All you need to check for &libgtop; is in &gnome-libgtop-check.m4;, just use GNOME_INIT_LIBGTOP with an optional fail argument in the same way like GNOME_INIT: GNOME_INIT_LIBGTOP GNOME_INIT_LIBGTOP(fail) This will define a HAVE_LIBGTOP automake conditional and everything from the configuration script of &libgtop;. After a successful build of &libgtop;, a &libgtopConf.sh; script containing useful configuration variables is created. It defines the following variables which you can use in your Makefile.am: LIBGTOP_LIBDIR The directory where the library files of &libgtop; are installed. LIBGTOP_INCLUDEDIR The directory where the header files of &libgtop; are installed. LIBGTOP_LIBS Use this to link your program with &libgtop;. LIBGTOP_INCS Use this to get the header files for &libgtop;. LIBGTOP_NAMES_LIBS Use this to link your program with &libgtop; and its names interface. LIBGTOP_NAMES_INCS Use this to get the header files for &libgtop; and the required -DGLIBTOP_NAMES to get its names interface. LIBGTOP_GUILE_LIBS Use this to link your program with &libgtop; and its guile interface. This will also include all the required guile libraries. LIBGTOP_GUILE_INCS Use this to get the header files for &libgtop; and guile and the required -DGLIBTOP_GUILE to get the guile interface of &libgtop;. LIBGTOP_GUILE_NAMES_LIBS Use this to link your program with &libgtop; and both its names and its guile interface. This will also include all the required guile libraries. LIBGTOP_GUILE_NAMES_INCS Use this to get the header files for &libgtop;, its guile and its names interface, the guile header files and the required -DGLIBTOP_GUILE and -DGLIBTOP_NAMES. LIBGTOP_BINDIR The directory where the binaries of &libgtop; are installed. LIBGTOP_SERVER Full pathname of the &libgtop; server. LIBGTOP_MAJOR_VERSION Major version of &libgtop;. LIBGTOP_MINOR_VERSION Minor version of &libgtop;. LIBGTOP_VERSION Full version of &libgtop;. LIBGTOP_SERVER_VERSION Version of the &libgtop; server. This is incremented each time the client/server protocol changes. libgtop_sysdeps_dir The sysdeps directory that is used on your system. libgtop_need_server Either yes or no. libgtop_use_machine_h Either yes or no. Intended for internal use only and may be removed in future versions. This variable gets set in macros/gnome-libgtop-sysdeps.m4. If this is enabled, you need to put a glibtop_machine.h header file in the sysdeps directory which needs to define a structure of type glibtop_machine. This structure represents the machine field of glibtop defined in glibtop.h and can be used to store some machine dependent data. libgtop_guile_found Either yes or no. libgtop_want_examples Considered obsolete. All this variables are taken from the &libgtopConf.sh; script which is created during the installation of &libgtop;. &example-libgtopConf-sh;