configure.info: Build Files Description

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Build Files Description

   This is a description of the files which are created at build time.
`config.status'
     The first step in building a package is to run the `configure'
     script.  The `configure' script will create the file
     `config.status', which is itself a shell script.  When you first
     run `configure', it will automatically run `config.status'.  An
     `Makefile' derived from an automake generated `Makefile.in' will
     contain rules to automatically run `config.status' again when
     necessary to recreate certain files if their inputs change.
`Makefile'
     This is the file which make will read to build the program.  The
     `config.status' script will transform `Makefile.in' into
     `Makefile'.
`config.h'
     This file defines C preprocessor macros which C code can use to
     adjust its behaviour on different systems.  The `config.status'
     script will transform `config.in' into `config.h'.
`config.cache'
     This file did not fit neatly into the picture, and I omitted it.
     It is used by the `configure' script to cache results between
     runs.  This can be an important speedup.  If you modify
     `configure.in' in such a way that the results of old tests should
     change (perhaps you have added a new library to `LDFLAGS'), then
     you will have to remove `config.cache' to force the tests to be
     rerun.
     The autoconf manual explains how to set up a site specific cache
     file.  This can speed up running `configure' scripts on your
     system.
`stamp.h'
     This file, which I omitted from the picture, is similar to
     `stamp-h.in'.  It is used as a timestamp file indicating whether
     `config.h' is up to date.  This is useful since `config.h' depends
     upon `config.status', but it is easy for `config.status' to change
     in a way which does not affect `config.h'.