Subject: RE: Help compiling application
From: Jan Zumwalt (jwzumwalt@neatinfo.com)
Date: Wed Feb 19 2003 - 16:36:52 AKST
Seamless program install is still an Achilles' Heel for Unix systems. If you
don't plan on doing very many installs than I would suggest you get a good
buddy a six pack and watch them work their magic. If on the other hand, you
will be doing more than a few installs, be prepared to invest a little
time - it won't be wasted.
There are basically two problems to installs. A) making sure you follow the
proper procedure and have the install files setup properly. B) dependencies.
Lets discuss the first problem. Some programs require command line values to
be passed, others may require certain lines of the make file to be edited.
Still others, may require a certain sequences of compiles to be followed.
Some, require environment variables to be set before the compile.
As you can see, only experience and hair scratching will eventually teach
you what process may be causing the problems.
The second problem involves dependencies. Some programs will require a
certain library version. In fact, you may be missing some needed libraries
entirely. You will need to know what libraries are needed and what versions
it is expecting. A lot, can go wrong here, but usually the fix is relatively
easy. All that is needed is a methodical approach to the problem. Again,
this is not easily diagnosed over e-mail, practiced will help in the long
run. Difficulties can run deep. I recently spent over a week trying to get a
program to compile. I found out that the package manager was reporting I had
a library that was *NOT* really on my system -Ugh!
The best answer is probably a compromise; pack your box up and bring it to
the Friday night Linux hacker's cookie fest. Sip on some pop and let someone
mentor you through the process. It's a pain to pack your box up but the gain
is priceless.
JZ
-----Original Message-----
From: aklug-bounce@aklug.org [mailto:aklug-bounce@aklug.org]On Behalf Of Tim
Jordan
Sent: Wednesday, February 19, 2003 3:50 PM
To: aklug@aklug.org
Subject: Help compiling application
I really would like to get this application working, using RedHat 8. The
application (Yahoopops http://yahoopops.sourceforge.net/index.html)
will download my Yahoo mail account via a Perl Script. I downloaded
Yahoopops from the Internet in a tar file.
I unziped it to my home drive under a /home/tim/yahoopops-0.3.9.2
Then I read the README and found this information:
. ".i have compiled this using gcc3.0.4 as gcc2.96 has some known
bugs.henceforth all my compilations
will be using gcc3.0.4 only."
On the same site a person posted a "how to" on installing this application
with fetchmail. That Author states "I compiled with
gcc2.96 and I had no problems despite the author's disquiet."
As root I went to the Yahoopops-0.3.9.2/linux/ directory of and ran the
./configure command...nothing.
I then ran make. It did it's thing for a min. and this is the last few
lines:
> make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/tim/yahoopops-0.3.9.2/unix' make:
> *** [all] Error 2 [root@localhost unix]# make install make: *** No
> rule to make target `install'. Stop.
You can also see I tried the make install command.
Questions:
1. How do I know if the compile worked? From the output I recieved I'm not
sure.
2. If the application is compiled how do I find the way to start it?
Thanks for time,
Tim Jordan
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2a23 : Wed Feb 19 2003 - 16:35:17 AKST