[whatever84]

Hello everybody,

I am working on building software, and I am "nearly" done with this.
What I need now is to have the appropriate (well-known) procedures
for installing/running a software under linux. I made a quick search on
the Internet on "how to install a software under linux", and I realized that
"most" linux software is installed using these commands sequence:

1. $./configure
2. $make
3. $make install

Well, I like to have my software to be installed/ran using that sequence.
For the moment, I am not interested in step1, where I want to start from
step2. My questions:
1. What is the difference between "make" and "make install"?
2. What is the input and output of each of them?
3. What is the main difference between .sh file and makefile?
4. What is better for building java-based software "makefile" or "ant"?
(note: I am not familiar with any of these concepts/tools)

Thanks,

[eggi]

Hey There,

I would say you should definitely do the configure step, since it usually creates the Makefile

For your q's

1. What is the difference between "make" and "make install"?

this depends. Every Makefile is unique. If you can follow the basic setup (left hand side of colon equals expression, right hand side of colon equals action, to put it very simply), you should be able to read the Makefile and determine exactly which each does.
Generally, make will just compile the binaries. make install will make the binaries and install them in whatever the default local directory for installation (that'll be in in the Makefile. A lot of times, you can just skip make and run make install, since make is a dependency of make install and will get run if you don't call it before running make install - that's assuming you're building from a reputable source package

2. What is the input and output of each of them?

For each, the input is variable. you shouldn't have to pass any args to make, but if you don't run configure, you should just read the manpage, because you'll have to pass a lot of arguments. The output for both is just the actions that are being executed in the makefile

3. What is the main difference between .sh file and makefile?

.sh is a shell script and a makefile is a makefile, which is its own type of script with different rules

4. What is better for building java-based software "makefile" or "ant"?

In my opinion, ant

Best wishes,

Mike

whatever84, on Feb 18 2009, 05:55 AM, said:

Hello everybody,

I am working on building software, and I am "nearly" done with this.
What I need now is to have the appropriate (well-known) procedures
for installing/running a software under linux. I made a quick search on
the Internet on "how to install a software under linux", and I realized that
"most" linux software is installed using these commands sequence:

1. $./configure
2. $make
3. $make install

Well, I like to have my software to be installed/ran using that sequence.
For the moment, I am not interested in step1, where I want to start from
step2. My questions:
1. What is the difference between "make" and "make install"?
2. What is the input and output of each of them?
3. What is the main difference between .sh file and makefile?
4. What is better for building java-based software "makefile" or "ant"?
(note: I am not familiar with any of these concepts/tools)

Thanks,

[whatever84]

Thanks for your response. Do you know about any existing tool for generating "java makefile"
automatically? Something like ant builder plugin in eclipse.. My search revealed that whatever
automatic makefile builder is C/C++ based.

[eggi]

Hey There,

No problem. Glad to help out

Check out autoconf - it has java makefile support:

http://www.nabble.co...a-td903177.html

or just to go gnu.org and follow the trail from there

Best wishes,

Mike