1 Installation Instructions
2 *************************
4 Copyright (C) 1994-1996, 1999-2002, 2004-2016 Free Software
7 Copying and distribution of this file, with or without modification,
8 are permitted in any medium without royalty provided the copyright
9 notice and this notice are preserved. This file is offered as-is,
10 without warranty of any kind.
15 These are generic installation instructions.
17 Briefly, the shell command './configure && make && make install'
18 should configure, build, and install this package. The following
19 more-detailed instructions are generic; see the 'README' file for
20 instructions specific to this package. Some packages provide this
21 'INSTALL' file but do not implement all of the features documented
22 below. The lack of an optional feature in a given package is not
23 necessarily a bug. More recommendations for GNU packages can be found
24 in *note Makefile Conventions: (standards)Makefile Conventions.
26 The 'configure' shell script attempts to guess correct values for
27 various system-dependent variables used during compilation. It uses
28 those values to create a 'Makefile' in each directory of the package.
29 It may also create one or more '.h' files containing system-dependent
30 definitions. Finally, it creates a shell script 'config.status' that
31 you can run in the future to recreate the current configuration, and a
32 file 'config.log' containing compiler output (useful mainly for
33 debugging 'configure').
35 It can also use an optional file (typically called 'config.cache' and
36 enabled with '--cache-file=config.cache' or simply '-C') that saves the
37 results of its tests to speed up reconfiguring. Caching is disabled by
38 default to prevent problems with accidental use of stale cache files.
40 If you need to do unusual things to compile the package, please try
41 to figure out how 'configure' could check whether to do them, and mail
42 diffs or instructions to the address given in the 'README' so they can
43 be considered for the next release. If you are using the cache, and at
44 some point 'config.cache' contains results you don't want to keep, you
45 may remove or edit it.
47 The file 'configure.ac' (or 'configure.in') is used to create
48 'configure' by a program called 'autoconf'. You need 'configure.ac' if
49 you want to change it or regenerate 'configure' using a newer version of
52 The simplest way to compile this package is:
54 1. 'cd' to the directory containing the package's source code and type
55 './configure' to configure the package for your system.
57 Running 'configure' might take a while. While running, it prints
58 some messages telling which features it is checking for.
60 2. Type 'make' to compile the package.
62 3. Optionally, type 'make check' to run any self-tests that come with
63 the package, generally using the just-built uninstalled binaries.
65 4. Type 'make install' to install the programs and any data files and
66 documentation. When installing into a prefix owned by root, it is
67 recommended that the package be configured and built as a regular
68 user, and only the 'make install' phase executed with root
71 5. Optionally, type 'make installcheck' to repeat any self-tests, but
72 this time using the binaries in their final installed location.
73 This target does not install anything. Running this target as a
74 regular user, particularly if the prior 'make install' required
75 root privileges, verifies that the installation completed
78 6. You can remove the program binaries and object files from the
79 source code directory by typing 'make clean'. To also remove the
80 files that 'configure' created (so you can compile the package for
81 a different kind of computer), type 'make distclean'. There is
82 also a 'make maintainer-clean' target, but that is intended mainly
83 for the package's developers. If you use it, you may have to get
84 all sorts of other programs in order to regenerate files that came
85 with the distribution.
87 7. Often, you can also type 'make uninstall' to remove the installed
88 files again. In practice, not all packages have tested that
89 uninstallation works correctly, even though it is required by the
92 8. Some packages, particularly those that use Automake, provide 'make
93 distcheck', which can by used by developers to test that all other
94 targets like 'make install' and 'make uninstall' work correctly.
95 This target is generally not run by end users.
100 Some systems require unusual options for compilation or linking that
101 the 'configure' script does not know about. Run './configure --help'
102 for details on some of the pertinent environment variables.
104 You can give 'configure' initial values for configuration parameters
105 by setting variables in the command line or in the environment. Here is
108 ./configure CC=c99 CFLAGS=-g LIBS=-lposix
110 *Note Defining Variables::, for more details.
112 Compiling For Multiple Architectures
113 ====================================
115 You can compile the package for more than one kind of computer at the
116 same time, by placing the object files for each architecture in their
117 own directory. To do this, you can use GNU 'make'. 'cd' to the
118 directory where you want the object files and executables to go and run
119 the 'configure' script. 'configure' automatically checks for the source
120 code in the directory that 'configure' is in and in '..'. This is known
123 With a non-GNU 'make', it is safer to compile the package for one
124 architecture at a time in the source code directory. After you have
125 installed the package for one architecture, use 'make distclean' before
126 reconfiguring for another architecture.
