16.1 Basic Installation

The following shell commands:

test -f configure || ./bootstrap
./configure
make
make install

should configure, build, and install this package. The first line, which bootstraps, is intended for developers; when building from distribution tarballs it does nothing and can be skipped.

The following more-detailed instructions are generic; see the README file for instructions specific to this package. More recommendations for GNU packages can be found in Makefile Conventions in GNU Coding Standards.

Many packages have scripts meant for developers instead of ordinary builders, as they may use developer tools that are less commonly installed, or they may access the network, which has privacy implications. If the bootstrap shell script exists, it attempts to build the configure shell script and related files, possibly using developer tools or the network. Because the output of bootstrap is system-independent, it is normally run by a package developer so that its output can be put into the distribution tarball and ordinary builders and users need not run bootstrap. Some packages have commands like ./autopull.sh and ./autogen.sh that you can run instead of ./bootstrap, for more fine-grained control over bootstrapping.

The configure shell script attempts to guess correct values for various system-dependent variables used during compilation. It uses those values to create a Makefile in each directory of the package. It may also create one or more .h files containing system-dependent definitions. Finally, it creates a shell script config.status that you can run in the future to recreate the current configuration, and a file config.log containing output useful for debugging configure.

It can also use an optional file (typically called config.cache and enabled with --cache-file=config.cache or simply -C) that saves the results of its tests to speed up reconfiguring. Caching is disabled by default to prevent problems with accidental use of stale cache files.

If you need to do unusual things to compile the package, please try to figure out how configure could check whether to do them, and mail diffs or instructions to the address given in the README so they can be considered for the next release. If you are using the cache, and at some point config.cache contains results you don’t want to keep, you may remove or edit it.

The autoconf program generates configure from the file configure.ac. Normally you should edit configure.ac instead of editing configure directly.

The simplest way to compile this package is:

1. cd to the directory containing the package’s source code.
2. If this is a developer checkout and file ‘configure’ does not yet exist, type ‘./bootstrap’ to create it. You may need special developer tools and network access to bootstrap, and the network access may have privacy implications.
3. Type ‘./configure’ to configure the package for your system. This might take a while. While running, configure prints messages telling which features it is checking for.
4. Type ‘make’ to compile the package.
5. Optionally, type ‘make check’ to run any self-tests that come with the package, generally using the just-built uninstalled binaries.
6. Type ‘make install’ to install the programs and any data files and documentation. When installing into a prefix owned by root, it is recommended that the package be configured and built as a regular user, and only the ‘make install’ phase executed with root privileges.
7. Optionally, type ‘make installcheck’ to repeat any self-tests, but this time using the binaries in their final installed location. This target does not install anything. Running this target as a regular user, particularly if the prior ‘make install’ required root privileges, verifies that the installation completed correctly.
8. You can remove the program binaries and object files from the source code directory by typing ‘make clean’. To also remove the files that configure created (so you can compile the package for a different kind of computer), type ‘make distclean’. There is also a ‘make maintainer-clean’ target, but that is intended mainly for the package’s developers. If you use it, you may have to bootstrap again.
9. If the package follows the GNU Coding Standards, you can type ‘make uninstall’ to remove the installed files.