autoconf.info: Basic Installation

Running configure Scripts

Compilers and Options

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16.1 Basic Installation
=======================

Briefly, the shell commands `./configure; make; make install' should
configure, build, and install this package.  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 *note Makefile Conventions:
(standards)Makefile Conventions.

   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 compiler output (useful mainly 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 file `configure.ac' (or `configure.in') is used to create
`configure' by a program called `autoconf'.  You need `configure.ac' if
you want to change it or regenerate `configure' using a newer version
of `autoconf'.

   The simplest way to compile this package is:

  1. `cd' to the directory containing the package's source code and type
     `./configure' to configure the package for your system.

     Running `configure' might take a while.  While running, it prints
     some messages telling which features it is checking for.

  2. Type `make' to compile the package.

  3. Optionally, type `make check' to run any self-tests that come with
     the package, generally using the just-built uninstalled binaries.

  4. 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.

  5. 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.

  6. 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 get
     all sorts of other programs in order to regenerate files that came
     with the distribution.

  7. Often, you can also type `make uninstall' to remove the installed
     files again.  In practice, not all packages have tested that
     uninstallation works correctly, even though it is required by the
     GNU Coding Standards.

  8. Some packages, particularly those that use Automake, provide `make
     distcheck', which can by used by developers to test that all other
     targets like `make install' and `make uninstall' work correctly.
     This target is generally not run by end users.