this post was submitted on 30 Dec 2025
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X.Org IMAKE Updated For Those Not Yet Transitioned To Autoconf/Automake Or Meson (www.phoronix.com)
submitted 7 hours ago by cm0002@toast.ooo to c/linux@programming.dev
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X.Org package wrangler Alan Coopersmith at Oracle announced today the release of imake 1.0.11, the newest version of this utility that 20+ years ago was used extensively as part of the X Window System build process for generating Makefiles from a template. With this first imake point release in two years, imake itself can now be built via Meson and there is now support for RISC-V and LoongArch architectures.

Over the past twenty years the still-active X11 / X Window System code has transitioned largely over to GNU Autoconf and Automake while in more recent years seeing increased Meson adoption too. But for any old X code remnants not yet adapted or wanting to build older versions of said software, imake is still needed

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[–] bitcrafter@programming.dev 7 points 4 hours ago

Who would have thought that there would be a context in which GNU Autoconf and Automake were considered the modern way to build software?

[–] data1701d@startrek.website 1 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

Maybe it’s just I’m a relative noob to build systems, but gosh, do I love Meson.

The documentation’s pretty okay - not perfect, but better than cmake - and it feels like I can actually learn it by example through looking at other projects’ setups.

I can live with using other build systems for other projects, but for personal projects, I’ll always choose Meson. I’ll always push for it if a project I’m working on needs to choose a build system.

[–] bitcrafter@programming.dev 3 points 4 hours ago

The impression that I got from this article is that even the author of imake feels the same way, and is only maintaining it out of consideration for legacy software still using it.