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NAME="LIBTOOL"
>What is Libtool?  What does it have to do with
      GNOME?</A
></H1
><P
>Libtool is an important portability utility.  It gives a
      common interface to the mechanics of building, debugging and
      maintaining static and dynamic libraries on most computer
      systems in use.  It works in three phases, the
      <B
CLASS="COMMAND"
>libtoolize</B
> command adds libtool support to a source
      tree by adding the <B
CLASS="COMMAND"
>ltconfig</B
> script.  This
      script, in turn, generates a system-specific script called
      <B
CLASS="COMMAND"
>libtool</B
> in the source tree.  The
      <B
CLASS="COMMAND"
>libtool</B
> script is the part that actually gets
      all the work done.</P
><P
>Like Autoconf and Automake, if you are using CVS, you need
      Libtool installed on your system.  If you use the tarballs,
      <B
CLASS="COMMAND"
>libtoolize</B
> as already been run, and
      <B
CLASS="COMMAND"
>ltconfig</B
> is self-contained, so you do not
      need Libtool to be installed.  More information about libtool
      can be found at <A
HREF="http://gnu.org/software/libtool/libtool.html"
TARGET="_top"
>      http://gnu.org/software/libtool/libtool.html</A
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