Linux From Scratch: Version 5.0-pre1
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# M4

For installation instructions see the Section called Installing M4-1.4 in Chapter 6.

## Official Download Location

M4 (1.4):
ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/m4/

## Contents of M4

(Last checked against version 1.4.)

M4 is a macro processor. It copies input to output, expanding macros as it goes. Macros are either built-in or user-defined and can take any number of arguments. Besides just doing macro expansion, m4 has built-in functions for including named files, running Unix commands, doing integer arithmetic, manipulating text in various ways, recursion, etc. The m4 program can be used either as a front-end to a compiler or as a macro processor in its own right.

M4 installs the following:

### Program Files

m4

##

## Descriptions

(Last checked against version 1.4.)

### Program file descriptions

#### m4

m4 is a macro processor. It copies input to output, expanding macros as it goes. Macros are either built-in or user-defined and can take any number of arguments. Besides just doing macro expansion, m4 has built-in functions for including named files, running Unix commands, doing integer arithmetic, manipulating text in various ways, recursion, etc. The m4 program can be used either as a front-end to a compiler or as a macro processor in its own right.

##

## M4 Installation Dependencies

(Last checked against version 1.4.)

Bash: sh
Binutils: ar, as, ld, ranlib
Coreutils: cat, chmod, cp, date, echo, hostname, install, mv, rm, tr
Diffutils: cmp
GCC: cc1, collect2, cpp0, gcc
Grep: egrep, grep
Make: make
Sed: sed

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