-dir
Print the directory where system .m4 files are stored
--warnings=category
Enable warnings: syntax, unsupported, obsolete, all, none, error
--install
Copy third-party macros to the local m4 directory (requires -I)
--force
Always regenerate output file
--dry-run
Do not actually create or modify any files
--verbose
Print names of files being processed
--version
Print version information
--help
Display help information
Must be run before autoconf when building from source. The search order for .m4 files matters; local directories specified with -I are searched before system directories. Changes to configure.ac require re-running aclocal.
aclocal was created as part of GNU Automake by David MacKenzie and Tom Tromey, first released in 1994. It was designed to simplify the process of gathering M4 macros required for Autoconf-based build systems.
autoconf(1), automake(1), autoreconf(1), libtoolize(1), make(1)