Can ./configure show dependencies?
 

Hello, I was wondering if when I building a package that has a ./configure script I can find out all the dependencies that I need instead of having to install them one by one, by running the configure multiple times and waiting for it to error. Thanks.

Hi and Welcome to LQ!
I guess you mean when you're compiling a program. There may be a README file or an INSTALL file in the same directory as configure which may tell you something. Often it's the webpage where you downloaded the source code that tells you what dev packages you're going to need. You could also look at the configure or configure.in files but that might be a bit long. Otherwise you have to do it the way you described above.
ciao,
jdk

Thanks for the answer jdkaye, that was what I fear! ^^

Occasionally the documentation has a section "prerequisites",
like gcc http://gcc.gnu.org/install/prerequisites.html


The Debian / Ubuntu source pages have all dependencies listed for
thousands of applications. Example :
http://packages.debian.org/source/sid/achilles
Dependencies are marked with a red dot.

.

Don't worry. The more you compile the more dev packages you accumulate and after a while you have pretty much everything. It's really not so bad as you think.
ciao,
jdk

unfortunately the answer is
yes AND no
maybe AND maybe not

it might or it might NOT

but looking for a "README" or a "Doc" folder or reading the programs web site will tell you

some have a nice built in check and ends with a configure output
( imagemagick is one )
others just ERROR and fail .
others still will error BUT it is documented in the configure.log

However most of the time finding what was being looked for and NOT found is just strait forward deduction .

Thank you for your replies, good tips.