Installing a software
Using the package manager
The package manager installs pre-compiled packages on a system.
Under debian-like systems (e.g. Ubuntu), the package manager name is apt-get.
To install a package, the command is apt-get install <PACKAGE_NAME>.
With the package manager, you are forced to install the package on a system level. This means that all user will be able to use the package. It also means that the files will be installed in privileged locations, meaning only administrators can write there.
To tell the system you want to use your administrator privileges, use the
command sudo.
Question: install the cmake software and the package build-essential
which contains several software and libraries.
Solution:
$ sudo apt-get install cmake build-essential # [...] Do you want to continue? [Y/n] y # [...]
From sources
A major step when installing software from sources is finding a program dependencies on your system, i.e. other programs and libraries that are required to install the particular piece of software you are trying to install.
Most well-made software will have a configuration step which aims to find all dependencies and set everything up before building and installing the software.
There are mainly two ways of configuring a program installation:
- the configure script
- the cmake script
The configure script
The most widely used method for configuring a package installation. The idea is to run the configure script which will find all dependencies needed for the compilation. It will most likely display error messages and crash if some require ddependencies are not found.
The simplest way to run the configure script is:
$ ./configure
This script has options which allow to customize the compilation and installation
processes.
A very common option is the --prefix option which allows to define the
installation prefix:
$ # The package will be installed in $HOME/local
$ ./configure --prefix=$HOME/local
The CMake script
cmake is a tool which development started in 2000 and which aimed a replacing
the configure script.
The objective was to make a simpler tool from the developers point of view.
The standard procedure to configure a compilation/installation using cmake
would be:
$ # Create and go to the build directory
$ mkdir build
$ cd build
$ # Configuration itself
$ cmake ..
# [...]
cmake allows so-called out-of-source compiling meaning that you can build
the software in a directory separate from the sources.
This is a very healthy way to proceed: in this fashion, all configuration/build
files can be removed simply by deleting the build directory.
To tell cmake to install the package in a different directory than the default
one, the command would be:
$ # The package will be installed in $HOME/local
$ cmake .. -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=$HOME/local
# [...]
Compilation
After configuring the compilation and installation running either cmake or
the configure script, it is time to compile the package:
$ # Compilation time!
$ make
# [...]
Installation
The installation prefix default value is /usr/local (in most cases).
This is a protected directory meaning that only administrators can write to
this directory.
If you are not administrator on this particular machine, you have to install the package for example in you home directory (see sections The configure script and The CMake script).
The command to actually install the package is:
$ # Unprivileged installation (e.g. in $HOME/local)
$ make install
# [...]
If you are administrator on this particular machine, you have to use
those administrator privileges using the sudo command:
$ # Privileged installation (e.g. in /usr/local)
$ sudo make install
# [...]
Application: hello world
We are going to install the program hello which can be downloaded at
https://github.com/benoistlaurent/unix_tutorial/raw/master/data/software/hello-1.0.0.tar.gz.
Question: create the directory /data/software and download hello-1.0.0.tar.gz in this
directory using the command wget.
Solution:
$ mkdir /data/software $ cd /data/software $ wget https://github.com/benoistlaurent/unix_tutorial/blob/master/data/software/hello-1.0.0.tar.gz # [...]
Question: install the program “hello” which is in /data/software using
both strategies: the configure script and cmake. You will be installing the
software in the directory $HOME/local.
