| GNU `m4' is an implementation of the traditional Unix macro |
| processor. It is mostly SVR4 compatible, although it has some |
| extensions (for example, handling more than 9 positional parameters |
| to macros). `m4' also has built-in functions for including files, |
| running shell commands, doing arithmetic, etc. Autoconf needs GNU |
| `m4' for generating `configure' scripts, but not for running them. |
| |
| GNU `m4' was originally written by Rene' Seindal, from Denmark. |
| This release is considered stable. |
| |
| If GNU `m4' is meant to serve GNU `autoconf', beware that `m4' |
| should be fully installed *prior to* configuring `autoconf' itself. |
| Likewise, if you intend on hacking GNU `m4' from git, the bootstrap |
| process requires that you first install a released copy of GNU `m4'. |
| |
| If you are just trying to build `m4' from a released tarball, you |
| should not normally need to run `./bootstrap' or `autoreconf'; just go |
| ahead and start with `./configure'. If you are trying to build `m4' |
| from git or CVS, more information can be found in the file HACKING, |
| only found in a version control checkout. |
| |
| In the subdirectory `examples' you will find various m4 files, ranging |
| from trivial test files to rather advanced macros. If you intend to |
| use m4 seriously, you might find useful material down there. |
| |
| See file `BACKLOG' for a summary of pending mail and articles. |
| See file `COPYING' for copying conditions. Note that M4 is distributed |
| under the GNU Public License version 3 or later. Some files in the |
| distribution are copied from the gnulib project, and hence bear the |
| designation version 2 or later because they are unmodified from gnulib; |
| however, if you modify these files using M4 rather than gnulib as the |
| source, you must update the license to be GPLv3 or later. |
| See file `INSTALL' for compilation and installation instructions. |
| See file `NEWS' for a list of major changes in the current release. |
| See file `THANKS' for a list of contributors. |
| |
| By using `./configure --enable-changeword', you get an experimental |
| feature which allows for changing the syntax of what is a "word" in |
| `m4'. This feature will not be present in m4 2.0, but will be |
| replaced by other new features which provide similar capability, so |
| do not count on it. |
| |
| Send bug reports to `bug-m4@gnu.org'. A bug report is an adequate |
| description of the problem: your input, what you expected, what you got, |
| and why this is wrong. Diffs are welcome, but they only describe a |
| solution, from which the problem might be uneasy to infer. |
| |
| ======================================================================== |
| |
| Copyright (C) 2000, 2005, 2006 Free Software Foundation, Inc. |
| |
| Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document |
| under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or |
| any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no |
| Invariant Sections, with no Front-Cover Texts, and with no Back-Cover |
| Texts. A copy of the license is included in the ``GNU Free |
| Documentation License'' file as part of this distribution. |
