Can't run Makefile.am, what should I do?

These files are used with the Autotools suite. Makefile.am files are compiled to Makefiles using automake.

Have a look to see if there is a configure script in the directory. If there is, then type:

./configure

If not, then run:

autoreconf

in the directory, which should create the configure script (you will need to have the Autotools suite installed to run this).

After that, you should have a configure script that you can run.

After the configure is complete, you should have a normal Makefile in the directory, and will be able to run

make

What has been left out:

• Makefile.am are transformed to Makefile.in using automake.
• Makefile.in are transformed to Makefile by running configure.

Neither of these (Makefile.{am,in}) are supposed to be used with make -f.

If the tarball already ships with configure, just run that and make. If it does not, run ./autogen.sh or bootstrap(*). If that does not exist, use autoreconf instead.

(*) autogen/bootstrap: A convenience script added by developers that should just call autoreconf. Unfortunately there are some people that eschew autoreconf and unnecessarily call all the lowlevel commands themselves.

To supplement what has already been said:Search for a script called configure in the project directory. If it is there, building the project will be:

./configure

make

and optionally, to install:

sudo make install

or su -c "make install"

Even if there is no configure script. there might be one autogen.sh. Run this script to generate the configure script and do as above.