7 This is GNU Libtool, a generic library support script. Libtool hides
8 the complexity of using shared libraries behind a consistent, portable
11 To use Libtool, add the new generic library building commands to your
12 Makefile, Makefile.in, or Makefile.am. See the documentation for
15 Libtool's home page is:
17 http://www.gnu.org/software/libtool/libtool.html
19 See the file NEWS for a description of recent changes to Libtool.
21 See the file INSTALL for generic instructions on how to build and install
22 Libtool. Please see the file doc/notes.txt for some platform-specific
23 information. Please note that you need GNU make to build Libtool.
25 See the info node (libtool)Tested Platforms. (or the file
26 doc/PLATFORMS) for a list of platforms that Libtool supports.
32 If you have any suggestions or bug reports, or you wish to port Libtool
33 to a new platform, please send electronic mail to the libtool mailing
34 list <libtool@gnu.org> or bug reports to <bug-libtool@gnu.org>. Be sure
35 to send us your information from the end of the help message given by
42 Libtool comes with two integrated sets of tests to check that your build
43 is sane. You can run both test suites like this, assuming that `gmake'
48 If you want to run the old testsuite only, do it like this:
50 gmake check TESTSUITEFLAGS=-V
52 If you want to run the new testsuite only, do it like this:
56 The tests of the old test suite run in groups in the various demo
57 subdirectories, so if one of the tests early in a group FAILs, the rest
58 of the tests in that group will be SKIPped. If you see a FAIL further
59 into a group, even if a test with the same name PASSes in another test
60 group, you need to take note of the name of the first test in the group
61 if you want to rerun the group with FAILures to get verbose output.
63 To run a test group of the old test suite in isolation (say, you think
64 you have fixed a bug, but don't want to rerun the entire suite), you can
67 gmake check TESTS="tests/cdemo-static.test tests/cdemo-make.test \
68 tests/cdemo-exec.test" \
71 Providing that you have a FAIL from the most recent group from a
72 particular demo directory (like the cdemo-static.test group above), you
73 can explore the state of the directory to help with debugging.
75 If you wish to report a test group failure to the libtool list, you need
76 to send the verbose output of the FAILing group, along with the
77 information from the end of `$(top_builddir)/libtool --help' to the bug
78 report mailing list, <bug-libtool@gnu.org> with a subject line that
79 includes the string `[TEST FAILURE]'. From a Bourne compatible shell,
80 you can generate verbose test output like this:
82 VERBOSE=yes gmake check \
83 TESTS="tests/cdemo-static.test tests/cdemo-make.test tests/cdemo-exec.test" \
84 TESTSUITEFLAGS=-V | tee cdemo-static-group.log
86 In order to enable debug shell tracing, use VERBOSE=debug instead of
90 In the long run, Libtool will move to using only the new,
91 Autotest-driven testsuite. Its usage is documented in
93 info Autoconf 'testsuite Invocation'
95 but simple help may also be obtained through
97 gmake check-local TESTSUITEFLAGS='--help'
99 For verbose output, add the flag `-v', for running only a subset of the
100 independent tests, merely specify them by number or by keyword, both of
101 which are displayed with the `--list' flag. For example, the `libtool'
102 keyword is used for the tests that exercise only this script. So it is
103 possible to test an installed script, possibly from a different Libtool
105 gmake check-local TESTSUITEFLAGS="-k libtool LIBTOOL=/path/to/libtool"
107 If you wish to report test failures to the libtool list, you need to
108 send the file `tests/testsuite.log' to the bug report mailing list,
109 <bug-libtool@gnu.org>.
114 People have complained that they find the version numbering scheme under
115 which libtool is released confusing... so we've changed it!
119 <major-number>.<minor-number>
121 Releases with a <major-number> less than 1 were not yet feature
122 complete. Releases with a <major-number> of 1 used the old numbering
123 scheme that everyone disliked so much. Releases with a <major-number>
124 of 2 us the new scheme described here. If libtool ever undergoes a
125 major rewrite or substantial restructuring, the <major-number> will be
128 If we make a patch release to fix bugs in a stable release, we use a
131 <major-number>.<minor-number>.<micro-number>
133 Version numbers are chosen to make it easy for users to decide two
136 Q: How `developed' is this release?
137 A: The higher the number, the better!
138 Q: How `stable' is this release?
139 A: - If the <minor-number> is even, it is a stable release, `2.0'.
140 - If the <minor-number> is odd, it is a development version with
141 new features compared to the last stable release, `2.1a'.
142 - If it has an `odd'[1] letter after the version number, it is a
143 snapshot direct from CVS, `2.1a'.
144 - If it has an `even'[1] letter after the version number, it is an
145 alpha quality release, `2.1b'.
146 - If it has three numbers in the version, it is a patch release,
147 fixing bugs from the stable release (with no new features), `2.0.1'.
149 [1] We always increment the letter in the repository before *and* after
150 making a release tarball. This means that "odd" letters
151 (a,c,e,g...) only exist in the repository, and "even" letters are
152 used instantaneously for an alpha release. Since the odd lettered
153 version numbers cover many states of the tree, we also qualify them
154 by adding the cvs version of the ChangeLog:
157 ltmain.sh (GNU libtool 1.1603 2004/09/12 22:02:07) 2.1a
159 Copyright (C) 2004 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
160 This is free software; see the source for copying conditions. There is NO
161 warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
163 For more details about version numbers, see:
165 http://www.gnu.org/software/libtool/contribute.html
168 Copyright (C) 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
169 Written by Gary V. Vaughan, 2004
171 This file is part of GNU Libtool.
173 GNU Libtool is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
174 modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as
175 published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2
176 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
178 GNU Libtool is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
179 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
180 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
181 GNU General Public License for more details.
183 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
184 along with GNU Libtool; see the file COPYING. If not, a copy
185 can be downloaded from http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html, or
186 obtained by writing to the Free Software Foundation, Inc.,
187 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA