$Id: README,v 1.6 2000/06/06 19:15:55 rv Exp $ Cons is a Perl-based make replacement. It is not compatible with make, but has a number of powerful capabilities not found in other software construction systems, including make. Cons is distributed in two different packages, one with a full regression test suite (cons-plus-test-$version.tgz) and the other without (cons-$version.tgz). There is no difference between the copies of cons in the two packages. Most users should only need the base package without the test suite. The package with the test suite is recommended for people who are planning to add new features to cons and want to make sure they don't break existing functionality, or who want to verify that cons works correctly on their platform. You will need Perl 5.002 or better and the Perl MD5 Extension (MD5-1.6.tar.gz or greater), available from CPAN. This program is known to work on a variety of platforms: it's in production use on versions of FreeBSD, Linux, SunOS, Solaris, HPUX, AIX, IRIX and NT. Documentation is supplied in POD format (thanks to Ulrich Pfiefer). A cons discussion group, cons-discuss@gnu.org, has been created. If you wish to subscribe, send mail to cons-discuss-request@gnu.org with the word "subscribe" in the BODY of the message. Please send all comments, requests, complaints, etc. to the mailing list. Cons is maintained by members of the cons-discuss mailing list. The official cons web site is http://www.dsmit.com/cons An article about Cons appeared in The Perl Journal, issue #9, Spring 1998.