Thanks Zack. That's helpful. The "Autoconf Input Layout" node, with its example, seems pretty good. I don't see any obvious changes to make, at least. Fine with me to close this, if you want. (I'll add some text to the Automake manual about it.)

is there a recommended ordering of various config macros, namely:
AC_INIT
AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR
AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE
AC_CONFIG_HEADERS
AC_CONFIG_SRCDIR
?

I doubt arbitrary ordering can work, but I'm not finding a recommended order in the manual. The Texinfo and Hello configure.ac files use the above, which works, but I don't know what variations are possible/supported.

I know AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE isn't Autoconf, of course, but I throw it in since it is so often present. (I think AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE does require AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR to be called before it.)

As things are, I can put AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR even before AC_INIT, and it seemingly still works (as far as autoconf is concerned). Not that I want to do it or think it's a good idea, but a user was quite confused about which order to be using.

Mostly just wondering about documentation here ... --thanks, karl.