How to include .m4 files in Autoconf?

Question

I have downloaded a macro from Autoconf Archive, and I want to use it. What do I have to put in my configure.ac file to make use this macro?

Answer 1

You may want to add AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIR to configure.ac to the directory where the macro is:

AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIR([path/to/macros])

You'll need to invoke the macro somewhere in this file also.

and in Makefile.am you'll probably need to set up ACLOCAL_AMFLAGS (if you are using automake):

ACLOCAL_AMFLAGS         = -I path/to/macros

Then invoke autoreconf -fvi and you should be set.

Answer 2

I had this exact same question, and it was harder to find an answer than I thought. It looked like AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIR was what I wanted, but if you are not using libtoolize, it appears that AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIR is useless at present.

If you're using automake, I think the answer above is right.

I'm not using automake, so the only way I've found is to use the m4_include macro to suck in each .m4 file individually. I found this approach here:

http://www.flameeyes.eu/autotools-mythbuster/autoconf/macros.html

Hope this helps. (Considering how long autoconf has been around, it boggles my mind somewhat that there's no built-in way to just specify a directory in the .ac file. Seems like it would be an awefully common use case. Oh, well.)