所谓GNU构建系统（GNU Build System）主要是指通过autoconf、automake和libtool这三个工具构建出来的软件结构体系，又名Autotools。通常和GNU make、gettext以及GCC一起配套使用。这个软件结构体系也是所有GNU项目的打包方式。

此打包方式的优点在于项目的可移植性，当进程本身不包含与硬件架构有关的代码时，可以直接将源码包复制到另一台计算机上，通过简单的./configure、make和make install三步骤完成进程的配置，编译和安装（第三步需要系统管理员权限）。Sourceforge上提供了官方的使用教程。

The GNU Build System, also known as the Autotools, is a suite of programming tools designed to assist in making source code packages portable to many Unix-like systems.

It can be difficult to make a software program portable: the C compiler differs from system to system; certain library functions are missing on some systems; header files may have different names. One way to handle this is to write conditional code, with code blocks selected by means of preprocessor directives (#ifdef); but because of the wide variety of build environments this approach quickly becomes unmanageable. Autotools is designed to address this problem more manageably.