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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<section id="autotools_class" xreflabel="autotools class">
  <title>autotools class</title>

  <para>Autotools is one of the most commonly seen configuration methods for
  applications. Anything that uses the standard <command>./configure; make;
  make install</command> sequence is using autotools. Usually the configure
  script will support a large number of options to specify various
  installation directories, to disable and/or enable various features and
  options to specify search paths for headers and libraries.</para>

  <para>The autotools class takes care of all of the details for you. It
  defines appropriate tasks for <emphasis>configure</emphasis>,
  <emphasis>compile</emphasis>, <emphasis>stage</emphasis> and
  <emphasis>install</emphasis>. At it's simplest adding an inherit for the
  autotools class is all that is required. The netcat recipe for example
  is:<screen>DESCRIPTION = "GNU Netcat"
HOMEPAGE = "http://netcat.sourceforge.net"
LICENSE = "GPLv2"
MAINTAINER = "Your name &lt;yname@example.com&gt;"
SECTION = "console/networking"
PR = "r1"

SRC_URI = "${SOURCEFORGE_MIRROR}/netcat/netcat-${PV}.tar.bz2"

inherit autotools</screen>The header is defined, the location of the source
  code and then the inherit. For the simplest cases this is all that is
  required. If you need to pass additional parameters to the configure script,
  such as for enabling and/or disabling options, then they can be specified
  via the <command>EXTRA_OECONF</command> variable. This example from the lftp
  recipe shows several extra options being passed to the configure
  script:<screen>EXTRA_OECONF = "--disable-largefile --disable-rpath --with-included-readline=no"</screen>If
  you define your own tasks for <emphasis>configure</emphasis>,
  <emphasis>compile</emphasis>, <emphasis>stage</emphasis> or
  <emphasis>install</emphasis> (via <command>do_&lt;taskname&gt;</command>)
  then they will override the methods generated by the autotools class. If you
  need to perform additional operations (rather than replacing the generated
  operations) you can use the <command>do_&lt;task&gt;_append</command> or
  <command>do_&lt;task&gt;_prepend</command> methods. The following example
  from the conserver recipe shows some additional items being
  installed:<screen># Include the init script and default settings in the package
do_install_append () {
    install -m 0755 -d ${D}${sysconfdir}/default ${D}${sysconfdir}/init.d
    install -m 0644 ${WORKDIR}/conserver.default ${D}${sysconfdir}/default/conserver
    install -m 0755 ${WORKDIR}/conserver.init ${D}${sysconfdir}/init.d/conserver
}</screen></para>

  <section>
    <title>oe_runconf / autotools_do_configure</title>

    <para>Autotools generates a configuration method called
    <command>oe_runconf</command> which runs the actual configure script, and
    a method called <command>autotools_do_configure</command> which generates
    the configure file (runs automake and autoconf) and then calls
    <command>oe_runconf</command>. The generated method for the
    <emphasis>configure</emphasis> task, <command>do_configure</command>, just
    calls the <command>autotools_do_configure</command> method.</para>

    <para>It is sometimes desirable to implement your own
    <command>do_configure</command> method, where additional configuration is
    required or where you wish to inhibit the running of automake and
    autoconf, and then manually call <command>oe_runconf</command>.</para>

    <para>The following example from the ipacct recipe shows an example of
    avoiding the use of automake/autoconf:<screen>do_configure() {
    oe_runconf
}</screen>Sometimes manual manipulations of the autotools files is required
    prior to calling autoconf/automake. In this case you can defined your own
    <command>do_configure</command> method which performs the required actions
    and then calls <command>autotools_do_configure</command>.</para>
  </section>

  <section>
    <title>Presetting autoconf variables (the site file)</title>

    <para>The autotools configuration method has support for caching the
    results of tests. In the cross-compilation case it is sometimes necessary
    to prime the cache with per-calculated results (since tests designed to
    run on the target cannot be run when cross-compiling). These are defined
    via the site file(s) for the architecture you are using and may be
    specific to the package you are building.</para>

    <para>Autoconf uses site files as definied in the
    <command>CONFIG_SITE</command> variable, which is a space seperate list of
    files to load in the specified order. Details on how this variable is set
    is provided in the <xref linkend="siteinfo_class" /> (the class
    responsbile for setting the variable) section.</para>

    <para>There are some things that you should keep in mind about the caching
    of configure tests:</para>

    <orderedlist>
      <listitem>
        <para>Check the other site files to see if there any entries for the
        application you are attempting to build.</para>

        <para>Sometimes entries are only updated for the target that the
        developer has access to. If they exist for another target then it may
        provide a good idea of what needs to be defined.</para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para>Sometimes the same cache value is used by multiple
        applications.</para>

        <para>This can have the side effect where a value added for one
        application breaks the build of another. It is a very good idea to
        empty the site file of all other values if you are having build
        problems to ensure that none of the existing values are causing
        problems.</para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para>Not all values can be stored in the cache</para>

        <para>Caching of variables is defined by the author of the configure
        script, so sometimes not all variables can be set via the cache. In
        this case it often means resorting to patching the original configure
        scripts to achieve the desired result.</para>
      </listitem>
    </orderedlist>

    <para>All site files are shell scripts which are run by autoconf and
    therefore the syntax is the same as you would use in sh. There are two
    current methods of settings variables that is used in the existing site
    files. This include explicitly settings the value of the variable:<screen>ac_cv_sys_restartable_syscalls=yes</screen>and
    conditionally setting the value of the variable:<screen>ac_cv_uchar=${ac_cv_uchar=no}</screen>The
    conditional version is using shell syntax to say "<emphasis>only set this
    to the specified value if it is not currently set</emphasis>". The
    conditional version allows the variable to be set in the shell prior to
    calling configure and it will then not be replaced by the value from the
    site file.</para>

    <note>
      <para>Site files are applied in order, so the application specific site
      files will be applied prior to the top level site file entries. The use
      of conditional assignment means that the first definition found will
      apply, while when not using conditionals the last definition found will
      apply.</para>
    </note>

    <para>It is possible to disable the use of the cached values from the site
    file by clearing the definition of <command>CONFIG_SITE</command> prior to
    running the configure script. Doing this will disable the use of the site
    file entirely. This however should be used as a last resort. The following
    example from the db recipe shows an example of this:<screen># Cancel the site stuff - it's set for db3 and destroys the
# configure.
CONFIG_SITE = ""
do_configure() {
    oe_runconf
}</screen></para>
  </section>
</section>