test harness: improve catching of usage errors in script 'test-driver'

[platform/upstream/automake.git] / README

diff --git a/README b/README
index 0396ff3..fdf25fa 100644 (file)
--- a/README
+++ b/README
@@ -1,29 +1,27 @@
-This is Automake, a Makefile generator.  It was inspired by the 4.4BSD
-make and include files, but aims to be portable and to conform to the
-GNU Coding Standards for Makefile variables and targets.
+This is Automake, a Makefile generator.  It aims to be portable and
+to conform to the GNU Coding Standards for Makefile variables and
+targets.
+
+See the INSTALL file for detailed information about how to configure
+and install Automake.
 
 Automake is a Perl script.  The input files are called Makefile.am.
 The output files are called Makefile.in; they are intended for use
 with Autoconf.  Automake requires certain things to be done in your
 configure.ac.
 
-Variable assignment lines in Makefile.am pull in defaults from various
-little *.am files.
-
-To use Automake, replace your Makefile.in files with Makefile.am
-files.  Read the documentation to see what to do.
-
-This package also includes the "aclocal" program.  aclocal is a
-program to generate an `aclocal.m4' based on the contents of
-`configure.ac'.  It is useful as an extensible, maintainable mechanism
-for augmenting autoconf.  It is intended that other package authors
-will write m4 macros which can be automatically used by aclocal.
+Automake comes with extensive documentation; please refer to it for
+more details about its purpose, features, and usage patterns.
 
-Automake has a test suite.  Use
+This package also includes the "aclocal" program, whose purpose is
+to generate an 'aclocal.m4' based on the contents of 'configure.ac'.
+It is useful as an extensible, maintainable mechanism for augmenting
+autoconf.  It is intended that other package authors will write m4
+macros which can be automatically used by aclocal.  The documentation
+for aclocal is currently found in the Automake manual.
 
-       make check
-
-to run it.  For more information, see the file tests/README.
+Automake has a test suite.  Use "make check" to run it.  For more
+information, see the file t/README.
 
 Automake has a page on the web.  See:
 
@@ -49,6 +47,9 @@ New releases are announced to autotools-announce@gnu.org.  If you want to
 be informed, subscribe to that list by following the instructions at
 <http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/autotools-announce>.
 
+For any copyright year range specified as YYYY-ZZZZ in this package,
+that the range specifies every single year in that closed interval.
+
 -----
 
 Copyright (C) 1994-2012 Free Software Foundation, Inc.