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Getting it to work...
Authored by: babbage on Apr 02, '02 10:11:39AM
The standard build-from-source procedure for most Free/Open software is, once you've downloaded & unzipped/unpacked the source:
./configure
make
make test
sudo make install

There are often parameters you can feed to the configure script -- try adding a "--help" to see what ones are available, then substitute the first line with the customized version like, say (making this up)

./configure --help
./configure --prefix=/usr/local --datadir=/var/dat/pkg --with-x
make
make test
sudo make install

Flags like the above would tell the system where to place the program, where it's datafiles should go, and should enable X-Windows support. Once configure finishes, it creates some customized scripts that drive the rest of the process, and that process is begun with the 'make' command. Once that finishes -- and it can take a while -- then run 'make test' to verify that no errors came up (not all packages include tests, but it's good to run this if you can). If the test step goes well, then apply the package to your system, using superuser privileges, with "sudo make install". Once that finishes, the software is added to your system, and can be used when you open a new terminal (or update your path with the "rehash" command).

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