When invoked with no arguments in a directory containing an Imakefile, the imake program is run with arguments appropriate for your system (configured into xmkmf when X was built) and generates a Makefile.
When invoked with the -a option, xmkmf builds the Makefile in the current directory, and then automatically executes ``make Makefiles'' (in case there are subdirectories), ``make includes'', and ``make depend'' for you. This is the normal way to configure software that is outside the MIT X build tree.
If working inside the MIT X build tree (unlikely unless you are an X developer, and even then this option is never really used), the topdir argument should be specified as the relative pathname from the current directory to the top of the build tree. Optionally, curdir may be specified as a relative pathname from the top of the build tree to the current directory. It is necessary to supply curdir if the current directory has subdirectories, or the Makefile will not be able to build the subdirectories. If a topdir is given, xmkmf assumes nothing is installed on your system and looks for files in the build tree instead of using the installed versions.