Configure

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Introduction

configure configures aMule to adapt to many kinds of systems.

Its purpose is to make it easy to port it to many platforms and to compile it and use it in all platforms in the very same way.

You can set lots of parameters in it to adapt it to your system and to tweak its features.

NOTE: This article is focused in aMule's configure. Other configure scripts work in a similar way, but their options will differ. This article might be useful for them as well, but have in mind that they might have options not listed here and lack some listed here too.

Main usage

Its usage is ./configure [OPTION]... [VARIABLE=VALUE]...

So, as you can see, you can define its behaviour both through options and through variables

Options

You can define one or more options. The available options in aMule's configure are listed below. To better understand their meaning, they have been grouped into several tables with options which affect the behaviour of configure in a similar way.

Please note that configure will (in most cases) not complain if you enter an invalid option or variable. So make sure you enter the options correctly (no typos) or they will have no effect and configure won't behave in the way you expected.

Main options

These options should exist in any configure script around the world. They won't run the configure script to configure your application's compilation, but only output information you might need.

Basic options

-h or --help	This will display a help message summing up all configure options
--help=short	This will display a help message summing up all configure options specific to this application (doesn't display generic configure options)
-V or --version	This will display the version information

Non-compilation common options

These options should also exist on any configure script around the world. They will set some non-compilation related preferences.

Options directly related to the configure script

-q or --quiet or --silent	Do not print the `checking...' messages, only the final summed up ouput
--cache-file=FILE	Store the checkings' ouputs in FILE in a script format, so you can reuse without the need to rerun configure (read the cached file for more information)
-C or --config-cache	Same as --cache-file=config.cache
-n or --no-create	Just run configure, but do not create any files
--srcdir=DIR	Look for the sources in DIR. By default, the configure dir or its parent (../)

Common options

These options should also exist on any configure script around the world. This time, these ones will affect the compilation of the application, so be careful when using them. You should take a close look at the application's README document (if available) if you want to use any of them (and even if you don't, still take a look at it, since you might have to use some).

Installation directories options

--prefix=PREFIX	Set where to install architecture-independent files (data) in PREFIX. By dafault, this is set to /usr/local
--exec-prefix=EPREFIX	Set where to install architecture-dependent files (mainly binaries) in EPREFIX. By default, this is set to the same value as PREFIX.

Advanced installation directories options

--bindir=DIR	Where to store user executables. By default, EPREFIX/bin
--sbindir=DIR	Where to store system administrator executables. By default, EPREFIX/sbin
--libexecdir=DIR	Where to store program executable. By default EPREFIX/libexec
--datadir=DIR	Where to store read-only architecture independent data. By default, EPREFIX/share
--sysconfdir=DIR	Where to install read-only single-machine data. By default, PREFIX/etc
--sharedstatedir=DIR	Where to store modifiable architacture-independent data. By default PREFIX/com
--localstatedir=DIR	Where to store modifiable single-machine data. By default, PREFIX/var
--libdir=DIR	Where to search libs object code libraries. By default, EPREFIX/lib
--includedir=DIR	Directory containing the C header files. By default, PREFIX/include
--oldincludedir=DIR	Directory containing C header files for non-GCC. By default, /usr/include
--infodir=DIR	Where to store info and documentation files. By default, EPREFIX/info
--mandir=DIR	Where to store man pages. By default, EPREFIX/man

General rule to program enabling and dirs specification

--program-prefix=PREFIX	Prepend PREFIX to installed program names
--program-suffix=SUFFIX	Append SUFFIX to installed program names
--program-transform-name=SUBST	Run sed SUBST on installed program names

General rule to enabling or disabling features (sometimes it enables or disables the compilation of a program)

--disable-FEATURE	Do not include FEATURE. Equivalent to --enable-FEATURE=no (see below)
--enable-FEATURE	Include FEATURE. Equivalent to --enable-FEATURE=yes (see below)
--enable-FEATURE=VALUE	Include FEATURE and specify it's value to VALUE. The meaning of the value should be explained in the configure --help output of the script

