Automake

GNU automake is a tool to help a developer generate a makefile to compile and install their program and/or library (can make use of libtool). It needs to be used together with autoconf.

Simply put, automake converts a Makefile.am into a Makefile.in. A Makefile.am contains a simplyfied syntax to specify which sources have to be built and which libraries it should be linked with.This Makefile.am file is then read in by the automake tool, which processes it together with the configure.in file from autoconf into a Makefile.in. Which in turn can then be converted into a real Makefile with the configure script generated by autoconf.