ACLOCAL(1)

📦
version 1.19 · 7 versions
, in arch rolling

✨ ACLOCAL(1) — aclocal, the aclocal.m4 generator ✨

🎀 Okay bestie, aclocal is the program that makes the aclocal.m4 file for you by scanning configure.ac or configure.in 💖 Literally the glue that makes your whole build setup come together. It's giving productivity 💅

💫 SYNOPSIS 💫

aclocal [OPTION]...

🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

Okay so the whole point is this: it generates aclocal.m4 by scanning configure.ac or configure.in ✨ That's the entire vibe, no cap 🫶

🦋 OPTIONS 🦋

  • --automake-acdir=DIR — the directory that holds the m4 files Automake provides 💜
  • --aclocal-path=PATH — a colon-separated list of directories to hunt through for third-party local files 🔍
  • --system-acdir=DIR — the directory that holds third-party system-wide files 🌈
  • --diff[=COMMAND] — runs COMMAND (default diff -u) on the M4 files that would get changed 👀 Heads up, this one implies --install and --dry-run 🙈
  • --dry-run — pretends to update things but doesn't actually touch any file 🧚
  • --force — always updates the output file, no matter what 💪
  • --help — prints this help, then exits 🫶
  • -I DIR — adds DIR to the search list for .m4 files 📂
  • --install — copies third-party files into the first -I directory 🍓
  • --output=FILE — puts the output in FILE (default is aclocal.m4) ✨
  • --print-ac-dir — prints the name of the directory holding the system-wide third-party m4 files, then exits 🌸
  • --verbose — don't be silent, bestie, talk to me 🗣️
  • --version — prints the version number, then exits 🎀
  • -W, --warnings=CATEGORY — reports the warnings that fall in CATEGORY. It defaults to $WARNINGS 🚨

⚠️ Warning categories ⚠️

  • cross — cross compilation issues 🌍
  • gnu — GNU coding standards (default in gnu and gnits modes) 👑
  • obsolete — obsolete features or constructions (default) 🦕
  • override — user redefinitions of Automake rules or variables 🙅‍♀️
  • portability — portability issues (default in gnu and gnits modes) 🐢
  • portability-recursive — nested Make variables (default with -Wportability) 🪆
  • extra-portability — extra portability issues related to obscure tools 🔮
  • syntax — dubious syntactic constructs (default) 🧐
  • unsupported — unsupported or incomplete features (default) 🥲

💅 -W also understands 💅

  • all — turns on all the warnings 🌟
  • none — turns off all the warnings 🙈
  • no-CATEGORY — turns off warnings in CATEGORY 🫥
  • error — treats all enabled warnings as errors 💀

👩‍💻 AUTHOR 👩‍💻

Written by Tom Tromey <tromey@redhat.com> and Alexandre Duret-Lutz <adl@gnu.org> 💖 The legends behind this, iykyk 🫶

🐛 REPORTING BUGS 🐛

Found a bug? Report it to <bug-automake@gnu.org> 💌 The GNU Automake home page is <https://www.gnu.org/software/automake/> 🏠 And for general help using GNU software, check <https://www.gnu.org/gethelp/> 🆘

Copyright © 2026 Free Software Foundation, Inc. License GPLv2+: GNU GPL version 2 or later <https://gnu.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.html> 📜 This is free software, so you are free to change and redistribute it. There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law 🫧

🔗 SEE ALSO 🔗

The full documentation for aclocal is maintained as a Texinfo manual 📚 If the info and aclocal programs are properly installed at your site, run this command to get the complete manual:

info automake

🦋 Stay iconic, bestie! This page is from GNU automake 1.19, dated September 2026 💖✨

📦 where this page comes from