Autotools

1. Hello world

GNU's build system.

CMake is likely more portable. But if you ever touch a GNU project, better learn this.

KDE is a notable project that dumped it for CMake in KDE 4: https://lwn.net/Articles/188693/

Build object files to custom directory

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1015700/autotools-library-and-object-file-output-control

cd into the desired directory, and ../configure from there.

Compilation flags

Pass an extra one at make time:

• http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7543978/how-to-pass-g3-flag-to-gcc-via-make-command-line
• http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3602927/add-compiler-option-without-editing-makefile
• http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1250608/passing-a-gcc-flag-through-makefile