Autoconf is an extensible package of m4 macros that produce shell scripts to automatically configure software source code packages. These scripts can adapt the package to many kinds of UNIX-like systems without manual user intervention.

GNU Open Source package to automatically configure source code package.

A tool used to generate cross-platform shell scripts that test the functionality of software development tools such as compilers and of local software installations. The results of the tests can be used to configure a software build system to work with the local system setup. Autoconf-generated scripts aid in the development of cross-platform software by detecting and managing platform-specific idiosyncrasies. Autoconf is part of the GNU software distribution.