I posted a while back asking for a good solution to building perl modules inside an automake/autoconf-based package. The only real response I got was 'I thought everybody used MakeMaker to do that...' So, I looked at how to combine MakeMaker w/ automake/autoconf, and here's what I came up with (this example is contrived, not tested directly): First, this requires perl be available, so I created a autoconf macro to define PERL. The AC_OUTPUT includes: src/lib/Makefile src/perl/Makefile src/perl/Makefile.PL In the src/lib/Makefile.am it builds the C++ API for my module. The src/perl/Makefile.am is for building the perl extension that wraps the C++ API (using SWIG in my case). There isn't a src/perl/Makefile.PL.am, but rather a src/perl/Makefile.PL.in: --- src/perl/Makefile.am ----------------------- noinst_DATA = .made_mod .made_mode = MyMod.C Makefile.perl $(MAKE) -fMakefile.perl touch $@ MyMod.C: MyMod.i $(SWIG) $(SWIGFLAGS) -o $@ $^ Makefile.perl: Makefile.PL $(PERL) $< MAKEFILE=$@ install-data-local: $(MAKE) -fMakefile.perl PREFIX=$(prefix) install CLEANFILES = *~ .made_mod MyMod.C MyMod.pm clean-local: if test -f Makefile.perl; them $(MAKE) -fMakefile.perl realclean; fi rm -f Makefile.perl Makefile.perl.old ------------------------------------------------ --- src/perl/Makefile.PL.in ----------------------- use ExtUtils::MakeMaker; WriteMakefile ( NAME => 'MyMod', DEFINE => '@DEFS@', INC => '-I@top_srcdir@/src/lib @CPPFLAGS@', LIBS => '-L@top_srcdir@/src/lib -lMyAPI_PIC ', INSTALLDIRS => 'perl' ); --------------------------------------------------- The Makefile.PL.in gets processed by autoconf to expand useful macros like @top_srcdir@. At build time, the Makefile.perl gets generated from the Makefile.PL, and then Makefile.perl is used to build and install the extension in the normal MakeMaker-defined way. This method isn't foolproof, super robust. For building the perl extension, most of the 'configuration' comes from the perl Config.pm, so whatever is configured in the various other Makefiles is not reflected in the Makefile.perl. Perhaps that's not an issue -- what do the experts think? Happy to have comments on this... Jeremy -- Jeremy Slade Hewlett-Packard Company VLSI Technology Center - http://cpus.hp.com/ [EMAIL PROTECTED] (970) 898-7881