It intends to solve the same basic class of problems as mk-defsystem, but internally it takes advantage of modern CL features like pathname support, etc, and it uses CLOS for extensibility.
If you have SBCL, OpenMCL, ECL or ACL, it's bundled and you need only (require 'asdf). If you have Debian or Gentoo and the Common Lisp Controller installed, you also already have it. Otherwise you can find it in the Sourceforge cCLan CVS repository:
http://cclan.cvs.sourceforge.net/cclan/asdf/The source code of ASDF is here.
Instructions on obtaining ASDF by anonymous CVS can be found at http://sourceforge.net/cvs/?group_id=28536.
Documentation on how to use ASDF can be found in the README text file which comes with ASDF. Or look at the online ASDF Manual. A short howto is also available. And here is a page which explains how to use ASDF with Corman Lisp.
A lot of other asdf-related information can be found on cliki.
The asdf-devel@common-lisp.net mailing list is used for all ASDF discussions. This is where to ask questions, send patches, and generally participate in the development
The currently supported Common Lisp implementations are:
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