Downloading all macros at once

In case you want to download all macros at once rather than having to click through the whole list and access them individually, just get the autoconf-archive.tar.gz file, which is updated every time a member of the archive changes or new macros are added.

If you want to contribute ...

then please don't hesitate a second! Just send the m4 source to Peter Simons <simons@computer.org> via electronic mail. I would appreciate if you could split your macros into one-per-mail, rather than sending me your whole aclocal.m4 file, because this makes the inclusion of the submission into the archive much easier for me.

Also, I'd like to ask you to adhere to a few formatting rules in your submissions: Every macro should start with a few comment lines, describing what exactly it tests, what results it does produce and how it may be called by potential users. After the comments, the actual m4 code follows.

In the comments, you should use a few directives to mark special contents, that is interpreted by the perl scripts which convert the m4 input to the HTML page the users will see:

@synopsis
This keyword should be followed by a one-line example, showing how to use the autoconf macro, similar to the synopsis line in the usual Unix man files.

@version
This keyword usually contains the string "$Id$" to have the version automatically maintained by CVS here on the server. You may set it manually, though, if you want to.

@author
You have written the macro, so please say so and state your name and e-mail address after this keyword, so that users may express their gratitude, report problems or suggest enhancements.

Here is an example, how your submission should look like:

dnl @synopsis The syntax how to use the macro.
dnl
dnl A description of what the macro does and what results
dnl it produces.
dnl
dnl This description may extend over multiple paragraphs,
dnl if you like.
dnl
dnl   Every line that is indented by more than one
dnl   blank will be formatted verbatim, so that you
dnl   can include examples in the description.
dnl
dnl @version $Id$
dnl @author Your Name <your@email.address>
dnl
AC_DEFUN([MACRO_NAME],
[...]
])dnl
Macro names should always be quoted in brackets, otherwise Autoconf will break in case a macro definition is (accidently) included multiple times in a configure.in file, as the macro name would be expanded the second time the definition is parsed.

All these macros are copyrighted!

Please note that every macro contained in this archive is copyrighted by its respective author, unless the macro source explicitely says otherwise. Permission has been granted, though, to use and distribute all macros under the following license, which is a modified version of the GNU General Public License version 2:

Every Autoconf macro presented on this web site is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2, or (at your option) any later version.

They are distributed in the hope that they will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details. (You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place -- Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.)

As a special exception, the Free Software Foundation gives unlimited permission to copy, distribute and modify the configure scripts that are the output of Autoconf. You need not follow the terms of the GNU General Public License when using or distributing such scripts, even though portions of the text of Autoconf appear in them. The GNU General Public License (GPL) does govern all other use of the material that constitutes the Autoconf program.

Certain portions of the Autoconf source text are designed to be copied (in certain cases, depending on the input) into the output of Autoconf. We call these the "data" portions. The rest of the Autoconf source text consists of comments plus executable code that decides which of the data portions to output in any given case. We call these comments and executable code the "non-data" portions. Autoconf never copies any of the non-data portions into its output.

This special exception to the GPL applies to versions of Autoconf released by the Free Software Foundation. When you make and distribute a modified version of Autoconf, you may extend this special exception to the GPL to apply to your modified version as well, *unless* your modified version has the potential to copy into its output some of the text that was the non-data portion of the version that you started with. (In other words, unless your change moves or copies text from the non-data portions to the data portions.) If your modification has such potential, you must delete any notice of this special exception to the GPL from your modified version.

Comments solicited

If you have any comments, praise or criticism, please don't hesitate to contact me! You can reach me at simons@computer.org.