The common case

./autogen.sh && ./configure && make

If something fails read the last lines. Typical reason to fail is a missing dependency, such as libtool or gettext.

Autotools

./autogen.sh generates all files needed to compile and install the code (run it after checkout from git)

make distclean removes all unnecessary files, but the code can still be recompiled with ./configure; make

make dist-gzip (or -bzip2) creates a tarball that can be configured and compiled without running ./autogen.sh