--without-PACKAGE	Do not use PACKAGE. Equivalent to --with-PACKAGE=no (see below)
--with-PACKAGE	use PACKAGE. Equivalent to --with-PACKAGE=yes (see below)
--with-PACKAGE=VALUE	Use PACKAGE and set its value to VALUE

System specifications

--build=BUILD	Configure for building on BUILD platform. By default, it guesses the platform it is being run on
--host=HOST	Cross-compile to build programs to run on HOST platforms. By default, same as BUILD
--target=TARGET	Configure for building compilers for TARGET platfroms. By default, same as HOST

Very-common options

In most configure scripts you will also be able to use these options.

Quite common compiler options

--with-gnu-ld

Use the GNU ld as linker, without testing if it is the default linker in the system

X directory specifications

--with-x	Use the X Window System
--x-includes=DIR	DIR contains X's include files
--x-libraries=DIR	DIR contains X's libraries

aMule options

The following options are specific to aMule's configure script. They will allow you to enable and disable them, so you should really take a look at them or you might sadly find out you lack things you would like to have in your aMule system ;-)

Developer options

--enable-maintainer-mode	Activate some extra instructions only useful for developers (and totaly non-recommended to normal users)
--disable-dependency-tracking	Makes the application compile faster, but causes problems if you change the source code and try to compile again. Dependency tracking allows the make process to know which things to rebuild when something changes. If you do not plan to compile the application again with those same sources, you can safely use this option
--enable-dependency-tracking	Keep track of the dependencies so that on next build, only changed files will be recompiled. It slows down the compilation a little. This is the default
--enable-ccache	Enable ccache. This will make following compilations faster since only the modified bits of code will be recompiled. If you don't plan to compile aMule very often, don't enable this, since it takes longer to compile on the first compilation and it requires lots of disk space
--enable-profile	Enable code profiling (which allows to see how much time and resources are spent on each part of the code, though it will make aMule run much slower, so, in most cases, don't use it). The output file is gmon.out and can be viewed with gprof. For more information, man gprof and man gcc (in the man pages of gcc, search for the command line option -pg)

Compilation tweaks

--disable-debug	Disables outputing information of the application execution. This information is useful to track bugs, so you might not want to use this option or you will not be able to report bugs properly
--enable-optimize	Optimizes the code to run (a little) faster. Using this option will not allow you to create useful bug reports so you might not want to enable it
--disable-rpath	Do not write the libraries' path into the binary. Useful only if you plan to move the binary to other systems or if you move your libraries often. Only use it if you know what you're doing, since it will make aMule run slower
--enable-static	Creates statically linked executables, which means that they will need no libraries since any needed library will be included in the executable file. The executable might run faster, and will be easily portable between systems using the same platform, but will be incredibly bigger in size

Compilation of external libraries

--disable-nls

Do not use Native Language Support. This way gettext won't be required, but translations will be disabled

aMule binaries selection

--disable-monolithic	disable building of the monolithic aMule app. This is normally not recommended, unless you really know what you are doing (e.g. to compile only the daemon)
--enable-amule-daemon	Compile aMule daemon
--enable-amulecmd	Compile the aMule command line client
--enable-webserver	Compile aMule's WebServer
--enable-amule-gui	Compile aMule remote GUI
--enable-cas	Compile C aMule Statistics
--enable-wxcas	Compile aMule GUI Statistics
--disable-ed2k	Don't compile aMule's ed2k links handler
--enable-alc	Compile aMuleLinkCreator GUI version
--enable-alcc	Compile aMuleLinkCreator for console

Configure tweaks

--disable-gtktest

Do not try to compile a test GTK (either GTK1 or GTK2 depending on your system's configuration) program to see if your system has a proper GTK configuration. This will make the configure script run a (very) little faster, but you should still not use it unless you know what you are doing, since the configure script could miss some tests.

aMule compilation settings

This options are specific to aMule's configure script, but they are not directly related to aMule. They just tell were some libraries or headers are located in your system, so that aMule can find them when compiling. Use them if you have those files in non-standard paths or when you know what you are doing.

