I modified a common existing source code package. I have some half-wit goal of releasing it. I have it working with 2 included libraries, base64 and aes encryption. To make it work, I just included the .c source code at the top of the main.c code and used the existing Makefile. Creating .a archive files of these libraries is also a super easy task. Plugging them into gcc also a cakewalk. Trying to figure out how to add these very same .a libraries using the Automake format however is utter insanity. Getting them to auto-compile might as well be a plot to send a bottle rocket to the moon. There just seems no way to do it and no path to success. Take this AC_SEARCH_LIBS (function, search-libs, [action-if-found],[action-if-not-found], [other-libraries]) Am I supposed define every function in the library using this? That can't possibly be right. Without any working examples or some roadmap, the simple act of adding simple goofball libraries to this goofy hodgepodge of crazy, might land me in loony bin. Nothing works. Just sling it in the configure.ac he says. Yeah right. Everything Google AI responded back with is total crap and just pukes more insanity to the screen that leads nowhere. If AI can't even understand it what hope do I have? The manuals for Automake and Autoconf read like stereo installation instructions for a deaf man written in Sanskrit. It will take me months to crack this unless I stumble upon some Rosetta stone. And the most frustrating thing about all of this is the fact that it should just be easy. If I crack this I will document it so the next poor smuck won't have to lose his mind over it.