Question

How do you build Open-Source projects from source?

Answer 1

Say I've downloaded the NetHack source and just changed one line in there, and I want to build the application. How is that done?

Answer 2

For many GNU open source projects, there are often just three steps
after downloading a tarball:
tar -xzf path_to_down_loaded_file.tgz
# maybe cd to a sub-directory
./configure
make # assuming GNU make

Note: this is for *simple* projects. GCC is not simple.

This assumes either a Unix or Linux set of tools (shell, awk, sed, etc) because the configure script and Makefiles assume that those tools are available.

Answer 3

lol

Answer 4

I'm scratching my head over the instructions to build the NetHack project.

Answer 5

I'll take a look. Where did you get it?

Answer 6

http://nethack.org/

Answer 7

http://nethack.org/v343/download-src.html

Answer 8

And what environment are you trying to build it in?

Answer 9

the windows platform

Answer 10

I'm going to try it on my Powerbook.

Answer 11

Cygwin or MingW?

Answer 12

mingw

building stuff from source is not a trivial task :-D

Answer 13

Yeah. And this is *not*, regrettably, simple. And it hasn't been built with the MAC Xcode IDE... I wonder if it'll build with bare GCC. What version of GCC do you have (not that it *should* be important)

Answer 14

I don't know what version of mingw I have :(

Answer 15

lol

Answer 16

OK. I'll look at this for a while, then have a couple of appointments later. I'll give you a status before I go offline.

I don't know which would be easier, to convert their MAC notion of projects to Makefiles, or to Xcode, which I don't know very well. Guess I answered that for myself. It's Makefiles.

Have you tried it with Visual Studio?

Answer 17

I don't own visual studio :(

Answer 18

There's a free download on microsoft.com, I've heard.

Answer 19

I have the visual C++ express edition

Answer 20

It might be easier to use that compiler, as a smarter C compiler. This is looking like I'll have to build Makefiles out of thin air. Did you find any .u files in your distribution?

Answer 21

I found .uu files

Answer 22

and a makefile

Answer 23

Did you also download 3.4.3? I tried a find and found uu files but no makefile. Where do you see it?

Answer 24

Got it. sys/unix/Makefile*

Answer 25

/nethack-3.4.3/sys/

Answer 26

right

Answer 27

I'm sure that building the game is still easier than building huge projects like Linux etc.

Answer 28

I'm sure. Never tried that. I've tried GCC many times, and succeeded. Not lately.

Answer 29

OK. make install is running. I'm off to my first appt. See you later.

Answer 30

I've double clicked on something called a nethack VC++6 workspace

Answer 31

right, will see you

Answer 32

Steps to build:
sys\winnt\nhsetup.bat
Make sure to edit your Makefile to decide if you want GRAPHICAL=Y or GRAPHICAL=N
mingw32-make -f Makefile.gcc install

Did you try this? It was in the sys/winnt/Install.nt file. It outlines the necessary steps to build and install.

Answer 33

My Unix build got here:
cc -o nethack monst.o objects.o allmain.o alloc.o apply.o artifact.o attrib.o ball.o bones.o botl.o cmd.o dbridge.o decl.o detect.o dig.o display.o dlb.o do.o do_name.o do_wear.o dog.o dogmove.o dokick.o dothrow.o drawing.o dungeon.o eat.o end.o engrave.o exper.o explode.o extralev.o files.o fountain.o hack.o hacklib.o invent.o light.o lock.o mail.o makemon.o mapglyph.o mcastu.o mhitm.o mhitu.o minion.o mklev.o mkmap.o mkmaze.o mkobj.o mkroom.o mon.o mondata.o monmove.o monstr.o mplayer.o mthrowu.o muse.o music.o o_init.o objnam.o options.o pager.o pickup.o pline.o polyself.o potion.o pray.o priest.o quest.o questpgr.o read.o rect.o region.o restore.o rip.o rnd.o role.o rumors.o save.o shk.o shknam.o sit.o sounds.o sp_lev.o spell.o steal.o steed.o teleport.o timeout.o topten.o track.o trap.o u_init.o uhitm.o vault.o vision.o vis_tab.o weapon.o were.o wield.o windows.o wizard.o worm.o worn.o write.o zap.o ioctl.o unixmain.o unixtty.o unixunix.o unixres.o getline.o termcap.o topl.o wintty.o version.o -ltermlib
ld: library not found for -ltermlib
collect2: ld returned 1 exit status
make[1]: *** [Sysunix] Error 1
make: *** [nethack] Error 2

I have to research termlib.