GNU Autoconf, Automake, and Libtool

5.4. What to Check For

Deciding what to check for is really the central part of writing 'configure.in'. After you have read the Autoconf reference manual, the "how"s of writing a particular test should be fairly clear. The "when"s might remain a mystery—and it is just as easy to check for too many things as it is to check for too few.

One notable area of divergence between various Unix-like systems is that the same programs don't exist on all systems, and, even when they do, they don't always work in the same way. For these problems, we recommend, when possible, following the advice of the GNU coding standards: Use the most common options from a relatively limited set of programs. Failing that, try to stick to programs and options specified by ...