How To Compile Everything
- Is there a README?
- Read it.
Dynamic languages
- Is it mostly PHP?
- Does it need PHP libraries?
- It probably needs a web server
- Does it need a database?
- Is it mostly Python?
- Is there a
setup.py
?python setup.py build
,python setup.py install
, I think.
- Is there a
requirements.txt
?- Install the things there, maybe with pip or something??
- Does it need a web server? (Does it need a web server, or does a builtin one suffice?)
- Does it need a database? (Does it need a database, or does SQLite suffice?)
- Is there a
- Is it mostly Ruby?
- Ask someone not me.
- Is it mostly Perl?
- Is there a
Makefile.PL
at the top level, and noMakefile
?- Run
perl Makefile.PL
, then follow theMakefile
instructions. - If you want to set a prefix, run
perl Makefile.PL PREFIX=/home/geofft
. You don't need to pass the prefix to any other commands.
- Run
- Is there a
C
- Is there a
Makefile
orGNUmakefile
?- Usually you can just run
make
to compile it. - Often you can also run
sudo make install
to install it systemwide. Sometimes this won't exist, and all you get is compiled code in the same directory. - If you want to install it, but not systemwide, generally you can use a prefix variable to make it install elsewhere; for instance I might want to set the prefix to
/home/geofft
so things are in/home/geofft/bin
, etc. If there was just aMakefile
and nothing special, try runningmake PREFIX=/home/geofft
andmake install PREFIX=/home/geofft
, without sudo. Or read theMakefile
or README.
- Usually you can just run
- Is there a
configure
?- Usually you can just run
./configure
, followed bymake
andsudo make install
, as per theMakefile
decision branch. - To set a prefix, run
./configure --prefix=/home/geofft
. - Running configure will error out if it requires something you don't have installed. But check its output, as it might be skipping something optional but useful, that you should have installed.
- Usually you can just run
- Is there a
autogen.sh
?- Make sure you have autoconf and automake installed.
- Run
./autogen.sh
, then start from theconfigure
decision branch. - Rarely,
autogen.sh
will also runconfigure
for you; if you want to pass options, you can either rerun./configure
yourself, or pass them to./autogen.sh
.
- Is there a
configure.ac
orconfigure.in
, but noautogen.sh
?- Make sure you have autoconf and automake installed.
- Run
autoreconf -fvi
, then start from theconfigure
decision branch.
Other things
- Is there a
debian
directory? Are you building something Debian-specific?- Make sure everything in the
Build-Depends
line ofdebian/control
is installed. If the package is in the Debian/Ubuntu archive, the easiest way to do this issudo apt-get build-dep package
. This works even if you're building a package from a slightly different source than the one in the archive; it'll get you at least 90% of the way there. - Run
debuild
, which is in thedevscripts
package.
- Make sure everything in the