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3.2.2 Build Files Description

This is a description of the files which are created at build time.

`config.status'
The first step in building a package is to run the `configure' script. The `configure' script will create the file `config.status', which is itself a shell script. When you first run `configure', it will automatically run `config.status'. An `Makefile' derived from an automake generated `Makefile.in' will contain rules to automatically run `config.status' again when necessary to recreate certain files if their inputs change.

`Makefile'
This is the file which make will read to build the program. The `config.status' script will transform `Makefile.in' into `Makefile'.

`config.h'
This file defines C preprocessor macros which C code can use to adjust its behaviour on different systems. The `config.status' script will transform `config.in' into `config.h'.

`config.cache'
This file did not fit neatly into the picture, and I omitted it. It is used by the `configure' script to cache results between runs. This can be an important speedup. If you modify `configure.in' in such a way that the results of old tests should change (perhaps you have added a new library to `LDFLAGS'), then you will have to remove `config.cache' to force the tests to be rerun.

The autoconf manual explains how to set up a site specific cache file. This can speed up running `configure' scripts on your system.

`stamp.h'
This file, which I omitted from the picture, is similar to `stamp-h.in'. It is used as a timestamp file indicating whether `config.h' is up to date. This is useful since `config.h' depends upon `config.status', but it is easy for `config.status' to change in a way which does not affect `config.h'.


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