Before Libretto can be built, it must first be configured. This is done by running the configure script that is distributed with Libretto. For example:
$ gzip -dc libretto-2.1.tar.gz | tar xf - $ cd libretto-2.1 $ ./configure
The configure script can take options to alter certain features of the build process. For details, say
$ ./configure --help
After configuration, the library may be built by saying
$ make
and installed by saying
$ make install
You may also run the test suite by saying
$ make check
The library should build without any additional user intervention on all supported platforms.
Of course, the problem arises when considering the meaning of the phrase `supported platforms', though the situation here has improved dramatically since Libretto moved into `production' status. Libretto has been developed principally on Linux/ia32 (‘i386-pc-linux-gnulibc1’, in terms of GNU configuration names). It has had some testing under FreeBSD on Intel processors, under Digital Unix on Alpha processors, and under Solaris on SPARC processors. However, I expect it to work perfectly under any broadly POSIX-like system, on all processors including 64-bit machines such as the DEC Alpha/AXP and the UltraSparc.1
Note that the GNU C compiler (or a derivative) may be required on some platforms to build Libretto. Programs linking against Libretto may be built with any ANSI-compliant compiler (though see Using for some additional information about the header file).
GNU Make, the GNU C Library, and the GNU linker (from GNU binutils) are no longer required for building, though they were in earlier releases. Note, however, that GNU Make is required for development – this is a side-effect of using GNU Automake.
[1] I hope soon to be able to start
porting Libretto to non-POSIX Unix-like platforms; specifically, I may
be able to get access to what is presumably one of the last machines
anywhere running Masscomp RTU. I expect that this will be of interest
only to geeks, though. :-)