How to Install Autoconf on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS [Step by Step]

Table of Contents

How to Install Autoconf on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS

Also Read: How to Install and Use Docker on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS [Step by Step]

Step 1: Prerequisites

a) You should have a running Ubuntu 20.04 LTS Server.

b) You should have sudo or root access to run privileged command.

c) You should have apt or apt-get utility available in your System.

Step 2: Update Your Server

First you need to update your Server using apt update or apt-get update command as shown below. If needed, you can also run apt upgrade or apt-get upgrade to install the latest security patches and upgrade all the installed packages to the latest version.

root@cyberithub:~# apt update
Hit:1 http://in.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal InRelease
Hit:2 http://in.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-updates InRelease
Hit:3 http://in.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-backports InRelease
Hit:4 https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu focal InRelease
Ign:5 http://ppa.launchpad.net/bitcoin/bitcoin/ubuntu focal InRelease
Hit:6 https://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb stable InRelease
Hit:7 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-security InRelease
Ign:8 https://repo.mongodb.org/apt/ubuntu bionic/mongodb-org/4.0 InRelease
Hit:9 https://repo.mongodb.org/apt/ubuntu bionic/mongodb-org/4.0 Release
Hit:10 https://artifacts.elastic.co/packages/oss-7.x/apt stable InRelease

Step 3: Install Autoconf

To install autoconf and all its dependencies, you need to use apt-get install autoconf command as shown below.

root@cyberithub:~# apt-get install autoconf
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following additional packages will be installed:
automake autotools-dev libsigsegv2 m4
Suggested packages:
autoconf-archive gnu-standards autoconf-doc libtool gettext m4-doc
The following NEW packages will be installed:
autoconf automake autotools-dev libsigsegv2 m4
0 upgraded, 5 newly installed, 0 to remove and 43 not upgraded.
Need to get 1,096 kB of archives.
After this operation, 4,050 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] Y
Get:1 http://in.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal/main amd64 libsigsegv2 amd64 2.12-2 [13.9 kB]
Get:2 http://in.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal/main amd64 m4 amd64 1.4.18-4 [199 kB]
Get:3 http://in.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal/main amd64 autoconf all 2.69-11.1 [321 kB]
Get:4 http://in.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal/main amd64 autotools-dev all 20180224.1 [39.6 kB]
Get:5 http://in.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal/main amd64 automake all 1:1.16.1-4ubuntu6 [522 kB]
Fetched 1,096 kB in 1s (837 kB/s)
Selecting previously unselected package libsigsegv2:amd64.
(Reading database ... 213396 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../libsigsegv2_2.12-2_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking libsigsegv2:amd64 (2.12-2) ...

Step 4: Verify Installation

After successful installation, you can verify the list of installed files by using dpkg -L autoconf command as shown below.

root@cyberithub:~# dpkg -L autoconf
/.
/etc
/etc/emacs
/etc/emacs/site-start.d
/etc/emacs/site-start.d/50autoconf.el
/usr
/usr/bin
/usr/bin/autoconf
/usr/bin/autoheader
/usr/bin/autom4te
/usr/bin/autoreconf
/usr/bin/autoscan
/usr/bin/autoupdate
/usr/bin/ifnames
/usr/share
/usr/share/autoconf
/usr/share/autoconf/Autom4te
/usr/share/autoconf/Autom4te/C4che.pm
/usr/share/autoconf/Autom4te/ChannelDefs.pm

Step 5: Check Autoconf Version

Then check the currently installed version by using autoconf --version command as shown below.

root@cyberithub:~# autoconf --version
autoconf (GNU Autoconf) 2.69
Copyright (C) 2012 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
License GPLv3+/Autoconf: GNU GPL version 3 or later
<http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>, <http://gnu.org/licenses/exceptions.html>
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

Written by David J. MacKenzie and Akim Demaille.

Step 6: Check all the available options

You can check all the options available with autoconf command using autoconf --help command as shown below.

root@cyberithub:~# autoconf --help
Usage: /usr/bin/autoconf [OPTION]... [TEMPLATE-FILE]

Generate a configuration script from a TEMPLATE-FILE if given, or
`configure.ac' if present, or else `configure.in'. Output is sent
to the standard output if TEMPLATE-FILE is given, else into
`configure'.

Operation modes:
-h, --help print this help, then exit
-V, --version print version number, then exit
-v, --verbose verbosely report processing
-d, --debug don't remove temporary files
-f, --force consider all files obsolete
-o, --output=FILE save output in FILE (stdout is the default)
-W, --warnings=CATEGORY report the warnings falling in CATEGORY [syntax]

Step 7: Uninstall Autoconf

In case you want to remove autoconf package from your System then all you need to run is apt-get remove autoconf command.

root@cyberithub:~# apt-get remove autoconf
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
ibverbs-providers icu-devtools libboost-atomic-dev libboost-atomic1.71-dev libboost-atomic1.71.0 libboost-chrono-dev libboost-chrono1.71-dev
libboost-chrono1.71.0 libboost-container-dev libboost-container1.71-dev libboost-container1.71.0 libboost-context-dev libboost-context1.71-dev
libboost-context1.71.0 libboost-coroutine-dev libboost-coroutine1.71-dev libboost-coroutine1.71.0 libboost-date-time-dev libboost-date-time1.71-dev
libboost-dev libboost-exception-dev libboost-exception1.71-dev libboost-fiber-dev libboost-fiber1.71-dev libboost-fiber1.71.0 libboost-filesystem-dev
libboost-filesystem1.71-dev libboost-graph-dev libboost-graph-parallel-dev libboost-graph-parallel1.71-dev libboost-graph-parallel1.71.0

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