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.
  10
  11
  12 Special Instructions For Some Systems =====================================
  13
  14 We would like Guile to build on all systems using the simple
  15 instructions above, but it seems that a few systems still need special
  16 treatment.  If you can send us fixes for these problems, we'd be
  17 grateful.
  18
  19 SunOS 4.1: Guile's shared library support seems to be confused, but
  20     hey; shared libraries are confusing.  You may need to configure
  21     Guile with a command like:
  22         ./configure --disable-shared
  23     For more information on `--disable-shared', see below, "Flags
  24     Accepted by Configure".
  25
  26 HP/UX: GCC 2.7.2 (and maybe other versions) have trouble creating
  27     shared libraries if they depend on any non-shared libraries.  GCC
  28     seems to have other problems as well.  To work around this, we
  29     suggest you configure Guile to use the system's C compiler:
  30         CC=cc ./configure
  31
  32 NetBSD: Perry Metzger says, "Guile will build under NetBSD only using
  33     gmake -- the native make will not work.  (gmake is in our package
  34     system, so this will not be a problem when we packagize 1.3.)"
  35
  36 Flags Accepted by Configure ===============================================
  37
  38 If you run the configure script with no arguments, it should examine
  39 your system and set things up appropriately.  However, there are a few
  40 switches specific to Guile you may find useful in some circumstances.
  41
  42 --enable-maintainer-mode --- If you have automake, autoconf, and
  43 libtool installed on your system, this switch causes configure to
  44 generate Makefiles which know how to automatically regenerate
  45 configure scripts, makefiles, and headers, when they are out of date.
  46 The README file says which versions of those tools you will need.
  47
  48 --with-threads --- Build a Guile executable and library that supports
  49 cooperative threading.  If you use this switch, Guile will also build
  50 and install the QuickThreads non-preemptive threading library,
  51 libqthreads, which you will need to link into your programs after
  52 libguile.  When you use `guile-config', you will pick up all
  53 neccessary linker flags automatically.
  54
  55 Cooperative threads are not yet thoroughly tested; once they are, they
  56 will be enabled by default.  The interaction with blocking I/O is
  57 pretty ad hoc at the moment.  In our experience, bugs in the thread
  58 support do not affect you if you don't actually use threads.
  59
  60 --with-modules --- Guile can dynamically load `plugin modules' during
  61 runtime, using facilities provided by libtool.  Not all platforms
  62 support this, however.  On these platforms, you can statically link
  63 the plugin modules into libguile when Guile itself is build.  XXX -
  64 how does one specify the modules?
  65
  66 --disable-shared --- Do not build shared libraries.  Normally, Guile
  67 will build shared libraries if your system supports them.  Guile
  68 always builds static libraries.
  69
  70
  71 Using Guile Without Installing It =========================================
  72
  73 If you want to run Guile without installing it, set the environment
  74 variable `GUILE_LOAD_PATH' to a colon-separated list of directories,
  75 including the directory containing this INSTALL file.  If you used a
  76 separate build directory, you'll need to include the build directory
  77 in the path as well.
  78
  79 For example, suppose the Guile distribution unpacked into a directory
  80 called `/home/jimb/guile-snap' (so the full name of this INSTALL file
  81 would be `/home/jimb/guile-snap/INSTALL').  Then you might say, if
  82 you're using Bash or any other Bourne shell variant,
  83
  84   export GUILE_LOAD_PATH=/home/jimb/guile-snap
  85
  86 or if you're using CSH or one of its variants:
  87
  88   setenv GUILE_LOAD_PATH /home/jimb/guile-snap
  89
  90
  91 Generic Instructions for Building Auto-Configured Packages ================
  92
  93 To compile this package:
  94
  95 1.  Configure the package for your system.  In the directory that this
  96 file is in, type `./configure'.  If you're using `csh' on an old
  97 version of System V, you might need to type `sh configure' instead to
  98 prevent `csh' from trying to execute `configure' itself.
  99
 100 The `configure' shell script attempts to guess correct values for
 101 various system-dependent variables used during compilation, and
 102 creates the Makefile(s) (one in each subdirectory of the source
 103 directory).  In some packages it creates a C header file containing
 104 system-dependent definitions.  It also creates a file `config.status'
 105 that you can run in the future to recreate the current configuration.
 106 Running `configure' takes a minute or two.
 107
 108 To compile the package in a different directory from the one
 109 containing the source code, you must use GNU make.  `cd' to the
 110 directory where you want the object files and executables to go and
 111 run `configure' with the option `--srcdir=DIR', where DIR is the
 112 directory that contains the source code.  Using this option is
 113 actually unnecessary if the source code is in the parent directory of
 114 the one in which you are compiling; `configure' automatically checks
 115 for the source code in `..' if it does not find it in the current
 116 directory.
 117
 118 By default, `make install' will install the package's files in
 119 /usr/local/bin, /usr/local/lib, /usr/local/man, etc.  You can specify
 120 an installation prefix other than /usr/local by giving `configure' the
 121 option `--prefix=PATH'.  Alternately, you can do so by changing the
 122 `prefix' variable in the Makefile that `configure' creates (the
 123 Makefile in the top-level directory, if the package contains
 124 subdirectories).
 125
 126 You can specify separate installation prefixes for machine-specific
 127 files and machine-independent files.  If you give `configure' the
 128 option `--exec_prefix=PATH', the package will use PATH as the prefix
 129 for installing programs and libraries.  Normally, all files are
 130 installed using the same prefix.
 131
 132 `configure' ignores any other arguments that you give it.
 133
 134 If your system requires unusual options for compilation or linking
 135 that `configure' doesn't know about, you can give `configure' initial
 136 values for some variables by setting them in the environment.  In
 137 Bourne-compatible shells, you can do that on the command line like
 138 this:
 139         CC='gcc -traditional' DEFS=-D_POSIX_SOURCE ./configure
 140
 141 The `make' variables that you might want to override with environment
 142 variables when running `configure' are:
 143
 144 (For these variables, any value given in the environment overrides the
 145 value that `configure' would choose:)
 146 CC              C compiler program.
 147                 Default is `cc', or `gcc' if `gcc' is in your PATH.
 148 INSTALL         Program to use to install files.
 149                 Default is `install' if you have it, `cp' otherwise.
 150 INCLUDEDIR      Directory for `configure' to search for include files.
 151                 Default is /usr/include.
 152
 153 (For these variables, any value given in the environment is added to
 154 the value that `configure' chooses:)
 155 DEFS            Configuration options, in the form '-Dfoo -Dbar ...'
 156 LIBS            Libraries to link with, in the form '-lfoo -lbar ...'
 157
 158 If you need to do unusual things to compile the package, we encourage
 159 you to teach `configure' how to do them and mail the diffs to the
 160 address given in the README so we can include them in the next
 161 release.
 162
 163 2.  Type `make' to compile the package.
 164
 165 3.  Type `make install' to install programs, data files, and
 166 documentation.
 167
 168 4.  You can remove the program binaries and object files from the
 169 source directory by typing `make clean'.  To also remove the
 170 Makefile(s), the header file containing system-dependent definitions
 171 (if the package uses one), and `config.status' (all the files that
 172 `configure' created), type `make distclean'.
 173
 174 The file `configure.in' is used as a template to create `configure' by
 175 a program called `autoconf'.  You will only need it if you want to
 176 regenerate `configure' using a newer version of `autoconf'.