8.3. autotools*.bbclass

The autotools* classes support Autotooled packages.

The autoconf, automake, and libtool packages bring standardization. This class defines a set of tasks (e.g. configure, compile and so forth) that work for all Autotooled packages. It should usually be enough to define a few standard variables and then simply inherit autotools. These classes can also work with software that emulates Autotools. For more information, see the "Autotooled Package" section in the Yocto Project Development Tasks Manual.

By default, the autotools* classes use out-of-tree builds (i.e. autotools.bbclass). (B != S).

If the software being built by a recipe does not support using out-of-tree builds, you should have the recipe inherit the autotools-brokensep class. The autotools-brokensep class behaves the same as the autotools class but builds with B == S. This method is useful when out-of-tree build support is either not present or is broken.

Note

It is recommended that out-of-tree support be fixed and used if at all possible.

It's useful to have some idea of how the tasks defined by the autotools* classes work and what they do behind the scenes.