Most of the options to configure (which are to do with building) are similar for every program which uses this script. Here the options that are particular to Gnuastro are discussed. The next topics explain the usage of other configure options which can be applied to any program using the GNU build system (through the configure script).
Compile/build Gnuastro with debugging information, no optimization and without shared libraries.
In order to allow more efficient programs when using Gnuastro (after the installation), by default Gnuastro is built with a 3rd level (a very high level) optimization and no debugging information.
By default, libraries are also built for static and shared linking (see Linking).
However, when there are crashes or unexpected behavior, these three features can hinder the process of localizing the problem.
This configuration option is identical to manually calling the configuration script with CFLAGS="-g -O0" --disable-shared.
In the (rare) situations where you need to do your debugging on the shared libraries, do not use this option.
Instead run the configure script by explicitly setting CFLAGS like this:
$ ./configure CFLAGS="-g -O0"
Do the make check tests through Valgrind.
Therefore, if any crashes or memory-related issues (segmentation faults in particular) occur in the tests, the output of Valgrind will also be put in the tests/test-suite.log file without having to manually modify the check scripts.
This option will also activate Gnuastro’s debug mode (see the --enable-debug configure-time option described above).
Valgrind is free software.
It is a program for easy checking of memory-related issues in programs.
It runs a program within its own controlled environment and can thus identify the exact line-number in the program’s source where a memory-related issue occurs.
However, it can significantly slow-down the tests.
So this option is only useful when a segmentation fault is found during make check.
Only build and install progname along with any other program that is enabled in this fashion. progname is the name of the executable without the ast, for example, crop for Crop (with the executable name of astcrop).
Note that by default all the programs will be installed. This option (and the --disable-progname options) are only relevant when you do not want to install all the programs. Therefore, if this option is called for any of the programs in Gnuastro, any program which is not explicitly enabled will not be built or installed.
Do not build or install the program named progname. This is very similar to the --enable-progname, but will build and install all the other programs except this one.
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Note: If some programs are enabled and some are disabled, it is equivalent to simply enabling those that were enabled. Listing the disabled programs is redundant. |
Enable checks on the GNU Portability Library (Gnulib).
Gnulib is used by Gnuastro to enable users of non-GNU based operating systems (that do not use GNU C library or glibc) to compile and use the advanced features that this library provides.
We make extensive use of such functions.
If you give this option to $ ./configure, when you run $ make check, first the functions in Gnulib will be tested, then the Gnuastro executables.
If your operating system does not support glibc or has an older version of it and you have problems in the build process ($ make), you can give this flag to configure to see if the problem is caused by Gnulib not supporting your operating system or Gnuastro, see Known issues.
Do not print a guiding message during the GNU Build process of Quick start.
By default, after each step, a message is printed guiding the user what the next command should be.
Therefore, after ./configure, it will suggest running make.
After make, it will suggest running make check and so on.
If Gnuastro is configured with this option, for example
$ ./configure --disable-guide-message
Then these messages will not be printed after any step (like most programs). For people who are not yet fully accustomed to this build system, these guidelines can be very useful and encouraging. However, if you find those messages annoying, use this option.
Build Gnuastro without libgit2 (for including Git commit hashes in output files), see Optional dependencies. libgit2 is an optional dependency, with this option, Gnuastro will ignore any possibly existing libgit2 that may already be on the system.
Build Gnuastro without libjpeg (for reading/writing to JPEG files), see Optional dependencies. libjpeg is an optional dependency, with this option, Gnuastro will ignore any possibly existing libjpeg that may already be on the system.
Build Gnuastro without libtiff (for reading/writing to TIFF files), see Optional dependencies. libtiff is an optional dependency, with this option, Gnuastro will ignore any possibly existing libtiff that may already be on the system.
Build the Python interface within Gnuastro’s dynamic library. This interface can be used for easy communication with Python wrappers (for example, the pyGnuastro package).
When you install the pyGnuastro package from PyPI, the correct configuration of the Gnuastro Library is already packaged with it (with the Python interface) and that is independent of your Gnuastro installation. The Python interface is only necessary if you want to build pyGnuastro from source (which is only necessary for developers). Therefore it has to be explicitly activated at configure time with this option. For more on the interface functions, see Python interface (python.h).
The tests of some programs might depend on the outputs of the tests of other programs.
For example, MakeProfiles is one the first programs to be tested when you run $ make check.
MakeProfiles’ test outputs (FITS images) are inputs to many other programs (which in turn provide inputs for other programs).
Therefore, if you do not install MakeProfiles for example, the tests for many the other programs will be skipped.
To avoid this, in one run, you can install all the programs and run the tests but not install.
If everything is working correctly, you can run configure again with only the programs you want.
However, do not run the tests and directly install after building.
GNU Astronomy Utilities 0.22 manual, February 2024.