Apr 02
How do I compile stuff?
Compiling an application or programm from source is actually not as complicated as it seems. In most cases and when everything is setup right, the procedure is as follows:
- Go to a directory where you have write permissions or become the superuser root
- Get the source of the application, for example from the web with wget
- Untar the archive: tar -xvf filename.tar.gz
- step down into the directory: cd filename
- run the configure script: ./configure
- then: make
- optionally: make test
- then: make install
To remove temporary files, optionally: make clean
Hint: You can concatenate commands on linux/unix like this: make && make install
According to Wikipedia, compiling is the process of "translat[ing] source code written in a computer language into another computer language", for example to create an executable binary. Now you know...