AUTOSCAN(1)

📦
version 2.73 · 6 versions
, in alpine 3.24, arch rolling, nixos 26.05, nixpkgs unstable, ubuntu stonking

💖 autoscan — girl help, I'm gonna write your configure.ac for you 💖

okay so this is autoscan, bestie, from the User Commands corner of the manual (section 1, as the girlies say). she's the vibe-checker of build systems and she is so underrated. let's get into it 🫶

✨ NAME ✨

autoscan — generate a preliminary configure.ac 🌸

like, a first-draft one. a little baby configure.ac. a situationship configure.ac, if you will.

🌈 SYNOPSIS 🌈

autoscan [OPTION]... [SRCDIR]

yes she takes options and yes she takes a directory and yes that's the whole thing, periodt 💅

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

okay so here's the tea: autoscan goes through source files in the directory tree rooted at SRCDIR — or in the current directory if you don't give her one (she's flexible like that, she's a main character) 🎀

then she does her little detective moment:

  • she searches those source files for common portability problems 🔍
  • she checks whether your configure.ac is being incomplete (we've all been there, no judgement)
  • and she creates a file called configure.scan — which is a preliminary configure.ac for that package ✨
it's giving "rough draft but make it infrastructure". configure.scan is a starting point, not a finished masterpiece — it's literally called a preliminary configure.ac, so read it before you commit to it, bestie 🙈

now the options, and there's a whole squad of them:

  • -h, --help — prints the help text, then dips. that's it. that's the whole job 💀
  • -V, --version — prints the version number, then exits. short and sweet, iconic behaviour 👑
  • -v, --verbose — reports processing verbosely. she will tell you EVERYTHING. yapper mode: activated 🗣️
  • -d, --debug — doesn't remove temporary files. so when things go sideways you can go look at the crime scene 🔥

📚 Library directories 📚

these two are about where she looks for stuff, and the order genuinely matters so pay attention bestie:

  • -B, --prepend-include=DIR — prepend directory DIR to the search path. note the word prepend. front of the line. VIP section 🎀
  • -I, --include=DIR — append directory DIR to the search path. back of the line. still invited, just not first 🦋

🌸 AUTHOR 🌸

written by David J. MacKenzie and Akim Demaille. legends, honestly. we love them for this 💜

🎀 REPORTING BUGS 🎀

found a bug? don't suffer in silence, tell the girlies:

fr fr, they wanna know 🫶

Copyright © 2026 Free Software Foundation, Inc. License GPLv3+/Autoconf: GNU GPL version 3 or later

This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.

There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law. no cap, that's the actual legal situation, she said what she said 💀

⭐ SEE ALSO ⭐

the whole friend group, in order:

autoconf(1), automake(1), autoreconf(1), autoupdate(1), autoheader(1), autoscan(1), config.guess(1), config.sub(1), ifnames(1), libtool(1)

(yes, autoscan(1) is listed in her own SEE ALSO. she's self-referential. she contains multitudes. slay 💅)

The full documentation for Autoconf is maintained as a Texinfo manual. to read it locally, run:

info autoconf

and if you'd rather read it in a browser (valid, we respect it):

https://gnu.org/software/autoconf/manual/

and that's the whole page, bestie!! 🧚 this was GNU Autoconf 2.73, dated March 2026 — go run autoscan on something and let her cook 🍓✨

📦 where this page comes from