AUTOUPDATE(1)

✨ AUTOUPDATE 💅

okay bestie, so this is the autoupdate manual page — that's the autoupdate(1) situation, a User Command, and honestly it's giving "glow-up for your ancient build scripts" 🌸

💖 NAME

autoupdate — bring a configure.in into the current era of Autoconf. like a makeover but for your macros, fr fr 🦋

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🎀 SYNOPSIS

autoupdate [OPTION] ...  [TEMPLATE-FILE...]

✨ DESCRIPTION

So here's the tea 🍓: autoupdate updates the TEMPLATE-FILE... — you know, if you actually handed it some — or it goes for configure.ac if that exists, or else configure.in, and it rewrites all of that into the syntax of the version of Autoconf you're currently running. Periodt.

And the original files? backed up. no cap, they stay safe 💖

🌈 Operation modes:

• -h, --help — prints this help and then dips out. bye 👋
• -V, --version — prints the version number and exits. iconic.
• -v, --verbose — being loud about it: reports the processing verbosely. main character energy ✨
• -d, --debug — keeps the temporary files around instead of cleaning them up. (yes bestie, that's don't remove temporary files, exactly as it says 🔍)

📚 Library directories:

• -A, --autoconf-dir=ACDIR — where Autoconf's macro files live. like, rarely needed, so don't stress this one 💅
• -l, --localdir=DIR — the location of aclocal.m4 🗂️

🌱 Environment variables:

• M4 — GNU M4 1.4 or above, that's the vibe
• AUTOCONF — autoconf 2.52.20260412

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👑 AUTHOR

Written by David J. MacKenzie and Akim Demaille. legends, honestly 🫶

🐛 REPORTING BUGS

Found a bug? Report it to <dickey@invisible-island.net>. do it respectfully, they're doing amazing sweetie 😭

⭐ COPYRIGHT

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.

okay so this is the serious part: no warranty. not even for MERCHANTIBILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. fr fr, read it and respect it 🙈

🔥 SEE ALSO

• autoconf(1), autoreconf(1), autoupdate(1), autoheader(1), autoscan(1), config.guess(1), config.sub(1), ifnames(1), libtool(1). the whole squad, no cap 🌈

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

info autoupdate

should give you access to the complete manual. iykyk 📖✨

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aaaand that's the whole page bestie 💜 this was GNU Autoconf 2.52.20260412, dated April 2026 — slay, bye 🎀🦋