Skip to content
PluginStats

autoconf installs statistics

By maelvalais · VS Code Marketplace · Programming Languages

Syntax support for the Autoconf M4 and Automake files (Autotools)

View on VS Code Marketplace Fresh · Oct 21, 2026

autoconf has 132,971 recorded installs on VS Code Marketplace, ranking #2007 of 2,502 tracked listings.

Installs
132,971
Official API · Oct 21, 2026
7-day growth
—
Insufficient history
30-day growth
—
Insufficient history
90-day growth
—
Insufficient history
Rank
#2007
Among tracked VS Code Marketplace listings

Rating: 5.00 / 5 from 3 ratings

About autoconf

Autotools syntax highlighting for VSCode

The extension is available on both vsce, and on ovsx.

This VSCode extension is a fork of the GitHub project sublime_autotools. It includes syntax highlighting for Autoconf M4 (.m4, configure.ac...) and Automake files (e.g., Makefile.am). This extension uses the vscode's own Makefile syntax support for hghlighting makefile things in automake files. I chose to fork the sublime project in order to have an easy way of updating vscode_autotools (which is only a matter of git merge).

Note that the sublime fork also has a Makefile2 (an alternate grammar file for Makefiles) but the standard vscode's Makefile support works much better (actually, the sublime's one is kind of buggy).

See [DEVELOPMENT.md][] for more information on how to debug and improve vscode_autotools.

Changelog

v0.2.0 (5 March 2023)

Since ptomato/sublime_autotools has moved to a YAML-based grammar and that most of the bugs that were fixed in my fork have been ported back to ptomato/sublime_autotools, I decided to revert to ptomato/sublime_autotools's YAML grammar. This means that the grammar may change a bit. Please let me know if it does.

v0.1.0
v0.0.9
  • Add AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIRS provided by automake which surprisingly exists together with autoconf's AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIR. Change proposed by jannick0.
  • (internal) add the npm start -- --json feature that allows people more familiar with json to generate tmLanguage from the json file instead of the yaml one.
v0.0.7
  • Autoconf M4 (configure.ac): fix " not being properly escaped in a string. Note for now, that variables won't (for some reason) be highlighted in strings. I couldn't find why.
v0.0.6
  • Automake: fix comments not being highlighted when it starts at the beginning of a line and is interleaved with a recipe.
v0.0.5
  • Automake grammar: fixed bug with foo: $(VAR:%.h=%.h)
  • Makefile2: re-include it into the extension. The Automake grammar is actually working better using makefile2.
  • Many small improvements to Makefile2 and Automake, e.g., $(if a,b) properly colored.
  • Moved from JSON grammar files to YAML.
v0.0.4
  • Use vscode's default Makefile syntax grammar file instead of the sublime's one (Makefile2). This is because Makefile2 was buggy and vscode's one works just fine.
v0.0.3
  • Automake: fix a bug with assigments followed by a comment
  • added 'npm start'for rebuilding the tmLanguage files from the JSON-tmLanguage files. You may observe some changes in grammar because of this, please tell me if it is the case!
v0.0.2
  • Fixed the VSCode-version of Makefile that was shadowed by Makefile2, thus making it impossible to select the VSCode-provided Makefile highlighting.
  • Fixed line comments (# instead of //)
  • Removed block comments (block comments are not available in makefiles)
  • added an icon, because we all kind of like nice icons (Twitter, CC 3.0 BY)
v0.0.1
  • Initial release. I disabled the Makefile2 part that was developped in the upstream project (sublime_autotools) because the Makefile support of vscode seems better (but I didn't really dig much to understand why).

Note: For Autoconf M4 macros, the arguments may need to be highlighted in several different ways; some are shell code, some are plain text, and a few are C code. There are definitions for the builtin ones, but custom macros may not be highlighted correctly.

Description from the VS Code Marketplace listing.

  • Autoconf M4
  • automake
  • m4
  • makefile2

README badge

Show your rank in a README or on your website. The badge updates automatically.

Charts

Images: 30d · 1y · all time · 1600×900 dark

Adoption over time

autoconf installs on VS Code Marketplace, last 90 days: 132,971 installs as of Oct 21, 2026.autoconfInstalls on VS Code Marketplace · Last 90 days132,971installs132.9K132.9K132.9K132.9K133K133K133K133KJul 23Aug 7Aug 22Sep 6Sep 21Oct 6Oct 21installsobservedarchived (Internet Archive)no observationsOct 16, 2026 – Oct 21, 2026 · 6 observations · Updated Oct…pluginstats.com
autoconf installs on VS Code Marketplace, last 90 days: 132,971 installs as of Oct 21, 2026.

7/30/90-day growth

autoconf installs growth on VS Code Marketplace: 7-day growth unavailable, 30-day growth unavailable, 90-day growth unavailable.autoconfInstalls growth on VS Code Marketplace132,971installs now7-day growthinsufficient historyInsufficient history30-day growthinsufficient historyInsufficient history90-day growthinsufficient historyInsufficient historyGrowth vs. nearest observation to each baseline date · Updated Oct 21, 2026pluginstats.com
autoconf installs growth on VS Code Marketplace: 7-day growth unavailable, 30-day growth unavailable, 90-day growth unavailable.

Ranking history

autoconf VS Code Marketplace ranking history: currently #2007 (by installs).autoconfVS Code Marketplace ranking · by installs · Last 90 days#2007current rank#2002#2003#2004#2005#2006#2007#2008#2009Jul 23Aug 7Aug 22Sep 6Sep 21Oct 6Oct 21rankOct 16, 2026 – Oct 21, 2026 · 6 observations · Updated Oct 21, 2026pluginstats.com
autoconf VS Code Marketplace ranking history: currently #2007 (by installs).

Ratings over time

autoconf ratings on VS Code Marketplace, last 90 days: 3 ratings as of Oct 21, 2026.autoconfRatings on VS Code Marketplace · Last 90 days3ratings2.72.82.933.13.23.3Jul 23Aug 7Aug 22Sep 6Sep 21Oct 6Oct 21ratingsobservedarchived (Internet Archive)no observationsOct 16, 2026 – Oct 21, 2026 · 6 observations · Updated Oct…pluginstats.com
autoconf ratings on VS Code Marketplace, last 90 days: 3 ratings as of Oct 21, 2026.

Listing placement

All VS Code Marketplace2,502 listings · 126 pages · 1,252 shown · page 101, #7 (overall #2,007)
All VS Code Marketplace: every listing in installs order

Listing placement

Programming Languages792 listings · 40 pages · page 33, #11 (overall #651)
Programming Languages: every listing in installs order

Filled points are observed values; hollow points come from Internet Archive snapshots of the listing page. Dashed segments span periods with no observations — values between points are not interpolated.

Each band is one page of 20. Installs on a linear scale. Placement is projected from installs, so it can differ from the marketplace's own sort order. Hover a dot to see the listing.

Recent observations

Full history (6)
Recent installs observations for autoconf
Date (UTC)InstallsChange vs. previous
132,971+30
132,941+9
132,932+6
132,926+9
132,917+7
132,910—

Similar VS Code Marketplace Programming Languages plugins

All 20 autoconf alternatives

Data source

Install counts, average rating, and rating counts come from the public Visual Studio Marketplace gallery API. Installs are cumulative and exclude updates.

Listing: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=maelvalais.autoconf. First seen Oct 16, 2026; last successful collection Oct 21, 2026. See the methodology.