Libtool - AC_PROG

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The `AC_PROG_LIBTOOL` macro

If you are using GNU Autoconf (or Automake), you should add a call to AC_PROG_LIBTOOL to your `configure.in' file. This macro adds many new tests to the configure script so that the generated libtool script will understand the characteristics of the host:

Macro: AC_PROG_LIBTOOL

Macro: AM_PROG_LIBTOOL

Add support for the `--enable-shared' and `--disable-shared' configure flags.(4) AM_PROG_LIBTOOL was the old name for this macro, and although supported at the moment is deprecated.

By default, this macro turns on shared libraries if they are available, and also enables static libraries if they don't conflict with the shared libraries. You can modify these defaults by calling either the AC_DISABLE_SHARED or AC_DISABLE_STATIC macros:

# Turn off shared libraries during beta-testing, since they
# make the build process take too long.
AC_DISABLE_SHARED
AC_PROG_LIBTOOL

The user may specify modified forms of the configure flags `--enable-shared' and `--enable-static' to choose whether shared or static libraries are built based on the name of the package. For example, to have shared `bfd' and `gdb' libraries built, but not shared `libg++', you can run all three configure scripts as follows:

trick$ ./configure --enable-shared=bfd,gdb

In general, specifying `--enable-shared=pkgs' is the same as configuring with `--enable-shared' every package named in the comma-separated pkgs list, and every other package with `--disable-shared'. The `--enable-static=pkgs' flag behaves similarly, but it uses `--enable-static' and `--disable-static'. The same applies to the `--enable-fast-install=pkgs' flag, which uses `--enable-fast-install' and `--disable-fast-install'.

The package name `default' matches any packages which have not set their name in the PACKAGE environment variable.

This macro also sets the shell variable LIBTOOL_DEPS, that you can use to automatically update the libtool script if it becomes out-of-date. In order to do that, add to your `configure.in':

AC_PROG_LIBTOOL
AC_SUBST(LIBTOOL_DEPS)

and, to `Makefile.in' or `Makefile.am':

LIBTOOL_DEPS = @LIBTOOL_DEPS@
libtool: $(LIBTOOL_DEPS)
        $(SHELL) ./config.status --recheck

If you are using GNU automake, you can omit the assignment, as automake will take care of it. You'll obviously have to create some dependency on `libtool'.

Macro: AC_LIBTOOL_DLOPEN: Enable checking for dlopen support. This macro should be used if the package makes use of the `-dlopen' and `-dlpreopen' flags, otherwise libtool will assume that the system does not support dlopening. The macro must be called before AC_PROG_LIBTOOL.

Macro: AC_LIBTOOL_WIN32_DLL

This macro should be used if the package has been ported to build clean dlls on win32 platforms. Usually this means that any library data items are exported with __declspec(dllexport) and imported with __declspec(dllimport). If this macro is not used, libtool will assume that the package libraries are not dll clean and will build only static libraries on win32 hosts.

This macro must be called before AC_PROG_LIBTOOL, and provision must be made to pass `-no-undefined' to libtool in link mode from the package Makefile. Naturally, if you pass `-no-undefined', you must ensure that all the library symbols really are defined at link time!

Macro: AC_DISABLE_FAST_INSTALL: Change the default behaviour for AC_PROG_LIBTOOL to disable optimization for fast installation. The user may still override this default, depending on platform support, by specifying `--enable-fast-install'.

Macro: AC_DISABLE_SHARED
Macro: AM_DISABLE_SHARED: Change the default behaviour for AC_PROG_LIBTOOL to disable shared libraries. The user may still override this default by specifying `--enable-shared'.

Macro: AC_DISABLE_STATIC
Macro: AM_DISABLE_STATIC: Change the default behaviour for AC_PROG_LIBTOOL to disable static libraries. The user may still override this default by specifying `--enable-static'.

The tests in AC_PROG_LIBTOOL also recognize the following environment variables:

Variable: CC: The C compiler that will be used by the generated libtool. If this is not set, AC_PROG_LIBTOOL will look for gcc or cc.

Variable: CFLAGS: Compiler flags used to generate standard object files. If this is not set, AC_PROG_LIBTOOL will not use any such flags. It affects only the way AC_PROG_LIBTOOL runs tests, not the produced libtool.

Variable: CPPFLAGS: C preprocessor flags. If this is not set, AC_PROG_LIBTOOL will not use any such flags. It affects only the way AC_PROG_LIBTOOL runs tests, not the produced libtool.

Variable: LD: The system linker to use (if the generated libtool requires one). If this is not set, AC_PROG_LIBTOOL will try to find out what is the linker used by CC.

Variable: LDFLAGS: The flags to be used by libtool when it links a program. If this is not set, AC_PROG_LIBTOOL will not use any such flags. It affects only the way AC_PROG_LIBTOOL runs tests, not the produced libtool.

Variable: LIBS: The libraries to be used by AC_PROG_LIBTOOL when it links a program. If this is not set, AC_PROG_LIBTOOL will not use any such flags. It affects only the way AC_PROG_LIBTOOL runs tests, not the produced libtool.

Variable: NM: Program to use rather than checking for nm.

Variable: RANLIB: Program to use rather than checking for ranlib.

Variable: LN_S: A command that creates a link of a program, a soft-link if possible, a hard-link otherwise. AC_PROG_LIBTOOL will check for a suitable program if this variable is not set.

Variable: DLLTOOL: Program to use rather than checking for dlltool. Only meaningful for Cygwin/MS-Windows.

Variable: OBJDUMP: Program to use rather than checking for objdump. Only meaningful for Cygwin/MS-Windows.

Variable: AS: Program to use rather than checking for as. Only used on Cygwin/MS-Windows at the moment.

When you invoke the libtoolize program (see section Invoking libtoolize), it will tell you where to find a definition of AC_PROG_LIBTOOL. If you use Automake, the aclocal program will automatically add AC_PROG_LIBTOOL support to your configure script.

Nevertheless, it is advisable to include a copy of `libtool.m4' in `acinclude.m4', so that, even if `aclocal.m4' and `configure' are rebuilt for any reason, the appropriate libtool macros will be used. The alternative is to hope the user will have a compatible version of `libtool.m4' installed and accessible for aclocal. This may lead to weird errors when versions don't match.

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The AC_PROG_LIBTOOL macro

The `AC_PROG_LIBTOOL` macro