"Automake" automatically generates make files compliant with the GNU coding standards. It was inspired by the 4.4 BSD make and include files, but aims to be portable and to conform to the GNU standards for Make file variables and targets. Automake is a Perl script.

The input files are called Makefile.am; the output files are called Makefile.in. They are intended for use with autoconf. Automake requires certain things to be done in your configure.ac.

This package also includes the "aclocal" program, which generates an "aclocal.m4" based on the contents of "configure.ac." It is useful as an extensible, maintainable mechanism for augmenting autoconf.