• Autoconf
• Automake
• Libtool

Intro reading on this:

• Alexandre Duret Lutz's Autotools tutorial, a must-read (quick link to PDF)

Alternative build-systems: (my goal here is really just to find something that is implemented in Perl)

• CMake — written in C++
• SCons — written in Python
  Yes, it supports AIX, HPUX, Solaris, etc
• GYP (Generate Your Projects) — written in Python
• Waf — written in Python
• Cons — WRITTEN IN PERL
  • main page
  • mailing list
• Premake — written in C and Lua
• more (wikipedia)
• more