AUTOSCAN(1)

📦
version 2.52+20260412 · 5 versions
, in ubuntu stonking

💖 AUTOSCAN(1) — the girlies' guide to autoscan 💖

okay bestie, so like — welcome to autoscan, one of the User Commands. it's giving "guess what your build system needs before you even know" and honestly? iconic.

✨ NAME ✨

autoscan — generate a preliminary configure.in 🎀

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

autoscan [OPTION] ... [SRCDIR]

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so here's the vibe: it goes and examines source files in the directory tree rooted at SRCDIR — or, if you don't hand it a SRCDIR, it just pokes around the current directory instead, no biggie.

then it searches those source files for common portability problems, checks whether your configure.ac is kinda incomplete and sus, and creates a file called configure.scan — which is basically a preliminary configure.ac for that package. like a first draft but make it functional. 💅

  • -h, --help — prints the help text and then dips out. bye! 👋
  • -V, --version — prints the version number and then dips out. also bye!
  • -v, --verbose — reports processing verbosely, aka it tells you everything it's doing, main character energy fr fr

💜 Library directories: 💜

  • -A, --autoconf-dir=ACDIR — this is where Autoconf's files live. (rarely needed), ngl — you probably won't touch this one.
  • -l, --localdir=DIR — the location of aclocal.m4 and acconfig.h 🫶

👑 AUTHOR 👑

Written by David J. MacKenzie. we stan. 😌

🐛 REPORTING BUGS 🐛

found a bug? not the cute kind?? tell them at <dickey@invisible-island.net>. they wanna know, fr fr.

Copyright 1994, 1999, 2000, 2001 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

This is free software; see the source for copying conditions. There is NO warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

bestie that last part is in ALL CAPS for a reason — no warranty, none, zero, not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. don't come for them if it breaks, okay? 😭

⭐ SEE ALSO ⭐

The full documentation for autoscan is maintained as a Texinfo manual. If the info and autoscan programs are properly installed at your site, this command:

info autoscan

should give you access to the complete manual. 🧚✨

okay that's literally it, you're so ready. this whole page is from GNU Autoconf 2.52.20260412, dated April 2026 — slay, go scan some source files bestie 💖🌸🦋

📦 where this page comes from