From: William Pursell Date: Fri, 20 Mar 2026 15:03:59 +0000 (-0600) Subject: Provide more details on autotool meta-files X-Git-Url: http://git.ipfire.org/gitweb.cgi?a=commitdiff_plain;h=refs%2Fpull%2F2940%2Fhead;p=thirdparty%2Flibarchive.git Provide more details on autotool meta-files Given the amount of confusion surrounding the autotools, it is better to have accurate descriptions of these files in the README. --- diff --git a/README.md b/README.md index e9691f1b7..3009e1b54 100644 --- a/README.md +++ b/README.md @@ -37,10 +37,13 @@ The top-level directory contains the following information files: * **CMakeLists.txt** - input for "cmake" build tool, see INSTALL * **configure** - configuration script, see INSTALL for details. If your copy of the source lacks a `configure` script, you can try to construct it by running the script in `build/autogen.sh` (or use `cmake`). -The following files in the top-level directory are used by the 'configure' script: +The following files in the top-level directory are related to the 'configure' script and are only needed by maintainers: -* `Makefile.am`, `aclocal.m4`, `configure.ac` - used to build this distribution, only needed by maintainers -* `Makefile.in`, `config.h.in` - templates used by configure script +* `configure.ac` - used (by autoconf) to build the configure script and related files +* `Makefile.am` - used (by automake) to generate Makefile.in +* `aclocal.m4` - auto-generated file (created by aclocal) used to build the configure script +* `Makefile.in` - auto-generated template (created by automake) used by the configure script to create Makefile +* `config.h.in` - auto-generated template (created by autoheader) used by the configure script to create config.h ## Documentation