To better understand these options, take a look at the common options chapter in this article.

zLib

--with-zlib=PREFIX

Look for zLib files in PREFIX

Curl

--with-curl-config=CONFIG

CONFIG is the path of curl-config

LibGD

--with-gdlib-prefix=PREFIX	Look for LibGD files in PREFIX
--with-gdlib-exec-prefix=PREFIX	Look for GDLib libraries in PREFIX.
--with-gdlib-config=CONFIG	CONFIG is the path of gdlib-config

LibPNG

--with-libpng-prefix=PREFIX	Look for LibPNG files in PREFIX
--with-libpng-exec-prefix=PREFIX	Look for LibPNG libraries in PREFIX
--with-libpng-config=CONFIG	CONFIG is the path of libpng-config

wxWidgets

--with-wx-prefix=PREFIX	Look for wxWidgets files in PREFIX
--with-wx-exec-prefix=PREFIX	Look for wxWidgets libraries in PREFIX
--with-wx-config=CONFIG	CONFIG is the path of wx-config

wxBase

--with-wxbase-prefix=PREFIX	Look for wxBase files in PREFIX
--with-wxbase-exec-prefix=PREFIX	Look for wxBase libraries in PREFIX
--with-wxbase-config=CONFIG	CONFIG is the path of wxbase-config

GTK

--with-gtk-prefix=PREFIX	Look for GTK (not GTK2) files in PREFIX
--with-gtk-exec-prefix=PREFIX	Look for GTK (not GTK2) libraries in PREFIX

Crypto++

--with-crypto-prefix=PREFIX

Look for Crypto++ files in PREFIX

LibIConv

--with-libiconv-prefix=PREFIX	Look for LibIConv files in PREFIX/include and PREFIX/lib
--without-libiconv-prefix	Don't search for LibIConv in includedir and libdir

gettext

--with-included-gettext

Use the GNU gettext library included in the intl/ directory instead of the system's. This is only for strange systems where gettext, for some reason, will not handle aMule's catalog files

LibIntl

--with-libintl-prefix=PREFIX	Look for LibIntl files in PREFIX/include and PREFIX/lib'
--without-libintl-prefix	Don't search for LibIntl in includedir and libdir

ccache

--with-ccache-prefix=PREFIX

Look for ccache files in PREFIX

Variables

Before you take a look at the variables and what they mean, you must take a look at the two variable usage types available.

Usage types

You can either use environment variables or you can enter variables directly into the configure command.

Environment variables

If you plan to use environment variables, you will affect the behaviour of configure and any other program you run in that same shell until you end your session. You must set them before running configure. To set them, run

export VAR=VALUE'

where VAR is the name of the environmental variable and VALUE is it's value.

Configure variables

If you don't want to use environment variables, you can pass them into the configure command, this way:

configure VAR=VALUE

where VAR stands for the variable name and VALUE is its value.

Variables and what they mean

Do NOT touch these variables if you don't know what you are doing!

These are some of the most commonly used variables for configure:

Variables

CC	C compiler command to use
CXX	C++ compiler command to use (e.g. g++)
CPP	C preprocessor command to use
CFLAGS	C compiler flags
CXXCPP	C++ preprocessor command to use
CXXFLAGS	C++ compiler flags
LDFLAGS	Linker flags. Usually used to specify additional library directories (e.g. LDFLAGS="-L/usr/lib")
CPPFLAGS	C/C++ preprocessor flags (e.g. CPPFLAGS="-I/usr/include")

More information

This article is mainly an explanation (dummy-proof) of the output of configure --help.

Anyway, it could (rarely) be out of date. So, if there's something you want to do with configure that is not listed here, run configure --help and see if it is listed there.

Of course, you can always take a look at the GNU configure page.