# GNU Automake Reviews **Vendor:** FreeCAD **Category:** [Other Continuous Delivery Software](https://www.g2.com/categories/other-continuous-delivery) **Average Rating:** 4.2/5.0 **Total Reviews:** 11 ## About GNU Automake GNU is an operating system that is free software-that is, it respects users' freedom. The development of GNU made it possible to use a computer without software that would trample your freedom. ## GNU Automake Reviews ### 1. Awesome tool for configuring your makefiles on many machines **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Internet | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 31, 2019 **What do you like best about GNU Automake?** I like that it provides a single tool to configure make systems across multiple platforms. It can be a real chore to get the variables setup to work right across different *nix flavors, let alone 32bit vs 64 bit and big vs little endian machines. This does all that for you. **What do you dislike about GNU Automake?** If your system doesn't work with autoconfigure it can take a fair amount of knowledge about your platform to get all the issues sorted out. **Recommendations to others considering GNU Automake:** If you are creating source code that uses make files for distribution this is a great way to make your software work on multiple systems. Much better then putting it out there with just your makefile. However there are lots of newer build platforms that more developers will be accustomed to using. Makefiles can be difficult for new users. **What problems is GNU Automake solving and how is that benefiting you?** Building opensource software that use makefiles from the source code . ### 2. Who doesn't use Autotools? **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Alternative Medicine | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 31, 2019 **What do you like best about GNU Automake?** Open source software is important to me. When automating the process of building software, I consider it critical from a security/software integrity standpoint. **What do you dislike about GNU Automake?** Of course being open software, it is hard to get support on non-free operating systems like the latest version of Windows. **Recommendations to others considering GNU Automake:** For open source software it is the de-facto standard; as I said in the title of my review "who doesn't use Autotools?" If you don't already use Automake, I would first document your current software build process. I would do this even, or especially, if you think you already have it documented. What would it take for me, a programmer but not at your organization, to step in and go from code to end user product? **What problems is GNU Automake solving and how is that benefiting you?** Automating building/compiling software. The benefit is not only in the speed/efficiency of the build process but also in the standardization of the process. It makes errors, or bugs, much easier to find and correct. ### 3. GNU Make.. GCC's best friend **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Andrew F. | Founder, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 03, 2019 **What do you like best about GNU Automake?** As a Free Software Foundation Member and programmer with lots of experience I can say that Automake is the best software besides Emacs that GNU has to offer. the make commands are so easy to use and the autogenerated .make files make it all the better **What do you dislike about GNU Automake?** Automake is hard to use if you don't have documentation on how to use it or have the documentation for the program you are compiling. **Recommendations to others considering GNU Automake:** GNU automake just works as long as you know the options and have a working make file with the program code **What problems is GNU Automake solving and how is that benefiting you?** GNU make and automake allow me to custom compile programs ### 4. Effective C build tool **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Morgan C. | Virtual CIO, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 31, 2019 **What do you like best about GNU Automake?** automake has a template system to build on numerous target systems. It is used for many *nix system components to build on a variety of distros and even target operating systems. It is a mature build system with widespread adoption. I would recommend it for new packages, especially in C. **What do you dislike about GNU Automake?** automake is not relevant to code in modern languages like python and go which have new ecosystems to distribute their packages. **What problems is GNU Automake solving and how is that benefiting you?** automake allows distributing code which can be reliably built on a variety of operating systems and distributions. ### 5. GNU review **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Health, Wellness and Fitness | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 31, 2019 **What do you like best about GNU Automake?** It is free and is part of the GNU license which is nice. Also, it is able to provide single tools to configure make systems across many different platforms. **What do you dislike about GNU Automake?** Your own personal system may not work too well with it unless you have a ton of knowledge about it and how to figure it out on your own. **What problems is GNU Automake solving and how is that benefiting you?** Open source software building. We use it for autoconfigure and other things. ### 6. Very good tool or executable for automatically generating makefiles **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Telecommunications | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 24, 2018 **What do you like best about GNU Automake?