Re: Where Do All These Macros Come From?

[Paul Smith]

On Fri, 2013-05-24 at 08:26 -0700, Jordan H. wrote:
> Right. I understand that much. My question is about autoconf (sorry 
> about saying auto*make*). I see a lot of macros that tutorial authors 
> use for which I don't see any documentation.

Well it depends on the macro.  The one you mentioned by name in your
email is AC_CHECK_LIB, and that's defined in the autoconf manual (along
with all the other AC_ macros), which is why I suggested it:

http://www.gnu.org/software/autoconf/manual/autoconf-2.69/html_node/Existing-Tests.html

http://www.gnu.org/software/autoconf/manual/autoconf-2.69/html_node/Libraries.html#Libraries

Those are the ones autoconf provides by default.  Other macros might
have been created specifically for a given project; they will be
contained in files in that project directory.  Other macros might be
defined by other 3rdparty software you are trying to work with (texinfo,
various libraries, etc.)  Those will be defined by those packages.