Re: [hylafax-users] Problem compiling HylaFAX+ from source

[A J Stiles <hylafax_resp@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Thursday 16 Dec 2010, yo.natan@xxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
> Hi
> I've spent the last couple of hours trying to compile HylaFAX+ from source
> on Ubuntu Server 10.04 LTS (clean install), but I can't get past the
> ./configure stage due to ZLIB. This is what I've done:
> 1. Downloaded libtiff v.3.9.4, Ghostscript 9.00 and HylaFAX+ v5.4.3.
> 2. Ran tar xzvf for each of the archives from (1).
> 3. For libtiff I ran: ./configure && make && sudo make install
> 4. For ghostscript I ran: ./configure && make && sudo make install
> So far everything seems fine as far as I can tell. However, when I move on
> to (5) I run into trouble. 5. For hylafax+: ./configure

At least 99% of problems encountered with compiling packages from source are 
caused by missing -dev packages.

The source code for libraries (and programs that act a bit like libraries by 
exposing an API) contains "header files" which describe the functions and 
constants therein. Once the build is complete, you don't need these header 
files for normal everyday use of the library. So they can safely be omitted 
from "libfoo.deb", to save space in the package and so reduce the download 
time by dial-up modem  (which were important considerations, way back in the 
days).  BUT if you are ever going to compile another program that makes use 
of any function or constant defined in the library, you *do* need the 
headers. So there is a separate package "libdoo-dev.deb" which contains these 
headers and other files likely only to be of interest to developers 
(remember, in Linux parlance, anyone who builds anything from source is a 
developer).

When you download some spiffy new tarball from SourceForge or somewhere that 
isn't in your favourite repository yet and it says it needs "libsdl 1.2", 
what *isn't* obvious is that it almost certainly needs the header files that 
would have been left lying around by compiling libsdl1.2. So, like a good 
user, you do

$ sudo apt-get install libsdl1.2

and try to build the package. Which then fails to find some header file that 
was moved out to libsdl1.2-dev and promptly dies,complaining that it can't 
find libsdl1.2.

*THAT* is highly counter-intuitive, and it's what propagates the false idea 
that compiling from source is a black art.


In your case, it sounds like "zlib1g-dev" is missing.  There were a few 
other "not found" messages in your output, suggesting that you could do with 
installing some more -dev packages.

Best of luck getting it to work!

-- 
AJS
(Originating address does not accept e-mail.  Insert a figure "one" before the 
at sign if replying off-list.)


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