GNU Autoconf Archive - Summary

This software is part of the GNU Project.

The GNU Autoconf Archive is a collection of more than 500 macros for GNU Autoconf that have been contributed as free software by friendly supporters of the cause from all over the Internet. Every single one of those macros can be re-used without imposing any restrictions whatsoever on the licensing of the generated configure script. In particular, it is possible to use all those macros in configure scripts that are meant for non-free software. This policy is unusual for a Free Software Foundation project. The FSF firmly believes that software ought to be free, and software licenses like the GPL are specifically designed to ensure that derivative work based on free software must be free as well. In case of Autoconf, however, an exception has been made, because Autoconf is at such a pivotal position in the software development tool chain that the benefits from having this tool available as widely as possible outweigh the disadvantage that some authors may choose to use it, too, for proprietary software.

Contributions should be posted to the patch tracker. Alternatively, it's also possible to submit Pull Requests to the Autoconf Archive Mirror at Github. If you would like to submit a new macro, please make sure that the following topics are addressed in the submission:

• synopsis that shows how the macro must be be called,
• brief description of the macro's purpose,
• list of authors (optionally with e-mail addresses),
• licensing terms, and
• m4 source code.

Macros can be submitted under any GPL-compatible free software license. The Free Software Foundation, however, recommends use of the all-permissive license for Autoconf macros.

Registration Date: Thu 05 Mar 2009 01:24:09 AM UTC
License: GNU General Public License v3 or later
Development Status: 6 - Mature