@node Invoking gnulib-tool
@chapter Invoking gnulib-tool
+@c Copyright (C) 2005, 2006 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
+
+@c Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
+@c under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or
+@c any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no
+@c Invariant Sections, with no Front-Cover Texts, and with no Back-Cover
+@c Texts. A copy of the license is included in the ``GNU Free
+@c Documentation License'' file as part of this distribution.
+
@pindex gnulib-tool
@cindex invoking @command{gnulib-tool}
The @command{gnulib-tool} command is the recommended way to import
Gnulib modules. It is possible to borrow Gnulib modules in a package
without using @command{gnulib-tool}, relying only on the
-metainformation stored in the @file{modules/*} files, but with a
+meta-information stored in the @file{modules/*} files, but with a
growing number of modules this becomes tedious. @command{gnulib-tool}
simplifies the management of source files, @file{Makefile.am}s and
@file{configure.ac} in packages incorporating Gnulib modules.
neither is specified, the current directory is assumed.
@code{gnulib-tool} can make symbolic links instead of copying the
-source files. Use the @samp{--symbolic} (or @samp{-s} for short) option
-to do this.
+source files. The option to specify for this is @samp{--symlink}, or
+@samp{-s} for short. This can be useful to save a few kilobytes of disk
+space. But it is likely to introduce bugs when @code{gnulib} is updated;
+it is more reliable to use @samp{gnulib-tool --update} (see below)
+to update to newer versions of @code{gnulib}. Furthermore it requires
+extra effort to create self-contained tarballs, and it may disturb some
+mechanism the maintainer applies to the sources. For these reasons,
+this option is generally discouraged.
@code{gnulib-tool} will overwrite any pre-existing files, in
particular @file{Makefile.am}. Unfortunately, separating the
Some Gnulib modules depend on other Gnulib modules. @code{gnulib-tool}
will automatically add the needed modules as well; you need not list
-them explicitly. @code{gnulib-tool} will also memoize which dependent
+them explicitly. @code{gnulib-tool} will also memorize which dependent
modules it has added, so that when someday a dependency is dropped, the
implicitly added module is dropped as well (unless you have explicitly
requested that module).
-If you want to cut a dependency, i.e. not add a module although one of
+If you want to cut a dependency, i.e., not add a module although one of
your requested modules depends on it, you may use the option
@samp{--avoid=@var{module}} to do so. Multiple uses of this option are
possible. Of course, you will then need to implement the same interface
@item gl_LIBTOOL
The presence of this macro corresponds to the @samp{--libtool} command line
-argument. It takes no arguments.
+argument and to the absence of the @samp{--no-libtool} command line argument.
+It takes no arguments.
@item gl_MACRO_PREFIX
The argument is the prefix to use for macros in the @file{gnulib-comp.m4}