Re: RFC: "Autotools Introduction" chapter draft (16 pages long)

[Micah J. Cowan]

On Mon, Aug 14, 2006 at 12:06:15PM -0700, Ben Pfaff wrote:
> > package, run `./configure && make && make install', and repeat with the
> > next package to install.
> 
> I'm never sure whether I should recommend running "make" before
> "make install".  "make install" will first build everything that
> "make" will, right?

Hi, Ben!

It "should"... but that doesn't mean it will. Certainly ought to if
they're using Automake, etc., but IMO make && make install is a good
habit to get into, for those relatively rare cases when someone doesn't
have the right dependenceis set up... I'm too lazy to look up the
context atm, though, so perhaps this was /only/ meant for autotools
environs. Still, seems like a decent habit to get into, regardless.

Also, I typically want to install as root, but not to build as root,
which is why I'll more usually do a make, and then a sudo make install
(I imagine you do the same, in practice). If I'm just testing the
install, though, I'd probably set DESTDIR or --prefix to something
interesting, and do it as make && make install (possibly, just make
install, as you suggest).

-- 
Micah J. Cowan
Programmer, musician, typesetting enthusiast, gamer...
http://micah.cowan.name/