Autoconf is an extensible package of M4 (at least version 1.4.6) macros that produce shell scripts to automatically configure software source code packages.
Autoconf tests for available features rather than for installed versions.
autoconf
autoconf
produces shell scripts that automatically configure software source code packages.
The produces shell script are not dependent on Autoconf being present, so they can be distributed to builders that compile the package on their machines.