A normal build log from an Autoconf/Automake based project do normally
not include the project name, revision, time stamp of build or host
name of the build host. Specifying these values using
--project etc (see Invoking autobuild) can be tedious,
especially considering that it would be so simple for the Autoconf
configure script to print them.
To solve the above problem, Autobuild includes an M4 macro suitable for use in your Autoconf project, invoked from configure.ac. Properly installed, the macro will make your project print something similar to the following output (this example is what the Autobuild itself prints during its build), as part of its build. This format is later recognized by Autobuild.
...
checking build system type... i686-pc-linux-gnu
checking host system type... i686-pc-linux-gnu
configure: autobuild project... autobuild
configure: autobuild revision... 1.2
configure: autobuild hostname... latte
configure: autobuild timestamp... 20040708-163123
...
To use the macro, put something like the following in your configure.ac:
AB_INIT
Then make sure your Autoconf installation can find the autobuild.m4 file, which should have been installed when you installed Autobuild.
The macro can take an optional parameter, the build mode, as follows:
AB_INIT(whatever)
This would result in an additional message:
...
configure: autobuild mode... whatever
...