** The best thing about this tool is - it is free and part of GNU license. So it can be easily included as part of any project where makefiles need to generated - e.g. using utilities like configure (running ./configure that checks for various dependencies and finally generates the makefile depending on the system architecture. **What do you dislike about GNU Automake?** Automake is not backward compatible i.e a project created with automake 1.2 will not work with automake 1.3 - so in such cases we may have to include automake versions or always use latest common version of automake for all projects **Recommendations to others considering GNU Automake:** Automake needs to be used with other utilities like autoconf, gcc, etc in order to generate makefiles. Make sure that all projects use the same version of automake so that compatibility issues do not arise. **What problems is GNU Automake solving and how is that benefiting you?** Our work involves creating multiple projects by integrating several C/C++ files. So in such cases we use automake in combination with other utilities like autoconf, configure, gcc, etc to generate generic makefiles for building the project executable. ### 7. Makefiles even more declarative **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Akim D. | Teacher/researcher, Research, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** August 01, 2018 **What do you like best about GNU Automake?** Make and Makefiles are the historical build system for Unix. Because it is open to any build tool, it is still a relevant standard today. However, to much boilerplate is needed, and Automake, a translator for extended Makefiles, takes care of this. Since it's an extended Makefile, whenever needed, writing regular Make recipes works. **What do you dislike about GNU Automake?** On Windows, until recently, it's not simple to use Make, hence Automake is (was?) not to adequate for project targeting Windows. **Recommendations to others considering GNU Automake:** One needs to master Makefiles before, and know how to use Autoconf. **What problems is GNU Automake solving and how is that benefiting you?** Rules to build my C/C++ projects. ### 8. GNU Automake a good one **Rating:** 2.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Electrical/Electronic Manufacturing | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 31, 2019 **What do you like best about GNU Automake?** I like the tool as its easy to automate the compilation process. **What do you dislike about GNU Automake?** I dont have anything to say I dislike as I am still learning to use the tool **What problems is GNU Automake solving and how is that benefiting you?** I used to create modules which can automate my code ### 9. Best for compiling programs **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Religious Institutions | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 24, 2018 **What do you like best about GNU Automake?** The speed and ease of preparing software for compiling and installing cannot be beat. **What do you dislike about GNU Automake?** Sometimes it complains about missing dependencies that are not required for the compiled program. **Recommendations to others considering GNU Automake:** I have not found any other software that works as well as Automake for your software compiling needs. **What problems is GNU Automake solving and how is that benefiting you?** Running several Debian servers, the ability to compile programs specific for my installation make this a lifesaver. ### 10. GNU Automake for C++ projects **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Consumer Services | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 01, 2016 **What do you like best about GNU Automake?** Simplifies writing Makefiles in higher-level language rather than writing everything manually. Automatically takes care of all dependencies. When a source is modified it automatically recompiles it when next time automake is invoked. It automatically resolves large number of targets to be built for which is tedious with plain makefiles **What do you dislike about GNU Automake?** having static paths breaks cross-compilation ability.Steep learning curve.It Does not fit well for Windows OS. **Recommendations to others considering GNU Automake:** Perfect tool for compiling,cleaning, installing and uninstalling C++ programs. **What problems is GNU Automake solving and how is that benefiting you?** Building and deploying C++ projects. ### 11. Very easy build tool for building native components **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Consumer Services | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 08, 2017 **What do you like best about GNU Automake?** I have been using automake to build cross-platform components (iOS, Android and mac). It works like a charm. **What do you dislike about GNU Automake?** Keep the tool version up to date or managed through MacPorts is painful. **What problems is GNU Automake solving and how is that benefiting you?** It's helpful in building cross-platform components. - [View GNU Automake pricing details and edition comparison](https://www.g2.com/products/gnu-automake/reviews?section=pricing&secure%5Bexpires_at%5D=2026-06-03+13%3A00%3A43+-0500&secure%5Bsession_id%5D=926f595b-a64d-42a1-979e-f0f65c5f2486&secure%5Btoken%5D=b68776f6e74fa0d4c09a0b7c349c82f083840dfcb9da872f0ee69654c9cf77b0&format=llm_user) ## Top GNU Automake Alternatives - [CMake](https://www.g2.com/products/cmake/reviews) - 4.3/5.0 (17 reviews) - [SCons](https://www.g2.com/products/scons/reviews) - 4.1/5.0 (17 reviews) - [FinalBuilder](https://www.g2.com/products/finalbuilder/reviews) - 4.6/5.0 (12 reviews)