How To Install autoconf on CentOS 8

autoconf is A GNU tool for automatically configuring source code

Introduction

In this tutorial we learn how to install autoconf on CentOS 8.

What is autoconf

GNU’s Autoconf is a tool for configuring source code and Makefiles. Using Autoconf, programmers can create portable and configurable packages, since the person building the package is allowed to specify various configuration options. You should install Autoconf if you are developing software and would like to create shell scripts that configure your source code packages. If you are installing Autoconf, you will also need to install the GNU m4 package. Note that the Autoconf package is not required for the end-user who may be configuring software with an Autoconf-generated script; Autoconf is only required for the generation of the scripts, not their use.

We can use yum or dnf to install autoconf on CentOS 8. In this tutorial we discuss both methods but you only need to choose one of method to install autoconf.

Install autoconf on CentOS 8 Using dnf

Update yum database with dnf using the following command.

sudo dnf makecache --refresh

The output should look something like this:

CentOS Linux 8 - AppStream                                       43 kB/s | 4.3 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - BaseOS                                          65 kB/s | 3.9 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - ContinuousRelease                               43 kB/s | 3.0 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - Extras                                          23 kB/s | 1.5 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - FastTrack                                       40 kB/s | 3.0 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - HighAvailability                                36 kB/s | 3.9 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - Plus                                            24 kB/s | 1.5 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - PowerTools                                      50 kB/s | 4.3 kB     00:00    
Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux Modular 8 - x86_64           13 kB/s | 9.2 kB     00:00    
Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux 8 - x86_64                   24 kB/s | 8.5 kB     00:00    
Metadata cache created.

After updating yum database, We can install autoconf using dnf by running the following command:

sudo dnf -y install autoconf

Install autoconf on CentOS 8 Using yum

Update yum database with yum using the following command.

sudo yum makecache --refresh

The output should look something like this:

CentOS Linux 8 - AppStream                                       43 kB/s | 4.3 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - BaseOS                                          65 kB/s | 3.9 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - ContinuousRelease                               43 kB/s | 3.0 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - Extras                                          23 kB/s | 1.5 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - FastTrack                                       40 kB/s | 3.0 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - HighAvailability                                36 kB/s | 3.9 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - Plus                                            24 kB/s | 1.5 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - PowerTools                                      50 kB/s | 4.3 kB     00:00    
Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux Modular 8 - x86_64           13 kB/s | 9.2 kB     00:00    
Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux 8 - x86_64                   24 kB/s | 8.5 kB     00:00    
Metadata cache created.

After updating yum database, We can install autoconf using yum by running the following command:

sudo yum -y install autoconf

How To Uninstall autoconf on CentOS 8

To uninstall only the autoconf package we can use the following command:

sudo dnf remove autoconf

autoconf Package Contents on CentOS 8

/usr/bin/autoconf
/usr/bin/autoheader
/usr/bin/autom4te
/usr/bin/autoreconf
/usr/bin/autoscan
/usr/bin/autoupdate
/usr/bin/ifnames
/usr/share/autoconf
/usr/share/autoconf/Autom4te
/usr/share/autoconf/Autom4te/C4che.pm
/usr/share/autoconf/Autom4te/ChannelDefs.pm
/usr/share/autoconf/Autom4te/Channels.pm
/usr/share/autoconf/Autom4te/Configure_ac.pm
/usr/share/autoconf/Autom4te/FileUtils.pm
/usr/share/autoconf/Autom4te/General.pm
/usr/share/autoconf/Autom4te/Getopt.pm
/usr/share/autoconf/Autom4te/Request.pm
/usr/share/autoconf/Autom4te/XFile.pm
/usr/share/autoconf/INSTALL
/usr/share/autoconf/autoconf
/usr/share/autoconf/autoconf/autoconf.m4
/usr/share/autoconf/autoconf/autoconf.m4f
/usr/share/autoconf/autoconf/autoheader.m4
/usr/share/autoconf/autoconf/autoscan.m4
/usr/share/autoconf/autoconf/autotest.m4
/usr/share/autoconf/autoconf/autoupdate.m4
/usr/share/autoconf/autoconf/c.m4
/usr/share/autoconf/autoconf/erlang.m4
/usr/share/autoconf/autoconf/fortran.m4
/usr/share/autoconf/autoconf/functions.m4
/usr/share/autoconf/autoconf/general.m4
/usr/share/autoconf/autoconf/go.m4
/usr/share/autoconf/autoconf/headers.m4
/usr/share/autoconf/autoconf/lang.m4
/usr/share/autoconf/autoconf/libs.m4
/usr/share/autoconf/autoconf/oldnames.m4
/usr/share/autoconf/autoconf/programs.m4
/usr/share/autoconf/autoconf/specific.m4
/usr/share/autoconf/autoconf/status.m4
/usr/share/autoconf/autoconf/types.m4
/usr/share/autoconf/autom4te.cfg
/usr/share/autoconf/autoscan
/usr/share/autoconf/autoscan/autoscan.list
/usr/share/autoconf/autotest
/usr/share/autoconf/autotest/autotest.m4
/usr/share/autoconf/autotest/autotest.m4f
/usr/share/autoconf/autotest/general.m4
/usr/share/autoconf/autotest/specific.m4
/usr/share/autoconf/m4sugar
/usr/share/autoconf/m4sugar/foreach.m4
/usr/share/autoconf/m4sugar/m4sh.m4
/usr/share/autoconf/m4sugar/m4sh.m4f
/usr/share/autoconf/m4sugar/m4sugar.m4
/usr/share/autoconf/m4sugar/m4sugar.m4f
/usr/share/autoconf/m4sugar/version.m4
/usr/share/config.site
/usr/share/doc/autoconf
/usr/share/doc/autoconf/AUTHORS
/usr/share/doc/autoconf/ChangeLog
/usr/share/doc/autoconf/NEWS
/usr/share/doc/autoconf/README
/usr/share/doc/autoconf/THANKS
/usr/share/doc/autoconf/TODO
/usr/share/emacs/site-lisp/autoconf
/usr/share/emacs/site-lisp/autoconf/autoconf-mode.el
/usr/share/emacs/site-lisp/autoconf/autoconf-mode.elc
/usr/share/emacs/site-lisp/autoconf/autotest-mode.el
/usr/share/emacs/site-lisp/autoconf/autotest-mode.elc
/usr/share/emacs/site-lisp/site-start.d
/usr/share/emacs/site-lisp/site-start.d/autoconf-init.el
/usr/share/info/autoconf.info.gz
/usr/share/licenses/autoconf
/usr/share/licenses/autoconf/COPYING
/usr/share/licenses/autoconf/COPYING.EXCEPTION
/usr/share/licenses/autoconf/COPYINGv3
/usr/share/man/man1/autoconf.1.gz
/usr/share/man/man1/autoheader.1.gz
/usr/share/man/man1/autom4te.1.gz
/usr/share/man/man1/autoreconf.1.gz
/usr/share/man/man1/autoscan.1.gz
/usr/share/man/man1/autoupdate.1.gz
/usr/share/man/man1/config.guess.1.gz
/usr/share/man/man1/config.sub.1.gz
/usr/share/man/man1/ifnames.1.gz

References

Summary

In this tutorial we learn how to install autoconf on CentOS 8 using yum and dnf.