The -gnu option (or gnu in the AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS variable) causes automake to check the following:
The files INSTALL, NEWS, README, COPYING, AUTHORS, and ChangeLog are required at the topmost directory of the package.
The options no-installman and no-installinfo are prohibited.
Note that this option will be extended in the future to do even more checking; it is advisable to be familiar with the precise requirements of the GNU standards. Also, -gnu can require certain non-standard GNU programs to exist for use by various maintainer-only targets; for instance in the future pathchk might be required for make dist.
The -gnits option does everything that -gnu does, and checks the following as well:
make dist will check to make sure the NEWS file has been updated to the current version.
VERSION is checked to make sure its format complies with Gnits standards.
If VERSION indicates that this is an alpha release, and the file README-alpha appears in the topmost directory of a package, then it is included in the distribution. This is done in -gnits mode, and no other, because this mode is the only one where version number formats are constrained, and hence the only mode where Automake can automatically determine whether README-alpha should be included.
The file THANKS is required.