INSTALL

   1 Brief Installation Instructions ===========================================
   2
   3 To build Guile on unix, there are two basic steps:
   4
   5         1. Type "./configure", to configure the package for your system.
   6         2. Type "make", to build the package.
   7
   8 Generic instructions for configuring and compiling GNU distributions
   9 are included below.  (For instructions how to install SLIB, the scheme
  10 procedure library, see below.)
  11
  12
  13 Special Instructions For Some Systems =====================================
  14
  15 We would like Guile to build on all systems using the simple
  16 instructions above, but it seems that a few systems still need special
  17 treatment.  If you can send us fixes for these problems, we'd be
  18 grateful.
  19
  20 SunOS 4.1: Guile's shared library support seems to be confused, but
  21     hey; shared libraries are confusing.  You may need to configure
  22     Guile with a command like:
  23         ./configure --disable-shared
  24     For more information on `--disable-shared', see below, "Flags
  25     Accepted by Configure".
  26
  27 HP/UX: GCC 2.7.2 (and maybe other versions) have trouble creating
  28     shared libraries if they depend on any non-shared libraries.  GCC
  29     seems to have other problems as well.  To work around this, we
  30     suggest you configure Guile to use the system's C compiler:
  31         CC=cc ./configure
  32
  33 NetBSD: Perry Metzger says, "Guile will build under NetBSD only using
  34     gmake -- the native make will not work.  (gmake is in our package
  35     system, so this will not be a problem when we packagize 1.3.)"
  36
  37
  38 Flags Accepted by Configure ===============================================
  39
  40 If you run the configure script with no arguments, it should examine
  41 your system and set things up appropriately.  However, there are a few
  42 switches specific to Guile you may find useful in some circumstances.
  43
  44 --enable-maintainer-mode --- If you have automake, autoconf, and
  45 libtool installed on your system, this switch causes configure to
  46 generate Makefiles which know how to automatically regenerate
  47 configure scripts, makefiles, and headers, when they are out of date.
  48 The README file says which versions of those tools you will need.
  49
  50 --with-threads --- Build a Guile executable and library that supports
  51 cooperative threading.  If you use this switch, Guile will also build
  52 and install the QuickThreads non-preemptive threading library,
  53 libqthreads, which you will need to link into your programs after
  54 libguile.  When you use `guile-config', you will pick up all
  55 neccessary linker flags automatically.
  56
  57 Cooperative threads are not yet thoroughly tested; once they are, they
  58 will be enabled by default.  The interaction with blocking I/O is
  59 pretty ad hoc at the moment.  In our experience, bugs in the thread
  60 support do not affect you if you don't actually use threads.
  61
  62 --with-modules --- Guile can dynamically load `plugin modules' during
  63 runtime, using facilities provided by libtool.  Not all platforms
  64 support this, however.  On these platforms, you can statically link
  65 the plugin modules into libguile when Guile itself is build.  XXX -
  66 how does one specify the modules?
  67
  68 --disable-shared --- Do not build shared libraries.  Normally, Guile
  69 will build shared libraries if your system supports them.  Guile
  70 always builds static libraries.
  71
  72 --enable-debug-freelist --- Enable freelist debugging.
  73
  74 This enables a debugging version of SCM_NEWCELL(), and also registers
  75 an extra primitive, the setter `gc-set-debug-check-freelist!'.
  76
  77 Configure with the --enable-debug-freelist option to enable
  78 the gc-set-debug-check-freelist! primitive, and then use:
  79
  80 (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #t)  # turn on checking of the freelist
  81 (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #f)  # turn off checking
  82
  83 Checking of the freelist forces a traversal of the freelist and
  84 a garbage collection before each allocation of a cell.  This can
  85 slow down the interpreter dramatically, so the setter should be used to
  86 turn on this extra processing only when necessary.
  87
  88 --enable-debug-malloc --- Enable malloc debugging.
  89
  90 Include code for debugging of calls to scm_must_malloc/realloc/free.
  91
  92 Checks that
  93
  94 1. objects freed by scm_must_free has been mallocated by scm_must_malloc
  95 2. objects reallocated by scm_must_realloc has been allocated by
  96    scm_must_malloc
  97 3. reallocated objects are reallocated with the same what string
  98
  99 But, most importantly, it records the number of allocated objects of
 100 each kind.  This is useful when searching for memory leaks.
 101
 102 A Guile compiled with this option provides the primitive
 103 `malloc-stats' which returns an alist with pairs of kind and the
 104 number of objects of that kind.
 105
 106 --disable-arrays     --- omit array and uniform array support
 107 --disable-posix      --- omit posix interfaces
 108 --disable-networking --- omit networking interfaces
 109 --disable-regex      --- omit regular expression interfaces
 110
 111
 112 Using Guile Without Installing It =========================================
 113
 114 If you want to run Guile without installing it, set the environment
 115 variable `GUILE_LOAD_PATH' to a colon-separated list of directories,
 116 including the directory containing this INSTALL file.  If you used a
 117 separate build directory, you'll need to include the build directory
 118 in the path as well.
