1 Installation Instructions
2 *************************
4 Copyright (C) 1994-1996, 1999-2002, 2004-2012 Free Software Foundation,
7 Copying and distribution of this file, with or without modification, are
8 permitted in any medium without royalty provided the copyright notice
9 and this notice are preserved. This file is offered as-is, without
15 Briefly, the shell commands `./configure; make; make install' should
16 configure, build, and install this package. The following
17 more-detailed instructions are generic; see the `README' file for
18 instructions specific to this package. Some packages provide this
19 `INSTALL' file but do not implement all of the features documented
20 below. The lack of an optional feature in a given package is not
21 necessarily a bug. More recommendations for GNU packages can be found
22 in *note Makefile Conventions: (standards)Makefile Conventions.
24 The `configure' shell script attempts to guess correct values for
25 various system-dependent variables used during compilation. It uses
26 those values to create a `Makefile' in each directory of the package.
27 It may also create one or more `.h' files containing system-dependent
28 definitions. Finally, it creates a shell script `config.status' that
29 you can run in the future to recreate the current configuration, and a
30 file `config.log' containing compiler output (useful mainly for
31 debugging `configure').
33 It can also use an optional file (typically called `config.cache'
34 and enabled with `--cache-file=config.cache' or simply `-C') that saves
35 the results of its tests to speed up reconfiguring. Caching is
36 disabled by default to prevent problems with accidental use of stale
39 If you need to do unusual things to compile the package, please try
40 to figure out how `configure' could check whether to do them, and mail
41 diffs or instructions to the address given in the `README' so they can
42 be considered for the next release. If you are using the cache, and at
43 some point `config.cache' contains results you don't want to keep, you
44 may remove or edit it.
46 The file `configure.ac' (or `configure.in') is used to create
47 `configure' by a program called `autoconf'. You need `configure.ac' if
48 you want to change it or regenerate `configure' using a newer version
51 The simplest way to compile this package is:
53 1. `cd' to the directory containing the package's source code and type
54 `./configure' to configure the package for your system.
56 Running `configure' might take a while. While running, it prints
57 some messages telling which features it is checking for.
59 2. Type `make' to compile the package.
61 3. Optionally, type `make check' to run any self-tests that come with
62 the package, generally using the just-built uninstalled binaries.
64 4. Type `make install' to install the programs and any data files and
65 documentation. When installing into a prefix owned by root, it is
66 recommended that the package be configured and built as a regular
67 user, and only the `make install' phase executed with root
70 5. Optionally, type `make installcheck' to repeat any self-tests, but
71 this time using the binaries in their final installed location.
72 This target does not install anything. Running this target as a
73 regular user, particularly if the prior `make install' required
74 root privileges, verifies that the installation completed
77 6. You can remove the program binaries and object files from the
78 source code directory by typing `make clean'. To also remove the
79 files that `configure' created (so you can compile the package for
80 a different kind of computer), type `make distclean'. There is
81 also a `make maintainer-clean' target, but that is intended mainly
82 for the package's developers. If you use it, you may have to get
83 all sorts of other programs in order to regenerate files that came
84 with the distribution.
86 7. Often, you can also type `make uninstall' to remove the installed
87 files again. In practice, not all packages have tested that
88 uninstallation works correctly, even though it is required by the
91 8. Some packages, particularly those that use Automake, provide `make
92 distcheck', which can by used by developers to test that all other
93 targets like `make install' and `make uninstall' work correctly.
94 This target is generally not run by end users.
99 Some systems require unusual options for compilation or linking that the
100 `configure' script does not know about. Run `./configure --help' for
101 details on some of the pertinent environment variables.
103 You can give `configure' initial values for configuration parameters
104 by setting variables in the command line or in the environment. Here
107 ./configure CC=c99 CFLAGS=-g LIBS=-lposix
109 *Note Defining Variables::, for more details.
114 By default, `make install' installs the package's commands under
115 `/usr/local/bin', include files under `/usr/local/include', etc. You
116 can specify an installation prefix other than `/usr/local' by giving
117 `configure' the option `--prefix=PREFIX', where PREFIX must be an
120 You can specify separate installation prefixes for
121 architecture-specific files and architecture-independent files. If you
122 pass the option `--exec-prefix=PREFIX' to `configure', the package uses
123 PREFIX as the prefix for installing programs and libraries.
124 Documentation and other data files still use the regular prefix.
126 In addition, if you use an unusual directory layout you can give
127 options like `--bindir=DIR' to specify different values for particular
128 kinds of files. Run `configure --help' for a list of the directories
129 you can set and what kinds of files go in them. In general, the
130 default for these options is expressed in terms of `${prefix}', so that
131 specifying just `--prefix' will affect all of the other directory
132 specifications that were not explicitly provided.
134 The most portable way to affect installation locations is to pass the
135 correct locations to `configure'; however, many packages provide one or
136 both of the following shortcuts of passing variable assignments to the
137 `make install' command line to change installation locations without
138 having to reconfigure or recompile.
