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configure

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  configure bob <bob@coolfone.comze.com> - 2012-12-18 08:46 -0800
    Re: configure Jussi Piitulainen <jpiitula@ling.helsinki.fi> - 2012-12-18 19:40 +0200
    Re: configure Rui Maciel <rui.maciel@gmail.com> - 2012-12-18 22:17 +0000
    Re: configure Alessandro Pellegrini <alessandro.pellegrini@tin.it> - 2013-02-12 12:25 +0100

#2631 — configure

With almost all Linux software, there is an executable script called "configure".  I guess the idea is you run it before calling "make".

Anyone know what the story is with that?

I'm seeing one with hcidump that is 152,901 bytes, quite a bulky script.

Is there some kind of automated utility that generates these things?

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#2632

bob writes:

> With almost all Linux software, there is an executable script called
> "configure".  I guess the idea is you run it before calling "make".
> 
> Anyone know what the story is with that?
> 
> I'm seeing one with hcidump that is 152,901 bytes, quite a bulky script.
> 
> Is there some kind of automated utility that generates these things?

This looks like it might be relevant:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Configure_script>

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#2633

bob wrote:

> With almost all Linux software, there is an executable script called
> "configure".  I guess the idea is you run it before calling "make".
> 
> Anyone know what the story is with that?

What do you mean by story?  Do you mean the history behind the use of 
configure scripts or how that sort of script is employed?


> I'm seeing one with hcidump that is 152,901 bytes, quite a bulky script.
> 
> Is there some kind of automated utility that generates these things?

Yes.  One example is a set of tools that are collectively called autotools, 
which include automake and autoconf.


Rui Maciel

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#3007

On Tue, 18 Dec 2012, bob wrote:

> Is there some kind of automated utility that generates these things?


As someone else said, these scripts are automatically generated from 
'autotools' [1].

The configure / make / make install set of command is an attempt to 
generalize the way of distributing software on *nix boxes.
The bulky script basically tries to 'discover' whats on your machine and 
produce makefiles which are going to successfully build the executable(s) 
on the current architecture, starting from the same source code.

With autotools, you specify some rules (in a file usually called 
configure.ac) which describe what is going to be needed for creating the 
executable, and then the configure script is created automatically, 
tryingto abstract what you requested for every architecture/distro you are 
going to build the executable on.

This in a very short and simplyfied way.

Bye,
Alessandro


[1] 
http://www.gnu.org/savannah-checkouts/gnu/automake/manual/html_node/Autotools-Introduction.html

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