You can compile the package for more than one kind of computer at the
same time, by placing the object files for each system in their
own directory. To do this, you can use GNU make.
cd to the directory where you want the object files and
executables to go and run the configure script.
configure automatically checks for the source code in the
directory that configure is in and in ... This is
known as a VPATH build.
With a non-GNU make,
it is safer to compile the package for one
system at a time in the source code directory. After you have
installed the package for one system, use ‘make distclean’
before reconfiguring for another system.
Some platforms, notably macOS, support “fat” or “universal” binaries, where a single binary can execute on different architectures. On these platforms you can configure and compile just once, with options specific to that platform.