There is an example code in the source of pidgin that i wanted to compile and see
The following file are present

ballu@ballu-desktop:~$ ls Desktop/pidgin-2.5.4/libpurple/example/
defines.h Makefile.am Makefile.in nullclient.c

I wanted to compile the nullclient.c file
make isnt working.
How to compile??

I don't see Makefile (no extension). Have you run configure?
cheers,
jdk

it does not have the configure
i am new to linux and am not fully aware of the build process..
How do i run confifure??

Are you wanting to install pidgin from source? If that is the case then you will need to run configure script first. Then you can run make and make install.
What distro are you using. If you are using Ubuntu you may need to install build-essential package prior to compiling.

I just wanted to make a basic IM using the libpurple libraray
the sample code is there but i dont know how to compile it..
I am using ubuntu 8.04

the contents of the directory are

ballu@ballu-desktop:~$ ls Desktop/pidgin-2.5.4/libpurple/example/
defines.h Makefile.am Makefile.in nullclient.c

the file which i want to ompile is nullclient.c

Its a c file so you will need to compile using gcc.
First as root run the command

apt-get install build-essential.

Once that is installed you can man for gcc and read on how to compile code using gcc.

If you want the minimum build = pidgin-2.5.4/libpurple/example/

then please do these commands :

1) cd pidgin-2.5.4/
2) 2a) Then you will get some 'Makefile's and be able to run 'make'.
3) cd libpurple/
4) make
4a) and get libpurple/example/.libs/nullclient
4b) 'nullclient' is an executable, and the result from running
the 'Makefile' in 'example/'
( Be aware that .libs/ is a hidden file.)
4c) It is not possible to run 'make' or 'gcc' in 'example/'
because the file 'nullclient.c' depends on 'purple.h' in
'pidgin-2.5.4/libpurple/' . ( And on 'libpurple.la' )
'purple.h' again depends on more than 40 headers
( files.h ), which will only be found using
the 'Makefile' in 'pidgin-2.5.4/libpurple/'
( Or the 'Makefile' in 'pidgin-2.5.4/' )
.....
I tested all the above last night, and it works with no errors.
.....

Of course it has configure. You will find it here:
.../pidgin-2.5.4/
cheers,
jdk

thanks a lot knudfl ,i was finaly able to get it compiled....