Configure script: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 07:51, 25 February 2015

Revision as of 17:51, 27 May 2015

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[[Image:Autoconf-automake-process.svg|thumb|400px|Flow diagram including configure, [[autoconf]] and [[automake]], three tools in the GNU build system]]

A '''Configureconfigure script''' is an executable script designed to aid in developing a [[computer program|program]] to be run on a wide number of different computers. It matches the [[Library (computer science)|libraries]] on the user's computer, with those required by the program, just before [[compiler|compiling]] it from its [[source code]].

As a common practice, all configure scripts are named "configure". Usually, configure scripts are written for the [[Bourne shell]], but they may be written for execution in any desired shell.

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==History==

The first program to come with a '''Configureconfigure script''' was [[rn (newsreader)|rn]] by [[Larry Wall]] in 1984.

Notable for its wry and jocular running commentary, that script was written entirely by hand and still survives as part of the build system of the '''trn''' program.

Since then, an ecosystem of programs has grown up to automate the creation of '''Configureconfigure script'''sscripts as far as possible, of which the most common is the GNU Autoconf system described above.

== See also ==