On Tue, Apr 24, 2001 at 12:06:58PM +0800, csj wrote: > I managed to download some source trees using cvs (five different > programs in fact). None of them would compile successfully. Note that > these are sources of programs whose latest ftp/http sources all > compiled smoothly (give and take a one-line tweak). Any idea what I'm > doing wrong? Or is cvs supposed to be a developers-only tool, off > limits to mere mortal users?
I'd say, CVS is more a developers tool. You usually do need some additional development software to successfully build a CVS tree. Or to get the compiling started in the first place even. For example, when you get a source tarball, it contains a configure -script, CVS source tree doesn't. It's simply because that script can be generated from another, more human readable script, configure.in. There is hardly any point in keeping files in CVS that can be easily re-generated. And if you've ever tried reading a diff between two configure.in's and their configure counterparts, you'll understand why. Back to your question. Assuming the CVS sources use the usual auto-tools, you need to install (at least) automake, autoconf and aclocal to get it compiling. How to use those tools properly for the source tree should be documented somewhere. Usually there's a autogen.sh or prepare -script that does it for you. And there is always the possibility that the code in the CVS tree requires that you have CVS version of something else installed. Again, it should be documented somewhere, if not anywhere else, the output of configure script should indicate if you have something missing. -- Tommi Komulainen [EMAIL PROTECTED] GPG 1024D/68388EE6 6FD6 DD79 EB38 BF6F 3533 09C0 04A8 9871 6838 8EE6
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