1 Sep
2008
1 Sep
'08
4:43 a.m.
Here's my take on how to solve the pitfalls you might run into when
compiling stuff.
1. Make sure you've got the -devel packages needed.
If configure/make complains about "can't find libsamplerate" or
"jpeg.h missing" or similar, you probably haven't installed the -devel
packages for those programs.
2a. Make sure the linker can find the other libs/programs you compiled.
If you compile things and (per default, usually) install to /usr/local
you need
to make sure the linker finds those libs.
Create a file named local.conf in /etc/ld.so.conf.d and put
/usr/local/lib into it.
2b. Make sure pkgconfig can find your .pc files.
Set PKG_CONFIG_PATH to /usr/local/lib/pkgconfig.
3. Use stow. (Optional but IMHO very usefull)
Stow allows you to install compiled programs to any directory and link
the files to any other (usually /usr/local).
I usually do "./configure --prefix=/opt/<package-name-and-version>" to
install to, say, /opt/audacity-3.5.12 and then run
"stow -d /opt -t /usr/local audacity-3.5.12"
to create symbolic links from /opt/audacity-3.5.12 to /usr/local.
This way it's also very easy to uninstall any self-compiled program;
unstow using
"stow -D -d /opt/ -t /usr/local audacity-3.5.12"
and
"rm -rf /opt/audacity-3.5.12"
and everything's gone.
Using this approach it's also easy to try new new versions and keep
the old as backup.
- Peder