The document discusses Autoconf and Automake, which are tools used to automatically generate Makefiles and configure scripts from simple descriptions of a project's build requirements. Autoconf generates configure scripts that can build software on different systems by checking for features like libraries, headers, and functions. Automake generates Makefiles from simple descriptions of build targets and dependencies in Makefile.am files. Together, these tools help developers more easily build portable software projects across a variety of Unix systems.