Autoconf
Overview
Autoconf is a popular tool that contains a set of commands used for generating configuration scripts for building software from source code. Typically this is known for creating the ./configure executable used when you want to compile software.
Availability
| Cluster | Module/Version |
|---|---|
| BOSE | 2.69* autoconf/2.72 |
| BGSC | 2.69* |
*Autoconf is available on our clusters by default and using the module is not necessary unless you need a specific version.
Note: You can simply use module load autoconf to activate the most recently installed version of this software.
Commands
This is a list of each of the commands available in the autoconf package we wanted to highlight. Use man commandhere or click the links below for a full list of the individual arguments and instructions.
| Command | Description | Online Manual |
|---|---|---|
| autoconf | Generate the configuration file, usually based on configure.ac or configure.in. | Online Manual |
| autoreconf | Wrapper function to (re)generate the configuration files and automatically calls the other necessary build commands. | Online Manual |
| autoscan | Build the initial configure.in file based on a tree of source files. | Online Manual |
Sample Slurm Script
Unless your script is part of a greater build process, you typically would not need to use Slurm to run the simple autoconf or autoreconf commands. These are ones you can use directly on the head node.
#!/bin/bash
# -- SLURM SETTINGS -- #
# [..] other settings here [..]
# The following settings are for the overall request to Slurm
#SBATCH --ntasks-per-node=1 # How many CPU cores do you want to request
#SBATCH --nodes=1 # How many nodes do you want to request
# -- SCRIPT COMMANDS -- #
# Load the needed modules
module load autoconf/2.72 # Load autoconf
cd path/to/source/files
autoreconf # or autoconf