% Configure -- an autoconfiguration script with 100% less GNU.
% Jessica L. Parsons <orc@pell.portland.or.us>
% Wed Jan 16 01:41:09 PST 2008
#Configure

**Configure** is my own autoconfigure script for C programs, something like the
[GNU autoconf](http://www.gnu.org/software/autoconf/autoconf.html)
program, except that it's

 *  free,
 *  written in bourne shell (with functions; the old v7 shells won't work),
 *  doesn't use config.cache files,
 *  doesn't require that you install a huge GNU toolchain to do
    anything with it.

**Configure**
is not nearly as complete as autoconf, because I'm only adding things
to it as I need them.

Currently, configure is used in most of the code I write (and it's been
shoehorned into my copies of [libgd](https://github.com/Orc/libgd) and
[dropbear](https://github.com/Orc/dropbear)) because it's being built
for macos-current, ~~~RHEL~~~Centos-current, and FreeBSD 4.1
(if I set up a VM for Mastodon Linux, I will fire up an ancient pell 
image and try building for SLS Linux as well.)
[Levee](/~orc/Code/levee),
[Magicfilter][],
[ndialog](/~orc/Code/ndialog), [xrpm](/~orc/Code/xrpm),
[<font class=caps>Postoffice</font>](/~orc/Code/postoffice),
[cwatch](/~orc/Code/cwatch),
[markdown](/~orc/Code/markdown),
and
[annotations](/~orc/Code/annotations) end up using most of the features
in configure, and I tend to test new features out in one of those projects
and then pull it back into the baseline before spinning it out everywhere
else to see if it makes other code fail.


##Source Code##

 *  [v0.62](configure-0.62.tar.gz) -- after a decade for the code to
    mature -- is a rollup release for 10 years of incremental changes
    to the autoconfiguration process as modern Unices gaze more deeply
    into their own navels.   Documentation is being worked on, but it
    is not finished so you're stuck with looking at the `configure.sh`
    examples in the code listed above.
 
 *  [v0.59](configure-0.59.tar.gz), is, as you can probably guess,
    a rollup of a bunch of tiny feature-ettes.   It contains:
     1. More support for `--srcdir`.
     2. When configure.sh is run, it creates a `config.md` script that
	is used to create directory trees in a hopefully portable manner.
     3. Add the **`AC_SCALAR_TYPES`** function, which creates types for
	32 (DWORD), 16(WORD), and 8(BYTE) bit scalars.
     4. Add the prefix **`AC_QUIET`**, which makes a detect function
	run without any output.
     5. Add the **`AC_CHECK_STRUCT`** function, which checks for the
	existance of a structure.
     6. Add the **`AC_PROG_AWK`** function, which checks for the
	existance of `awk`.
     7. Add the **`AC_INCLUDE`** function, which adds a `#include`
	to `config.h`.
     8. Add the **`AC_CHECK_RESOLVER`** function, which looks for
	a bind4 compatable version of the Berkeley resolver library.

 * [v0.53](configure-0.53.tar.gz) starts adding configure-side
    support for `--srcdir` (installing a package in one directory
    and building it in a different directory.)  This isn't documented
    yet (because it's actually fairly complicated, and hasn't been
    tested anywhere except [Linux](http://www.kernel.org) and
    [FreeBSD](http://www.freebsd.org), but it roughly works as
    follows; in your Makefile.in's, you set **`VPATH = @srcdir@`**,
    define your own makefile rules so that **`.c.o:`** puts `.o`
    files out in the current directory (Berkeley make does this
    automatically, GNU make does not), modify your compilation
    rules so they include things from `@srcdir@/{place}` instead
    of simple `{place}`, and finally when you publish a release of
    your software, running `joincfg.sh` to collapse `configure.inc`
    and `configure.sh` together.  (the [magicfilter][]  package
    does this from version 2.2.i onwards.)

 * [v0.51](configure-0.51.tar.gz) defines a **`OS_<type>`** variable
   in `config.h` and `configure.sh`, and defines the substitions
   **`@CONFIGURE_FILES@`** (the files created by `configure.sh`)
   and **`@GENERATED_FILES@`** (the files generated from `.in`
   files during `AC_OUTPUT`.)

 * [v0.4](configure-0.4.tar.gz) fixes a little bug in the generation
   of the `config.cmd` file; **`CC`** and **`CFLAGS`** were not being
   quoted properly on some platforms.

 * [v0.3](configure-0.3.tar.gz) has a few changes in
    [`configure.inc`](configure-current/configure.inc)
    that make it work on [Solaris](http://www.sun.com/solaris)
    and [SLS Linux](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Softlanding_Linux_System).
    I've also added an `install_manpages` script that can be
    used to do what you'd expect it to do.

 * [v0.2](configure-0.2.tar.gz) has more detail in the `HOWTO` and
    some tweaks to make it
    work better on [Irix](http://www.sgi.com/products/software/irix/)
    machines.

 * [v0.1](configure-0.1.tar.gz) has a minimal testsuite, a small
    samples directory, and the beginnings of a `HOWTO` file to tell
    you how it's done.

[magicfilter]: /~orc/Code/magicfilter