[GLLUG] new guy to Linux, slight warning on Dell GX260 video

clay at lazarusid.com clay at lazarusid.com
Mon Jan 25 09:18:06 EST 2010


> ./configure
> make
> make install
> make clean.
>
> What do these individual programs do?   Why can't I just click on
> install?  20 years of using windows has me spoiled, I guess.

You just did click install.  It's just a different gesture on a UNIX
system than on a Windows system.

The upshot of it is that most UNIX software is built to work on a variety
of operating systems, of which your particular Linux distribution is just
one.  But that software will also work on FreeBSD and OpenBSD, and
probably on OSX with a little tweaking, and it might even work on Windows.
 So instead of a binary package, it has to be distributed as source.

configure is a script that adapts the source code to your specific
situation.  It's likely that it even has options to turn features on and
off.

make is a program for taking one or more source files and turning them
into a final output file.  A Makefile has a number of targets inside of
it, each one representing some stage of completion for the software
product.  make by itself builds the first target found in the makefile,
which is where you usually list your main build target.  make install
typically copies the files to the appropriate place on your system and
sets up permissions.  make clean isn't strictly necessary, but
traditionally causes final and intermediate work files to be removed from
the source tree.

As somebody already mentioned, you should normally use the package manager
that came with your system to install software.  That's usually the
fastest method, and it will resolve dependencies for you, which building
from source will not.

Clay



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