%general-entities; ]> M4 &m4-version; The M4 package contains a macro processor. Prepare M4 for compilation: ./configure --prefix=/usr CC="gcc ${BUILD64}" ./configure --prefix=/usr Compile the package: make To test the results, issue: make check. Install the package: make install m4 copies the given files while expanding the macros that they contain. These macros are either built-in or user-defined and can take any number of arguments. Besides performing macro expansion, m4 has built-in functions for including named files, running Unix commands, performing integer arithmetic, manipulating text, recursion, etc. The m4 program can be used either as a front-end to a compiler or as a macro processor in its own right.