./configure command

[Michael Hennebry]

On Fri, 7 Apr 2006, Ralf Corsepius wrote:

> On Thu, 2006-04-06 at 21:22 -0500, Michael Hennebry wrote:

> > About ./configure and make:
> >
> > Performing ./configure and make as an
> > ordinary user is probably safe enough.
> Well, though it's safe in the sense of "It won't corrupt your system",
> this is likely to have other side-effects on this user.
>
> > It's doing the make install as root
> > that has the potential for trouble.
> > My first thought in this regard
> > is to determine whether one really
> > wants the software installed as
> > as system software.  If not,
> > something like
> > make prefix=$HOME/verylocal install
> > will probably do the trick.
> Nope. Think along library search paths, include file search paths
> configuration file search paths and hard-coded directory/filenames.
>
> In most case you will want
> configure --prefix=$HOME/verylocal
> not
> make prefix=$HOME/verylocal
>
> because packages containing hard-codes directories/filenames/paths will
> encode them at configuration time.
> I.e. most packages having been configured with
> ./configure --prefix=/usr
> and installed with
> make prefix=$HOME
> will contain hard-coded references to /usr instead of $HOME.

make -n is a good thing,
though if something that compiles won't run,
it won't tell you what the runtime library
search path should be.

> > One does not have to become root.
> > If one does want the software
> > installed as system software,
> > do some testing first.
> > Edit Makefile,
> > removing any .SILENT targets.
> > As an ordinary user,
> > make -n prefix=/opt 'CP=cp -i' install 2>&1 | tee makeno.out
> Same as above. This won't work in most cases.

In this case, I'm not sure what "won't work" means.
Do you mean that it won't give one a good idea whether
something one doesn't want clobbered will get clobbered?

-- 
Mike   hennebry at web.cs.ndsu.NoDak.edu
"Demons after money?
Whatever happened to the still-beating heart of a virgin?
No one has any standards any more."                    --  Rupert Giles