stow/INSTALL

Prerequisites
=============

Stow is a collection of Perl scripts and modules.  You must have Perl
5.6.1 or later in order for it to run.  The test suite also requires
the Test::More and Test::Output modules which can be obtained from
CPAN.  They are also available as packages in some of the GNU/Linux
distributions.

Basic Installation
==================

Stow is a Perl script.  You must have Perl 5.005 or later in order for 
it to run.

The steps in building stow are:

1.  `cd' to the directory containing the source code (and this file)
    and type `./configure' to configure stow for your system.  This
    step will attempt to locate your copy of perl and set its location
    `Makefile.in'.

2.  Type `make' to create `stow' and `'stow.info'. If perl could not
    be found by `./configure', you'll have to edit line 1 of `stow' 
    from `#!false' to `#!/path/to/perl' (where /path/to/perl is wherever
    perl will be found when stow runs).

3.  Type `make install' to install `stow' and `stow.info'.

4.  You can remove the generated files from the source code directory
    by typing `make clean'.  To also remove the files that `configure'
    created (so you can compile the package for a different computer),
    type `make distclean'.  There is also a `make maintainer-clean'
    target, but that is intended mainly for stow's developers.  If you
    use it, you may have to get all sorts of other programs in order
    to regenerate files that came with the distribution.

Installation Names
==================

By default, `make install' will install the package's files in
`/usr/local/bin' and `/usr/local/info'.  You can specify an
installation prefix other than `/usr/local' by giving `configure' the
option `--prefix=PATH'.

If the package supports it, you can cause programs to be installed
with an extra prefix or suffix on their names by giving `configure'
the option `--program-prefix=PREFIX' or `--program-suffix=SUFFIX'.

Since `stow' is concerned with separating a package's installation
tree from its run-time tree, you might want to install `stow' into a
directory such as `/usr/local/stow/stow' but have it run out of
`/usr/local'.  Do this by giving the run-time prefix (e.g.,
/usr/local) to configure as described above; then run `make'; then run
`make install prefix=/usr/local/stow/stow'.  For more information on
this technique, see the Stow manual.

The configuration system
========================

The `configure' shell script attempts to guess correct values for
various system-dependent variables used during compilation.  It uses
those values to create a `Makefile' and to create the `stow' script
itself, using Makefile.in and stow.in as templates.  Finally, it
creates a shell script `config.status' that you can run in the future
to recreate the current configuration, a file `config.cache' that
saves the results of its tests to speed up reconfiguring, and a file
`config.log' containing other output.

The file `configure.ac' is used to create `configure' by a program
called `autoconf'.  You only need `configure.ac' if you want to change
it or regenerate `configure' using a newer version of `autoconf'.

The file `Makefile.am' is used to create `Makefile.in' by a program
called `automake'.  You only need `Makefile.am' if you want to change
it or regenerate `Makefile.in' using a newer version of `automake'.

Sharing Defaults
================

If you want to set default values for `configure' scripts to share,
you can create a site shell script called `config.site' that gives
default values for variables like `CC', `cache_file', and `prefix'.
`configure' looks for `PREFIX/share/config.site' if it exists, then
`PREFIX/etc/config.site' if it exists.  Or, you can set the
`CONFIG_SITE' environment variable to the location of the site script.
A warning: not all `configure' scripts look for a site script.

Operation Controls
==================

   `configure' recognizes the following options to control how it
operates.

`--cache-file=FILE'
     Use and save the results of the tests in FILE instead of
     `./config.cache'.  Set FILE to `/dev/null' to disable caching, for
     debugging `configure'.

`--help'
     Print a summary of the options to `configure', and exit.

`--quiet'
`--silent'
`-q'
     Do not print messages saying which checks are being made.

`--srcdir=DIR'
     Look for the package's source code in directory DIR.  Usually
     `configure' can determine that directory automatically.

`--version'
     Print the version of Autoconf used to generate the `configure'
     script, and exit.

`configure' also accepts some other, not widely useful, options.