Installing the GNU autotools on Windows

Download the correct versions of autoconf, automake and libtool:

Package	Location	Version
autoconf	ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/autoconf/	2.61 or later
automake	ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/automake/	Latest 1.9 and 1.10
libtool	ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/libtool/	2.2 or later

Earlier versions than those listed may work, but these are the ones that were tested.

note: if you want / need to install automake 1.11 too, you will need autoconf 2.62 or later

Build them in the order in which they are listed in the table. In each case, after extracting, run the following commands:

$ ./configure --prefix=/mingw
$ make
$ make install

Do not build and install GNU make; it will not work in conjunction with MSYS (though it may work if you install a native Windows shell, such as the Interix / SFU ksh, and don't use MSYS at all)