From: myknees AT aol DOT com (Myknees) Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.djgpp Subject: Re: LD looks at zip drive Date: 4 Jan 1998 16:42:12 GMT Lines: 80 Message-ID: <19980104164200.LAA27051@ladder02.news.aol.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: ladder02.news.aol.com References: Organization: AOL http://www.aol.com To: djgpp AT delorie DOT com DJ-Gateway: from newsgroup comp.os.msdos.djgpp Precedence: bulk In article , Eli Zaretskii writes: >> There is so much to read and learn. I have never used Unix, >> configure >>scripts, etc. > >This is all required if you want to *port* a package. But to >build a >package that was already ported by someone else (as is the case >here) >this is not at all necessary. You just need to follow >the >DJGPP-specific instructions, even if you don't really understand >the >reason behind some of them. > >As a simple example, think about using a >utility such as Make: you >don't need to understand the subtleties of its >operation to use a >Makefile that somebody else has crafted for you. All you >need is to >type "make [Enter]". With all due respect, that is not always the case. With binutils, for example, you must run the configuration first, but in order to do that, you need many UNIX-type applications that a beginner will most likely know nothing about. Here are the relevant sections of the readme.djg for the binutils: << How to compile binutils 2.8.1 for DJGPP ======================================= At first you need the following packages installed, which are all available for DJGPP. (I do not list here any needed program, because I don't know exactly all the needed programs): - GNU make - GNU fileutils - GNU find - GNU shellutils - GNU bash - GNU textutils - GNU awk - GNU sed >> ...and also... << *WARNING* The configure step will run correct ONLY, if you have a patched ln.exe from the GNU fileutils, or better you need a patch to the DJGPP libc-function 'symlink()' and then relink ln.exe with that patched function. If you don't have that patch look at DJ Delories website in the mail archive selecting the DJGPP-workers mailing list and search there for the latest symlink patch. >> So what I understood from those sections is that a beginner would have to go to the simtel ftp site and look for the GNU things, install them, then go get the symlink() patch from the mail archives, get patch.exe to apply the patch, get man in order to read the documentation for patch, and finally get less so that man.exe can function. After learning how to use patch and then applying the patch to the symlink function and re-linking ln.exe, the beginner would be ready to run the configure script. Perhaps I'm wrong and it would not be necessary to do all that, but that's what I was able to glean from the readme.djg for the binutils. Now, I don't see anything wrong with going around getting UNIX stuff and learning to use it, since I learn lots of interesting stuff along the way. I am starting to like all the GNU-ish utilities, especially the little ones like ls and less and fmt. But the whole process is certainly not simple or easy. --Ed (Myknees)