can't ever compile anything :-(

Trevor Smith trevor at haligonian.com
Mon Jan 26 01:18:23 UTC 2004


I usually can't find binary rpms for software I want to use or try so I often 
try to download source and compile it. I can't remember any such attempt ever 
working. It has been so bad that I even wiped FC1 and reinstalled, selecting 
all the default packages in the "developers tools" section. Still, I can't 
ever get a damn thing to compile.

For example, I'm desperately trying to get *any* gnutella client to run on 
this machine so I don't have to boot to Windows for bearshare. Should be 
simple, right? I tried mutella but running the 'make' step generates errors 
including:

[...]
g++ -DHAVE_CONFIG_H -I. -I. -I.. -I/usr/local/include -D_REENTRANT 
-D_MIT_POSIX_THREADS -fno-exceptions -fno-check-new -g -O0 -c -o gnushare.o 
`test -f 'gnushare.cpp' || echo './'`gnushare.cpp
 gnushare.cpp: In member function `void MGnuShare::ResetDirectories(long 
unsigned int&, u_long*)':
 gnushare.cpp:220: error: `assert' undeclared (first use this function)
 gnushare.cpp:220: error: (Each undeclared identifier is reported only once 
for each function it appears in.)
[...]

(Actually that's copied from another person's post who had the same problem.) 
I posted to the help forums for that software but no one replied so I gave up 
and tried qtella. It claims:

'All you need are the Qt libraries compiled with thread support. You can check 
whether these libraries exists by typing "locate qt-mt". If locate does not 
list the libraries...'

No problem, on my system "locate qt-mt" says:

[trevor at localhost qtella-0.6.4]$ locate qt-mt
/usr/lib/qt-3.2/lib/libqt-mt.so.3.2.3
/usr/lib/qt-3.2/lib/libqt-mt.so.3
/usr/lib/qt-3.2/lib/libqt-mt.so.3.2

I figure that means yes, I have them so I try to follow the instructions:

1. tar xzf qtella-VERSION.tar.gz
 2. cd qtella-VERSION
 3. ./configure
...

But at step 3 I get:

[trevor at localhost qtella-0.6.4]$ ./configure
checking for a BSD-compatible install... /usr/bin/install -c
checking whether build environment is sane... yes
/home/trevor/qtella-0.6.4/missing: Unknown `--run' option
Try `/home/trevor/qtella-0.6.4/missing --help' for more information
configure: WARNING: `missing' script is too old or missing
checking for gawk... gawk
checking whether make sets $(MAKE)... yes
checking for g++... g++
checking for C++ compiler default output file name... a.out
checking whether the C++ compiler works... yes
checking whether we are cross compiling... no
checking for suffix of executables...
checking for suffix of object files... o
checking whether we are using the GNU C++ compiler... yes
checking whether g++ accepts -g... yes
checking for style of include used by make... GNU
checking dependency style of g++... gcc3
checking for gcc... gcc
checking whether we are using the GNU C compiler... yes
checking whether gcc accepts -g... yes
checking for gcc option to accept ANSI C... none needed
checking dependency style of gcc... gcc3
checking for a BSD-compatible install... /usr/bin/install -c
checking for Qt moc...
Qt's moc not found! If you have installed Qt in an
unusual place, please use the "--with-qt-moc=" option

So obviously "all I need" is not what is claimed. :-(

One caveat: I did upgrade to the new KDE beta release so I have some newer 
version of Qt on my system I think.

1. Should someone without system-level programming experience on linux ever 
attempt to compile software? It is certainly incomprehensible to me and any 
error stops me dead in the water. The info generated never enlightens me or 
gives me any idea how to "fix" the problem of the moment.

2. Why can a plain vanilla, out of the box FC1 system never successfully 
compile any source I ever download? Is there something else I should install 
on my system to be able to compile most software out there? Or do I generally 
need to become an expert on each individual package I download and try to 
install?

3. How many years of computer science classes will I realistically need to 
attend before I can understand half of what is going on when I try to compile 
any non-trivial linux program?

frustrated beyond description at all the days I've wasted without any 
results. :-(

-- 
 Trevor Smith    |    trevor at haligonian.com 





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