Installing Automake without root previlege

Toshan121 · 05-04-2016, 06:57 AM

Hello,
I am trying to install a Automake into a cluster where i am not the admin. AUtomake is dependent on autoconf, and i need to install both. However, i don't know how to configure automake so that it can recognize that I installed autoconf into a folder where i have permission to write.

Can someone help please?

Kind regards,
Toshan

weibullguy · 05-04-2016, 10:02 AM

Before you execute the Automake configure script, ensure your PATH has the location of your personal installation of Autoconf. Automake will use the first autoconf it finds in your PATH variable that meets the version requirements.

For example, I installed Autoconf in the prefix /home/andrew/.local. Thus, the version of autoconf I want Automake to find is in /home/andrew/.local/bin. I append this location to my PATH variable

Code:

PATH="/home/andrew/.local/bin:$PATH"

Now when I execute the Automake configure script, it finds this autoconf first and uses it rather than the system one installed in /usr/bin.

You can see that the version of the system autoconf is 2.69:

Code:

andrew@aragorn ~/builds/scratch/autotools/automake-1.15
 It is 11:06:42 on Wed May 04
 [gvim config.log] --> /usr/bin/autoconf --version
autoconf (GNU Autoconf) 2.69
Copyright (C) 2012 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
License GPLv3+/Autoconf: GNU GPL version 3 or later
<http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>, <http://gnu.org/licenses/exceptions.html>
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

Whereas, the version of autoconf I installed just for me is 2.65:

Code:

andrew@aragorn ~/builds/scratch/autotools/automake-1.15
 It is 11:07:31 on Wed May 04
 [/usr/bin/autoconf --version] --> ~/.local/bin/autoconf --version
autoconf (GNU Autoconf) 2.65
Copyright (C) 2009 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
License GPLv3+/Autoconf: GNU GPL version 3 or later
<http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>, <http://gnu.org/licenses/exceptions.html>
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

Checking Automake's config.log, we can see it picked up the locally installed autoconf:

Code:

configure:2934: checking whether autoconf is installed
configure:2939: autoconf --version
autoconf (GNU Autoconf) 2.65
Copyright (C) 2009 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
License GPLv3+/Autoconf: GNU GPL version 3 or later
<http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>, <http://gnu.org/licenses/exceptions.html>
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

Because /home/andrew/.local/bin comes before /usr/bin in my PATH variable:

Code:

 andrew@aragorn ~/builds/scratch/autotools/automake-1.15
 It is 11:08:04 on Wed May 04
 [~/.local/bin/autoconf --version] --> echo $PATH
/home/andrew/.local/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/games:/usr/share/cuda/bin:/opt/idea/bin:/usr/lib64/java/bin:/usr/lib64/java/jre/bin:/usr/lib64/openjdk/bin:/usr/lib64/openjdk/jre/bin:/usr/lib64/qt/bin:/usr/lib64/qt5/bin:/usr/local/bin:/opt/sage:/usr/share/texmf/bin:/usr/lib64/qt/bin:/home/andrew/.local/lib64/perl5/bin:/usr/lib64/java/bin:/usr/lib64/java:jre/bin

Toshan121 · 05-05-2016, 01:45 AM

thank you very much. I have already tried this method but it did not work. At the configure stage, it says permission denied. Even when I am trying to install into my directory.

sundialsvcs · 05-05-2016, 09:11 AM

Try it again.

The output should tell you exactly where the un-writeable files were located.

"autoconf / automake" are both "ordinary developer tools," designed to automate the process of creating Makefiles. Although they are used in configuring the Linux kernel and many subsystems, they're not in any way specific to the kernel, and therefore they are not privileged.

You're probably (accidentally) setting things up so that the first config that is encountered is one that's used for system maintenance purposes. Weibullguy's instructions are detailed and accurate.

Shadow_7 · 05-07-2016, 02:34 PM

If you're building them from sources.

$ ./configure --help | less

Normally theres a --installdir and other options to put it where you can write. And change your $PATH to look there first. +/- some --'s and *$PATH* stuff. In debian there's stow to help manage things like this. Plus you can build debian packages without actually being root. With ar and tar to extract it in a place you can write with $PATH and $LD_LIBRARY_PATH and stuff to use it where ever it exists. Whatever works for you though.