1. unpack the source tarball and cd to the resulting dir
2. # autoconf
this reads configure.in and generates the ./configure script
3. # ./configure
this probes your system and then, for each "file" named
in the AC_OUTPUT() macro near the end of configure.in,
read "file".in and generate "file". Variables named @somevariable@
will be substituted with literal values.
4. step (3) produces several files. These files are generated by
configure from their respective .in file in the same directory.
You should have a read of these generated files and diff them
against their respective .in files to see what was substituted
by configure.
src/include/builddefs
common definitions for the build environment. This is included
by all Makefiles, in conjunction with src/include/buildrules.
Note that most autoconf/configure build environments generate
Makefile (from Makefile.in) in every src dir. Instead, we
generate builddefs, and then include it in every Makefile.
src/include/platform_defs.h
header containing conditional macros defining the C run-time
environment discovered by the configure script.
5. read some or all of the GNU tool chain documentation
GNU make :
http://www.delorie.com/gnu/docs/make/make_toc.html
autoconf :
http://www.delorie.com/gnu/docs/autoconf/autoconf_toc.html
libtool :
http://www.delorie.com/gnu/docs/libtool/libtool_toc.html
gcc/g++ :
http://www.delorie.com/gnu/docs/gcc/gcc_toc.html
6. Makefiles and build environment
First have a look at some Makefiles
example using SUBDIRS : acl/Makefile
example static library: acl/libacl/Makefile
example command : acl/getfacl/Makefile
All Makefiles must define TOPDIR as the root of the project. This
allows other stuff to be found relative to $(TOPDIR).
All Makefiles should have the following structure, which is
much like commondefs and commonrules in the IRIX build environment, e.g.
# ----------------------------------------------------------------------
# TOPDIR must point to the root of the project
# The builddefs file defines lots of things. Read it.
TOPDIR = ..
include $(TOPDIR)/include/builddefs
# first rule should always be "default"
default : sometarget
commands to build targets, if necessary
# $(BUILDRULES) is defined in builddefs and includes rules for
# descending subdirs, building targets and installation rules
include $(BUILDRULES)
install : default
$(INSTALL) sometargets somewhere
# ----------------------------------------------------------------------
7. packaging
# ./Makepkgs
this script generates all of the packages supported - each has a
subdirectory below acl/package where knowledge specific to each
package type is maintained.
The script produces logs of each stage of the build (this info is
also echoed to the screen when the "verbose" option is provided):
acl/Logs/configure - `autoconf; ./configure' output
acl/Logs/default - `make default' output
acl/Logs/dist - `make package dist' output
On successful completion, the script echoes the names of packages
successfully generated.