In the past, if a source code package developer wanted to take
advantage of the power of shared libraries, he needed to write custom
support code for each platform on which his package ran.  He also had
to design a configuration interface so that the package installer could
choose what sort of libraries were built.

   GNU Libtool simplifies the developer's job by encapsulating both the
platform-specific dependencies, and the user interface, in a single
script.  GNU Libtool is designed so that the complete functionality of
each host type is available via a generic interface, but nasty quirks
are hidden from the programmer.

   GNU Libtool's consistent interface is reassuring... users don't need
to read obscure documentation in order to have their favorite source
package build shared libraries.  They just run your package `configure'
script (or equivalent), and libtool does all the dirty work.

 PERMSSN    UID  GID    PACKED    SIZE  RATIO     CRC       STAMP          NAME
---------- ----------- ------- ------- ------ ---------- ------------ -------------
-rw-rw-r-- 20025/200    256920  890880  28.8% -lh5- 6f1c Mar 30  1998 libtool-1.0b-src.tar
---------- ----------- ------- ------- ------ ---------- ------------ -------------
 Total         1 file   256920  890880  28.8%            Mar 16  1998