A binary xPack with the GNU M4 executables
npm install @xpack-dev-tools/m4
A standalone cross-platform (macOS/Linux) GNU M4
binary distribution, intended for reproducible builds.
The main target is Ubuntu 18, whose older version of this utility
fails some builds.
In addition to the the binary archives and the package meta data,
this project also includes the build scripts.
This open source project is hosted on GitHub asxpack-dev-tools/m4-xpack
and provides the platform specific binaries for the
xPack GNU M4.
This distribution follows the official
GNU M4 releases.
The binaries can be installed automatically as binary xPacks or manually as
portable archives.
This distribution is generally one minor release behind the upstream releases.
In practical terms, when the minor release number changes, it awaits a few
more weeks to get the latest patch release.
This section is intended as a shortcut for those who plan
to use the GNU M4 binaries. For full details please read the
xPack GNU M4 pages.
The easiest way to install GNU M4 is using the binary xPack, available as@xpack-dev-tools/m4
from the npmjs.com registry.
#### Prerequisites
A recent xpm,
which is a portable Node.js command line application
that complements npm
with several extra features specific to
C/C++ projects.
It is recommended to install/update to the latest version with:
``sh`
npm install --location=global xpm@latest
For details please follow the instructions in the
xPack install page.
#### Install
With the xpm tool available, installing
the latest version of the package and adding it as
a development dependency for a project is quite easy:
`sh
cd my-project
xpm init # Add a package.json if not already present
xpm install @xpack-dev-tools/m4@latest --verbose
ls -l xpacks/.bin
`
This command will:
- install the latest available version,
into the central xPacks store, if not already there
- add symbolic links to the central store
(or .cmd forwarders on Windows) intoxpacks/.bin
the local folder.
The central xPacks store is a platform dependent
location in the home folder;
check the output of the xpm command for the actualXPACKS_STORE_FOLDER
folder used on your platform.
This location is configurable via the environment variable; for more details please check the
xpm folders page.
It is also possible to install GNU M4 globally, in the user home folder:
`sh`
xpm install --global @xpack-dev-tools/m4@latest --verbose
After install, the package should create a structure like this (macOS files;
only the first two depth levels are shown):
`console
$ tree -L 2 /Users/ilg/Library/xPacks/\@xpack-dev-tools/m4/1.4.19-3.1/.content/
/Users/ilg/Library/xPacks/\@xpack-dev-tools/m4/1.4.19-3.1/.content/
├── README.md
├── bin
│ ├── gm4 -> m4
│ └── m4
├── distro-info
│ ├── CHANGELOG.md
│ ├── licenses
│ └── scripts
├── libexec
│ └── libiconv.2.dylib
└── share
└── info
8 directories, 5 files
`
No other files are installed in any system folders or other locations.
#### Uninstall
The binaries are distributed as portable archives; thus they do not need
to run a setup and do not require an uninstall; simply removing the
folder is enough.
To remove the links created by xpm in the current project:
`sh
cd my-project
xpm uninstall @xpack-dev-tools/m4
`
To completely remove the package from the central xPack store:
`sh`
xpm uninstall --global @xpack-dev-tools/m4
For all platforms, the xPack GNU M4
binaries are released as portable
archives that can be installed in any location.
The archives can be downloaded from the
GitHub Releases
page.
For more details please read the
Install page.
The version strings used by the GNU M4 project are two number strings
like 9.1, extended to 1.4.19 to look like semver;1.4.19-3
to this string the xPack distribution adds a four number,
but since semver allows only three numbers, all additional ones can
be added only as pre-release strings, separated by a dash,
like . When published as a npm package, the version gets1.4.19-3.1
a fifth number, like .
Since adherence of third party packages to semver is not guaranteed,
it is recommended to use semver expressions like ^1.4.19 and ~1.4.19
with caution, and prefer exact matches, like .
For maintainer info, please see the
README-MAINTAINER.
The quick advice for getting support is to use the GitHub
Discussions.
For more details please read the
Support page.
Unless otherwise stated, the content is released under the terms of the
MIT License,
with all rights reserved to
Liviu Ionescu.
The binary distributions include several open-source components; the
corresponding licenses are available in the installed
distro-info/licenses folder.
- GitHub xpack-dev-tools/m4-xpack repo
- latest xPack release
- all xPack releases 
- individual file counters (grouped per release)
- npmjs.com @xpack-dev-tools/m4` xPack
- latest release, per month
- all releases 
Credit to Shields IO for the badges and to
Somsubhra/github-release-stats
for the individual file counters.