How to handle subprojects with autotools?

Question

I have some C++ project build by autotools.

The project uses some libraries, also written by me. Source of libraries are imported to the project as submodules of git. Each library has its own autotools files.

Say, I have:

src/<my src files>
modules/libfoo/
        libbar/
Makefile.am
Configure.in
<other autotools junk>

What I want is to somehow include libraries into main project compilation chain. I guess that just including subdir to Makefile.am is not enough, because some checks can be reformed in configure.am.

Answer 1

You can run the configure scripts in the sub-modules by adding the AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS command to the top-level configure script. It tells the top-level script to descend into the sub directories and invoke the configure script found there. Then, you can just reference the built libraries from your Makefile.am.

Read this section of the GNU automake manual.