For installation instructions see the Section called Installing M4-1.4 in Chapter 6.
(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:
(Last checked against version 1.4.)
m4 copies the given files while expanding the macros that it contains. 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.
(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