Solution using the configure script:
$ cd /data/software $ # Extract the archive $ tar xvzf hello-1.0.0.tar.gz x hello-1.0.0/ x hello-1.0.0/install-sh x hello-1.0.0/configure.ac x hello-1.0.0/CMakeLists.txt x hello-1.0.0/configure x hello-1.0.0/config.h.in x hello-1.0.0/depcomp x hello-1.0.0/missing x hello-1.0.0/README x hello-1.0.0/Makefile.am x hello-1.0.0/Makefile.in x hello-1.0.0/aclocal.m4 x hello-1.0.0/src/ x hello-1.0.0/src/Makefile.am x hello-1.0.0/src/main.c x hello-1.0.0/src/Makefile.in $ cd hello-1.0.0 $ # Configuration $ ./configure --prefix=$HOME/local checking for a BSD-compatible install... /usr/bin/install -c checking whether build environment is sane... yes checking for a thread-safe mkdir -p... /bin/mkdir -p checking for gawk... no checking for mawk... mawk checking whether make sets $(MAKE)... yes checking for gcc... gcc checking whether the C compiler works... yes checking for C compiler default output file name... a.out checking for suffix of executables... checking whether we are cross compiling... no checking for suffix of object files... o checking whether we are using the GNU C compiler... yes checking whether gcc accepts -g... yes checking for gcc option to accept ISO C89... none needed checking for style of include used by make... GNU checking dependency style of gcc... gcc3 checking that generated files are newer than configure... done configure: creating ./config.status config.status: creating Makefile config.status: creating src/Makefile config.status: creating config.h config.status: executing depfiles commands $ # Compilation $ make make all-recursive make[1]: Entering directory '/data/software/hello-1.0.0' Making all in src make[2]: Entering directory '/data/software/hello-1.0.0/src' gcc -DHAVE_CONFIG_H -I. -I.. -g -O2 -MT main.o -MD -MP -MF .deps/main.Tpo -c -o main.o main.c mv -f .deps/main.Tpo .deps/main.Po gcc -g -O2 -o hello main.o make[2]: Leaving directory '/data/software/hello-1.0.0/src' make[2]: Entering directory '/data/software/hello-1.0.0' make[2]: Nothing to be done for 'all-am'. make[2]: Leaving directory '/data/software/hello-1.0.0' make[1]: Leaving directory '/data/software/hello-1.0.0' $ # Installation $ make install Making install in src make[1]: Entering directory '/data/software/hello-1.0.0/src' make[2]: Entering directory '/data/software/hello-1.0.0/src' /bin/mkdir -p '/home/fish/local/bin' /usr/bin/install -c hello '/home/fish/local/bin' make[2]: Nothing to be done for 'install-data-am'. make[2]: Leaving directory '/data/software/hello-1.0.0/src' make[1]: Leaving directory '/data/software/hello-1.0.0/src' make[1]: Entering directory '/data/software/hello-1.0.0' make[2]: Entering directory '/data/software/hello-1.0.0' make[2]: Nothing to be done for 'install-exec-am'. /bin/mkdir -p '/home/fish/local/share/doc/amhello' /usr/bin/install -c -m 644 README '/home/fish/local/share/doc/amhello' make[2]: Leaving directory '/data/software/hello-1.0.0' make[1]: Leaving directory '/data/software/hello-1.0.0' $ # Run the program to make sure it works $ $HOME/local/bin/hello Hello world (version 1.0.0)
Solution using cmake:
$ # Assuming we are already in /data/software/hello-1.0.0 $ # Create a directory for out-of-source build $ mkdir build $ cd build $ # Configuration $ cmake .. -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=$HOME/local -- The C compiler identification is GNU 7.3.0 -- The CXX compiler identification is GNU 7.3.0 -- Check for working C compiler: /usr/bin/cc -- Check for working C compiler: /usr/bin/cc -- works -- Detecting C compiler ABI info -- Detecting C compiler ABI info - done -- Detecting C compile features -- Detecting C compile features - done -- Check for working CXX compiler: /usr/bin/c++ -- Check for working CXX compiler: /usr/bin/c++ -- works -- Detecting CXX compiler ABI info -- Detecting CXX compiler ABI info - done -- Detecting CXX compile features -- Detecting CXX compile features - done -- Configuring done -- Generating done -- Build files have been written to: /data/software/hello-1.0.0/build $ # Compilation $ make Scanning dependencies of target hello [ 50%] Building C object CMakeFiles/hello.dir/src/main.c.o [100%] Linking C executable hello [100%] Built target hello $ # Installation $ make install [100%] Built target hello Install the project... -- Install configuration: "" -- Installing: /home/fish/local/bin/hello $ # Run the program to make sure it works $ $HOME/local/bin/hello Hello world (version 1.0.0)