Very newb question
 

when installing software i know i could take the easy way and just install RPM package but if i want to compile from the source code how could you tell what option or modules to enable or use with ./configure? i know you could type ./configure --help and that it will give u a brief description still most of it i don't understand if i need or not..how you people know what module or option to enable or not? how deos it work?

i am new to linux and i don't know if anybody have the same question or not
but i really thank you for your time and help


Makar

The configuration is very dependant on what your trying to install. mostly configure doesn't need much if any options set, it can work it out for itself.

One of the ones I use most is --prefix to tell a program where I want it installed, but most programs already have this set right anyway.

What are you trying to compile and install?

Well -- usually you're installing software for some sort of purpose, and the options you configure into it are based on what purpose it's going to be used for. For example, if I'm configuring an IMAP server and I want it to authenticate off of a MySQL database, I need to make sure that MySQL support is compiled in. I know this probably doesn't help a lot, but that's usually the way it goes, and you'll get a better sense of things as you get more experienced. One thing, though, if you don't know how to configure something, you can usually just leave the default config options, as they're generally set to something reasonably sane.

well, i am trying to setup a webserver (apache+php+mysql) i have no problem doing that using the RPMs but i am trying to learn more about linux and how eveything works. so i am compiling from the source code and its really such a hard task to do if you are a newb like myself.

anyway i really thank you all for your comments, time and help

makar