Mail Archives: djgpp/2005/12/27/06:00:16
Didn't I mention that even with the latest version of
'which' source autoconf "hangs" while "perl" is in the
dos-box menu, as I've described.
Since I run DJGPP almost exclusively under Win98SE
these days, I always have a LFN environment.
My djgpp installation is F:\DJGPP on one machine,
and another drive letter on another, etc. Since that
is exactly how the Delorie url's say to do it.
I may not know enough to appreciate what all the tools
do, and I have a real linux box, FedoraCore2, which I wish
I did get more use out of, mostly always in win98se, but
I would like to see things work as others claim they do.
I've done everything humanly possible, but learning that
perl may have a bug, and that people are not sharing a fix
does not help.
I will keep your message, and print it out. Add it to my
existing djgpp notebook. Thank you and it is appreciated.
On Mon, 26 Dec 2005 19:09:14 +0000 (UTC), Doug Kaufman
<dkaufman AT rahul DOT net> wrote:
>Radical NetSurfer <RadSurfer AT yahoo DOT com> writes:
>
>>What would also be nice is if someone would please take the
>>time to sit down and write out a nice little tutorial, step by step,
>>of how to use Autoconf/autom4te. Theres documentation that
>>comes with it sure, but it would be nice to have a "how to" or
>>"introduction to" with details such as what djgpp-packages are
>>needed to properly implement autoconf, which versions are
>>highly recommended, and downloaded from specifically which
>>ftp site, etc. Then everybody will be "on the same page" as it
>>were. And we can all discover how these new tools are supposed
>>to work.
>
>I am not sure that this would help, since the main time that you
>use the tools when they might fail is in porting a program that is
>not officially part of the DJGPP suite. Each of the official DJGPP
>programs has generally been tweaked to compile nicely.
>
>That said, you generally need a matching pair of autoconf and
>automake. You always need perl and frequently need libtool. You should
>have recent versions of most of the other tools.
>
>I usually start out by saving the "aclocal.m4" file that comes
>with the distribution, since some package maintainers put macro
>definitions there instead of in "acinclude.m4". The first step is to
>read the "install" or "installation" file to see if there are specific
>instructions or problems noted. Next read a file called "problems" if
>it exists. See if there is a file "install.djgpp" or "install.dos".
>Look for a subdirectory that might have specific instruction. If there
>are no specific installation instructions for DJGPP, generally follow
>the instructions for unix. You are less likely to have trouble if you
>are in an environment that supports long file names and if you use
>paths in the form of /dev/c/... or /dev/env/DJDIR/... rather than in
>the form of "c:/...".
>
>If there are no specific instructions, I would start by going to the
>root of the source files and running "aclocal". You may need to addd
>the "-I" option to specify directories that have macro definitions. If
>the distribution uses libtool, next run "libtoolize". Many programs
>use a "config.h" file. If so, you need to run "autoheader", which
>creates "config.h.in". The next step is to run automake to create
>all your "Makefile.in" files. You may want to run it with options
>"-a --foreign". If there have been no errors, the next step is to
>run "autoconf", which creates your "configure" file. Once that is
>created, you can run "./configure --help" to see the specific options
>available in that package. To get the program to build properly in
>DJGPP, you might need to specify certain options, or set values in
>the environment for "CFLAGS" and/or "CPPFLAGS". When porting a new
>program, I find it helpful to keep logs of all the screen messages, so
>that warnings and errors can be addressed.
>
>After building a program that hasn't previously been ported to DJGPP,
>test it looking for problems. See if there is a test suite that might
>be invoked by "make check" or "make test".
>
>Once you have a working program, you may want to go back and tweak the
>distribution so that it still works in a 8+3 filename environment and
>accepts filenames in "c:/..." or even in "c:\..." style.
>
>As far as other program prerequisites, autoconf just runs a series of
>perl scripts. Each program may have its own specific scripts (that is
>what aclocal.m4 is about). I don't know that you can predict what each
>author has put into those. If something doesn't work, you need to read
>the source and see what it is trying to do, then decide why it isn't
>working and how to fix it.
>
>The above may not be elegant, but it has worked for me in porting lots
>of programs to DJGPP.
> Doug
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