Linux From Scratch: Version 5.1-pre1
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# Installing M4-1.4

The M4 package contains a macro processor.

    Approximate build time:  0.1 SBU
    Required disk space:     3.0 MB

Official download location for M4 (1.4):
ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/m4/

For its installation M4 depends on: Bash, Binutils, Coreutils, Diffutils, GCC, Gettext, Glibc, Grep, Make, Perl, Sed.

##

## Installation of M4

Prepare M4 for compilation:

    ./configure --prefix=/usr

Compile the package:

    make

This package has a test suite available which can perform a number of checks to ensure it built correctly. Should you choose to run it, the following command will do so:

    make check

And install the package:

    make install

##

## Contents of M4

Installed program: m4

## Short description

m4 copies the given files while expanding the macros that they contain. These 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, and so on. The m4 program can be used either as a front-end to a compiler or as a macro processor in its own right.

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