You can compile the package for more than one kind of computer at the same time, by placing the objects for each architecture in their own directory. To do this, you can use GNU make. Run cd to go to the directory where you want the object files and executables to wind up and run the configure script. Configure automatically checks for the source code in the directory that configure is in and in ..; this is known as a VPATH build.
With a non-GNU make, it is safer to compile the package for one architecture at a time in the source code directory. After you have installed the package for one architecture, use make distclean before reconfiguring a new architecture.
On MacOS X 10.5 and later systems, you can create libraries and executables that work on multiple system types (known as fat also universal binaries) by specifying multiple -arch options to the compiler but only a single -arch option to the preprocessor.
Working Example (for most autogen sources):
CC="gcc -arch i386 -arch x86_64" CXX="g++ -arch i386 -arch x86_64" CPP="gcc -E" CXXCPP="g++ -E" ./configure
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