128 On MacOS X 10.5 and later systems, you can create libraries and
129 executables that work on multiple system types--known as "fat" or
130 "universal" binaries--by specifying multiple '-arch' options to the
131 compiler but only a single '-arch' option to the preprocessor. Like
134 ./configure CC="gcc -arch i386 -arch x86_64 -arch ppc -arch ppc64" \
135 CXX="g++ -arch i386 -arch x86_64 -arch ppc -arch ppc64" \
136 CPP="gcc -E" CXXCPP="g++ -E"
138 This is not guaranteed to produce working output in all cases, you
139 may have to build one architecture at a time and combine the results
140 using the 'lipo' tool if you have problems.
145 By default, 'make install' installs the package's commands under
146 '/usr/local/bin', include files under '/usr/local/include', etc. You
147 can specify an installation prefix other than '/usr/local' by giving
148 'configure' the option '--prefix=PREFIX', where PREFIX must be an
151 You can specify separate installation prefixes for
152 architecture-specific files and architecture-independent files. If you
153 pass the option '--exec-prefix=PREFIX' to 'configure', the package uses
154 PREFIX as the prefix for installing programs and libraries.
155 Documentation and other data files still use the regular prefix.
157 In addition, if you use an unusual directory layout you can give
158 options like '--bindir=DIR' to specify different values for particular
159 kinds of files. Run 'configure --help' for a list of the directories
160 you can set and what kinds of files go in them. In general, the default
161 for these options is expressed in terms of '${prefix}', so that
162 specifying just '--prefix' will affect all of the other directory
163 specifications that were not explicitly provided.
165 The most portable way to affect installation locations is to pass the
166 correct locations to 'configure'; however, many packages provide one or
167 both of the following shortcuts of passing variable assignments to the
168 'make install' command line to change installation locations without
169 having to reconfigure or recompile.
171 The first method involves providing an override variable for each
172 affected directory. For example, 'make install
173 prefix=/alternate/directory' will choose an alternate location for all
174 directory configuration variables that were expressed in terms of
175 '${prefix}'. Any directories that were specified during 'configure',
176 but not in terms of '${prefix}', must each be overridden at install time
177 for the entire installation to be relocated. The approach of makefile
178 variable overrides for each directory variable is required by the GNU
179 Coding Standards, and ideally causes no recompilation. However, some
180 platforms have known limitations with the semantics of shared libraries
181 that end up requiring recompilation when using this method, particularly
182 noticeable in packages that use GNU Libtool.
184 The second method involves providing the 'DESTDIR' variable. For
185 example, 'make install DESTDIR=/alternate/directory' will prepend
186 '/alternate/directory' before all installation names. The approach of
187 'DESTDIR' overrides is not required by the GNU Coding Standards, and
188 does not work on platforms that have drive letters. On the other hand,
189 it does better at avoiding recompilation issues, and works well even
190 when some directory options were not specified in terms of '${prefix}'
196 If the package supports it, you can cause programs to be installed
197 with an extra prefix or suffix on their names by giving 'configure' the
198 option '--program-prefix=PREFIX' or '--program-suffix=SUFFIX'.
200 Some packages pay attention to '--enable-FEATURE' options to
201 'configure', where FEATURE indicates an optional part of the package.
202 They may also pay attention to '--with-PACKAGE' options, where PACKAGE
203 is something like 'gnu-as' or 'x' (for the X Window System). The
204 'README' should mention any '--enable-' and '--with-' options that the
207 For packages that use the X Window System, 'configure' can usually
208 find the X include and library files automatically, but if it doesn't,
209 you can use the 'configure' options '--x-includes=DIR' and
210 '--x-libraries=DIR' to specify their locations.
212 Some packages offer the ability to configure how verbose the
213 execution of 'make' will be. For these packages, running './configure
214 --enable-silent-rules' sets the default to minimal output, which can be
215 overridden with 'make V=1'; while running './configure
216 --disable-silent-rules' sets the default to verbose, which can be
217 overridden with 'make V=0'.
