Re: Compiling from scratch.

[Chris B. Vetter]

On Sat, 25 Oct 2003 06:53:34 +0200 (CEST)
"Pascal J.Bourguignon" <pjb@informatimago.com> wrote:
[...]
> First  problem,  this compile-all  script  asks  for  root.  There  is
> absolutely no  need to be root  to compile and install  gnustep or any
> other application software.  So I first removed:
[...]
> from it.

Well, you are right. To compile any piece of software you usually do not
need to be root. However, installing software is a different story
entirely.

By default, compile-all will install into /usr/GNUstep. Unless this
directory is owned by you (as a user), you probably won't need root. The
same is true if you plan to install into a different directory, say,
somewhere in your user's home.

You are probably aware (by now) that you can change the directory to
install to can be specified with

  compile-all --prefix=/path/to/GNUstep

and of course, if that's inside your user's home, you shouldn't need to
be root.

> Second problem, it simply does not work. See attached log.

It fails over-all because -base cannot be compiled (and installed) due
to a missing ffcall and/or libffi installation.

The correct behaviour of compile-all should probably be a termination at
that point, instead of trying to install the rest of GNUstep (gui and
back)

Then again, provided this requirement is mentioned in the documentation,
you might say that you (you in general, not you personally) are partly
to blame for not RTFM'ing ;-)

But no, kidding aside, compile-all should terminate if any of the core/
parts fail to compile properly and not try to run regardless.

> Perhaps  GNUstep  would have  more  visibility  if  it could  be  just
> compiled and installed  out of the box without having  to delve in its
> depths, like any other package...

Absolutely. I guess this is a major turn-off. Take a look at certain
reviews of "I install version x.y.z of the new XYZ operating system" and
the problems they run into -- and the readers' comments along the line
of "well, if I was trying to install it and ran into crap like that, I'd
stop at that point and'd never come back to try again."

Probably similar experience will keep users away from GNUstep without us
ever being aware of it.

-- 
Chris