3.2 Package configuration

Each package can be customized to your liking. Because GNU packages follow a standardized build process, customizing the GSRC build for one is straightforward.

GNU packages take most of their configuration in the form of options passed to the configure script. One may easily customize these options in a GSRC Makefile by setting the CONFIGURE_OPTS variable. Any options added to this variable will be appended to the options set by default by GSRC.

CONFIGURE_OPTS = --disable-gtk --without-png

For convenience, every package has a file called config.mk in its directory which is imported by its build script. Typically, all user configuration should be done here. By default, it contains the CONFIGURE_OPTS and BUILD_OPTS variables. In some special cases, package-specific, user-customize-able variables are also defined in this file.

Generally speaking, user configuration is done exclusively in config.mk while Makefile contains the information and recipes necessary for the package to build correctly. Thus, you should not need to modify the Makefile unless you have special requirements. Note that most configuration options relating to directory locations (such as where to install, where to search for libraries, etc.) are set in the Makefile, because they are necessary for proper building and installation in GSRC. Therefore, you do not need to worry about setting them correctly in config.mk.