 119
 120 For example, suppose the Guile distribution unpacked into a directory
 121 called `/home/jimb/guile-snap' (so the full name of this INSTALL file
 122 would be `/home/jimb/guile-snap/INSTALL').  Then you might say, if
 123 you're using Bash or any other Bourne shell variant,
 124
 125   export GUILE_LOAD_PATH=/home/jimb/guile-snap
 126
 127 or if you're using CSH or one of its variants:
 128
 129   setenv GUILE_LOAD_PATH /home/jimb/guile-snap
 130
 131
 132 Installing SLIB ===========================================================
 133
 134 In order to use SLIB from Guile you basically only need to put the
 135 `slib' directory _in_ one of the directories on Guile's load path.
 136
 137 The standard installation is:
 138
 139   1. Obtain slib from http://www-swiss.ai.mit.edu/~jaffer/SLIB.html
 140
 141   2. Put it in Guile's data directory, that is the directory printed when
 142      you type
 143
 144        guile-config info pkgdatadir
 145
 146      at the shell prompt.  This is normally `/usr/local/share/guile', so the
 147      directory will normally have full path `/usr/local/share/guile/slib'.
 148
 149   3. Start guile as a user with write access to the data directory and type
 150
 151        (use-modules (ice-9 slib))
 152
 153      at the Guile prompt.  This will generate the slibcat catalog next to
 154      the slib directory.
 155
 156 SLIB's `require' is provided by the Guile module (ice-9 slib).
 157
 158 Example:
 159
 160   (use-modules (ice-9 slib))
 161   (require 'primes)
 162   (prime? 7)
 163
 164
 165 Generic Instructions for Building Auto-Configured Packages ================
 166
 167 To compile this package:
 168
 169 1.  Configure the package for your system.  In the directory that this
 170 file is in, type `./configure'.  If you're using `csh' on an old
 171 version of System V, you might need to type `sh configure' instead to
 172 prevent `csh' from trying to execute `configure' itself.
 173
 174 The `configure' shell script attempts to guess correct values for
 175 various system-dependent variables used during compilation, and
 176 creates the Makefile(s) (one in each subdirectory of the source
 177 directory).  In some packages it creates a C header file containing
 178 system-dependent definitions.  It also creates a file `config.status'
 179 that you can run in the future to recreate the current configuration.
 180 Running `configure' takes a minute or two.
 181
 182 To compile the package in a different directory from the one
 183 containing the source code, you must use GNU make.  `cd' to the
 184 directory where you want the object files and executables to go and
 185 run `configure' with the option `--srcdir=DIR', where DIR is the
 186 directory that contains the source code.  Using this option is
 187 actually unnecessary if the source code is in the parent directory of
 188 the one in which you are compiling; `configure' automatically checks
 189 for the source code in `..' if it does not find it in the current
 190 directory.
 191
 192 By default, `make install' will install the package's files in
 193 /usr/local/bin, /usr/local/lib, /usr/local/man, etc.  You can specify
 194 an installation prefix other than /usr/local by giving `configure' the
 195 option `--prefix=PATH'.  Alternately, you can do so by changing the
 196 `prefix' variable in the Makefile that `configure' creates (the
 197 Makefile in the top-level directory, if the package contains
 198 subdirectories).
 199
 200 You can specify separate installation prefixes for machine-specific
 201 files and machine-independent files.  If you give `configure' the
 202 option `--exec_prefix=PATH', the package will use PATH as the prefix
 203 for installing programs and libraries.  Normally, all files are
 204 installed using the same prefix.
 205
 206 `configure' ignores any other arguments that you give it.
 207
 208 If your system requires unusual options for compilation or linking
 209 that `configure' doesn't know about, you can give `configure' initial
 210 values for some variables by setting them in the environment.  In
 211 Bourne-compatible shells, you can do that on the command line like
 212 this:
 213         CC='gcc -traditional' DEFS=-D_POSIX_SOURCE ./configure
 214
 215 The `make' variables that you might want to override with environment
 216 variables when running `configure' are:
 217
 218 (For these variables, any value given in the environment overrides the
 219 value that `configure' would choose:)
 220 CC              C compiler program.
 221                 Default is `cc', or `gcc' if `gcc' is in your PATH.
 222 INSTALL         Program to use to install files.
 223                 Default is `install' if you have it, `cp' otherwise.
 224 INCLUDEDIR      Directory for `configure' to search for include files.
 225                 Default is /usr/include.
 226
 227 (For these variables, any value given in the environment is added to
 228 the value that `configure' chooses:)
 229 DEFS            Configuration options, in the form '-Dfoo -Dbar ...'
 230 LIBS            Libraries to link with, in the form '-lfoo -lbar ...'
 231
 232 If you need to do unusual things to compile the package, we encourage
 233 you to teach `configure' how to do them and mail the diffs to the
 234 address given in the README so we can include them in the next
 235 release.
 236
 237 2.  Type `make' to compile the package.
 238
 239 3.  Type `make install' to install programs, data files, and
 240 documentation.
 241
 242 4.  You can remove the program binaries and object files from the
 243 source directory by typing `make clean'.  To also remove the
 244 Makefile(s), the header file containing system-dependent definitions
 245 (if the package uses one), and `config.status' (all the files that
 246 `configure' created), type `make distclean'.
 247
 248 The file `configure.in' is used as a template to create `configure' by
 249 a program called `autoconf'.  You will only need it if you want to
 250 regenerate `configure' using a newer version of `autoconf'.