Compiling from Source--Huh?
 

One of the biggest frustrations I have as a newbie is when I install a new program from source, it invariably fails. I know that I am doing the commands correctly (./configure (sometimes with a prefix) then make and make install). The problem I have is reading the output after the make command to understand why the installation doesn't take. You get reams and reams of output and for the life of me I can't figure out which of the lines in the output are telling me what went wrong.

So what I am asking very generally is how to read the output I get after I type the make command to understand what is going wrong. What type of statements should I look for? How do I figure out if the problem is one of not having certain packages installed?

If someone knows of a good website where all this is explained for newbies, then by all means blow me off and point me in that direction.

Thanks.

Post one of your outputs here and maybe someone can explain to you what happened, etc? At times its not every single line you see errors on that is the problem, its usually towards the end that will be the culprit. Majority of the time when people install from source and get errors, its either dependecy issues or its not finding the needed packages to compile in your path, etc.

i'd think the errors you recieve will be varied from 1 program to the next. so as to errors in general you'd need to post some of them here. i'd suggest the next source compile that you have problems with, post some specific errors. sorry to be no more help.

edit: you may ignore my reply as someone else got to it whilst i struggled to type.

Re: Compiling from Source--Huh?
 

just to remind you, you didnt say "make install as root".

configure and make are to be done as normal user.
make install to be done as root.
at what point do you get the errors (at configure/ make/ make install?) if its at make install, then its cos your not running it as root.

if thats what youre doin, then disregard what i said, and post your error messages. :)

Your errors should be at the end of ./configure. If they're at the end of make you have a problem with "automake".