Most of the general complaints I’ve ever seen aimed at the Autotools are ultimately associated with Automake, in the final analysis. The reason for this is simple: Automake provides the highest level of abstraction over the build system. This high level of abstraction is both apparent, and actual. And yet a solid understanding of the inner workings of Automake can provide you with the one of the most satisfying auto-generated build system experiences, because you can feel comfortable using the features of Automake to their maximum potential, and extending it where your projects require.