222 On HP-UX, the default C compiler is not ANSI C compatible. If GNU CC
223 is not installed, it is recommended to use the following options in
224 order to use an ANSI C compiler:
226 ./configure CC="cc -Ae -D_XOPEN_SOURCE=500"
228 and if that doesn't work, install pre-built binaries of GCC for HP-UX.
230 HP-UX 'make' updates targets which have the same time stamps as their
231 prerequisites, which makes it generally unusable when shipped generated
232 files such as 'configure' are involved. Use GNU 'make' instead.
234 On OSF/1 a.k.a. Tru64, some versions of the default C compiler cannot
235 parse its '<wchar.h>' header file. The option '-nodtk' can be used as a
236 workaround. If GNU CC is not installed, it is therefore recommended to
241 and if that doesn't work, try
243 ./configure CC="cc -nodtk"
245 On Solaris, don't put '/usr/ucb' early in your 'PATH'. This
246 directory contains several dysfunctional programs; working variants of
247 these programs are available in '/usr/bin'. So, if you need '/usr/ucb'
248 in your 'PATH', put it _after_ '/usr/bin'.
250 On Haiku, software installed for all users goes in '/boot/common',
251 not '/usr/local'. It is recommended to use the following options:
253 ./configure --prefix=/boot/common
255 Specifying the System Type
256 ==========================
258 There may be some features 'configure' cannot figure out
259 automatically, but needs to determine by the type of machine the package
260 will run on. Usually, assuming the package is built to be run on the
261 _same_ architectures, 'configure' can figure that out, but if it prints
262 a message saying it cannot guess the machine type, give it the
263 '--build=TYPE' option. TYPE can either be a short name for the system
264 type, such as 'sun4', or a canonical name which has the form:
268 where SYSTEM can have one of these forms:
273 See the file 'config.sub' for the possible values of each field. If
274 'config.sub' isn't included in this package, then this package doesn't
275 need to know the machine type.
277 If you are _building_ compiler tools for cross-compiling, you should
278 use the option '--target=TYPE' to select the type of system they will
281 If you want to _use_ a cross compiler, that generates code for a
282 platform different from the build platform, you should specify the
283 "host" platform (i.e., that on which the generated programs will
284 eventually be run) with '--host=TYPE'.
289 If you want to set default values for 'configure' scripts to share,
290 you can create a site shell script called 'config.site' that gives
291 default values for variables like 'CC', 'cache_file', and 'prefix'.
292 'configure' looks for 'PREFIX/share/config.site' if it exists, then
293 'PREFIX/etc/config.site' if it exists. Or, you can set the
294 'CONFIG_SITE' environment variable to the location of the site script.
295 A warning: not all 'configure' scripts look for a site script.
300 Variables not defined in a site shell script can be set in the
301 environment passed to 'configure'. However, some packages may run
302 configure again during the build, and the customized values of these
303 variables may be lost. In order to avoid this problem, you should set
304 them in the 'configure' command line, using 'VAR=value'. For example:
306 ./configure CC=/usr/local2/bin/gcc
308 causes the specified 'gcc' to be used as the C compiler (unless it is
309 overridden in the site shell script).
311 Unfortunately, this technique does not work for 'CONFIG_SHELL' due to an
312 Autoconf limitation. Until the limitation is lifted, you can use this
315 CONFIG_SHELL=/bin/bash ./configure CONFIG_SHELL=/bin/bash
317 'configure' Invocation
318 ======================
320 'configure' recognizes the following options to control how it
325 Print a summary of all of the options to 'configure', and exit.
329 Print a summary of the options unique to this package's
330 'configure', and exit. The 'short' variant lists options used only
331 in the top level, while the 'recursive' variant lists options also
332 present in any nested packages.
336 Print the version of Autoconf used to generate the 'configure'
340 Enable the cache: use and save the results of the tests in FILE,
341 traditionally 'config.cache'. FILE defaults to '/dev/null' to
346 Alias for '--cache-file=config.cache'.
351 Do not print messages saying which checks are being made. To
352 suppress all normal output, redirect it to '/dev/null' (any error
353 messages will still be shown).
356 Look for the package's source code in directory DIR. Usually
357 'configure' can determine that directory automatically.
360 Use DIR as the installation prefix. *note Installation Names:: for
361 more details, including other options available for fine-tuning the
362 installation locations.
366 Run the configure checks, but stop before creating any output
369 'configure' also accepts some other, not widely useful, options. Run
370 'configure --help' for more details.