If automake is anything like make, then it needs to know what files are required to Assemble and Link your exe.
This is a makefile I use on Windows, for Linux it is basically the same, minus the res/rc files
Windows:
APP=SomeApp
all: clean $(APP)
$(APP): $(APP).obj $(APP).res
GoLink.exe /console /entry _start $(APP).obj $(APP).res @imports.inc
$(APP).obj: $(APP).asm
nasm -f win32 $(APP).asm -o $(APP).obj
$(APP).res: $(APP).rc
gorc /r=$(APP).res $(APP).rc
clean:APP=
del $(APP).exe
del $(APP).obj
del $(APP).res
Linux w/GCC:
APP=fslc_sfs
$(APP): $(APP).o
gcc -o $(APP) $(APP).o `pkg-config --cflags --libs gtk+-2.0` -export-dynamic -lcurl
$(APP).o: $(APP).asm
nasm -f elf $(APP).asm
Linux w/ld:
APP = comparray
$(APP): $(APP).o
ld -o $(APP) $(APP).o -e main -lc -dynamic-linker /lib/ld-linux.so.2
$(APP).o: $(APP).asm
nasm -f elf $(APP).asm
Ok, the first $(APP):, tells make/ the linker what files are required to build your exe. For windows it is an .obj and .res file, for linux it is just an .o file. So, to get the obj file or o file, we must assemble it, that is what the label $(APP).obj, $(APP).o does, now in the case of windows, we need a res file also, so make will look for the $(APP).res file and carry out the command we have to build it. Now that all the files are made, make will now link them to create our exe.