140 The first method involves providing an override variable for each
141 affected directory. For example, `make install
142 prefix=/alternate/directory' will choose an alternate location for all
143 directory configuration variables that were expressed in terms of
144 `${prefix}'. Any directories that were specified during `configure',
145 but not in terms of `${prefix}', must each be overridden at install
146 time for the entire installation to be relocated. The approach of
147 makefile variable overrides for each directory variable is required by
148 the GNU Coding Standards, and ideally causes no recompilation.
149 However, some platforms have known limitations with the semantics of
150 shared libraries that end up requiring recompilation when using this
151 method, particularly noticeable in packages that use GNU Libtool.
153 The second method involves providing the `DESTDIR' variable. For
154 example, `make install DESTDIR=/alternate/directory' will prepend
155 `/alternate/directory' before all installation names. The approach of
156 `DESTDIR' overrides is not required by the GNU Coding Standards, and
157 does not work on platforms that have drive letters. On the other hand,
158 it does better at avoiding recompilation issues, and works well even
159 when some directory options were not specified in terms of `${prefix}'
165 If the package supports it, you can cause programs to be installed with
166 an extra prefix or suffix on their names by giving `configure' the
167 option `--program-prefix=PREFIX' or `--program-suffix=SUFFIX'.
169 Some packages pay attention to `--enable-FEATURE' options to
170 `configure', where FEATURE indicates an optional part of the package.
171 They may also pay attention to `--with-PACKAGE' options, where PACKAGE
172 is something like `gnu-as' or `x' (for the X Window System). The
173 `README' should mention any `--enable-' and `--with-' options that the
176 For packages that use the X Window System, `configure' can usually
177 find the X include and library files automatically, but if it doesn't,
178 you can use the `configure' options `--x-includes=DIR' and
179 `--x-libraries=DIR' to specify their locations.
181 Some packages offer the ability to configure how verbose the
182 execution of `make' will be. For these packages, running `./configure
183 --enable-silent-rules' sets the default to minimal output, which can be
184 overridden with `make V=1'; while running `./configure
185 --disable-silent-rules' sets the default to verbose, which can be
186 overridden with `make V=0'.
188 Specifying the System Type
189 ==========================
191 There may be some features `configure' cannot figure out automatically,
192 but needs to determine by the type of machine the package will run on.
193 Usually, assuming the package is built to be run on the _same_
194 architectures, `configure' can figure that out, but if it prints a
195 message saying it cannot guess the machine type, give it the
196 `--build=TYPE' option. TYPE can either be a short name for the system
197 type, such as `sun4', or a canonical name which has the form:
201 where SYSTEM can have one of these forms:
206 See the file `config.sub' for the possible values of each field. If
207 `config.sub' isn't included in this package, then this package doesn't
208 need to know the machine type.
210 If you are _building_ compiler tools for cross-compiling, you should
211 use the option `--target=TYPE' to select the type of system they will
214 If you want to _use_ a cross compiler, that generates code for a
215 platform different from the build platform, you should specify the
216 "host" platform (i.e., that on which the generated programs will
217 eventually be run) with `--host=TYPE'.
222 If you want to set default values for `configure' scripts to share, you
223 can create a site shell script called `config.site' that gives default
224 values for variables like `CC', `cache_file', and `prefix'.
225 `configure' looks for `PREFIX/share/config.site' if it exists, then
226 `PREFIX/etc/config.site' if it exists. Or, you can set the
227 `CONFIG_SITE' environment variable to the location of the site script.
228 A warning: not all `configure' scripts look for a site script.
233 Variables not defined in a site shell script can be set in the
234 environment passed to `configure'. However, some packages may run
235 configure again during the build, and the customized values of these
236 variables may be lost. In order to avoid this problem, you should set
237 them in the `configure' command line, using `VAR=value'. For example:
239 ./configure CC=/usr/local2/bin/gcc
241 causes the specified `gcc' to be used as the C compiler (unless it is
242 overridden in the site shell script).
244 Unfortunately, this technique does not work for `CONFIG_SHELL' due to
245 an Autoconf limitation. Until the limitation is lifted, you can use
248 CONFIG_SHELL=/bin/bash ./configure CONFIG_SHELL=/bin/bash
250 `configure' Invocation
251 ======================
253 `configure' recognizes the following options to control how it operates.
257 Print a summary of all of the options to `configure', and exit.
261 Print a summary of the options unique to this package's
262 `configure', and exit. The `short' variant lists options used
263 only in the top level, while the `recursive' variant lists options
264 also present in any nested packages.
268 Print the version of Autoconf used to generate the `configure'
272 Enable the cache: use and save the results of the tests in FILE,
273 traditionally `config.cache'. FILE defaults to `/dev/null' to
278 Alias for `--cache-file=config.cache'.
283 Do not print messages saying which checks are being made. To
284 suppress all normal output, redirect it to `/dev/null' (any error
285 messages will still be shown).
288 Look for the package's source code in directory DIR. Usually
289 `configure' can determine that directory automatically.
292 Use DIR as the installation prefix. *note Installation Names::
293 for more details, including other options available for fine-tuning
294 the installation locations.
298 Run the configure checks, but stop before creating any output
301 `configure' also accepts some other, not widely useful, options. Run
302 `configure --help' for more details.