how to build without destroying current install?

I used git to get a linuxcnc-dev directory. I did autoconf configure.in and that worked. I was about to try to build when I saw a warning that building would destroy the current install, which I don't want to do. I've got a runnable machine here, a small miracle (thank you). I don't want to wreck it. There's a hint at the end of the output from autoconf configure.in ... it says: To test a self-built version, don't specify a --prefix. What prefix? ?? How do I build and test a self-built version without wrecking a working installation?

Hi,

By default it now builds a RIP (run in place) install which is self contained

Run ./configure --help for all the options

If you want to be ultra cautious configure with ./configure --enable-run-in-place but unless it has been changed again, that is the default and is deprecated as a switch

.autogen.sh
./configure
make
sudo make setuid
cd ../
. ./scripts/rip-environment
linuxcnc

always assuming you have all the required packages installed

regards

When I run configure, configure comes back with an error describing what package I'm missing. Then I have to Google configure's description of what's missing to find out what string to use after apt-get. Right now I'm hung up on Xinerama I think it is. I've done apt-get for two X11 packages, but configure isn't happy. If I get Xinerama figured out, I don't know what's coming after that, nor do I know if I'm 20% through or 95% through. What is the in-the-know way to handle this issue, having all the correct packages installed?

With these you can build a kernel, realtime and /or Linuxcnc

sudo apt-get install build-essential debhelper libpth-dev libgtk2.0-dev tcl8.5-dev tk8.5-dev

sudo apt-get install bwidget python-old-doctools python-tk python-dev libglu1-mesa-dev libgtk2.0-dev libgnomeprintui2.2-dev

sudo apt-get install libncurses5-dev libxaw7-dev gettext libreadline-gplv2-dev lyx texlive-extra-utils imagemagick texinfo groff libmodbus-dev

sudo apt-get install libudev-dev libmodbus-dev libboost-python-dev libboost-serialization-dev libboost-thread-dev

sudo apt-get install libtk-img automake autoconf libtool libusb-0.1-4 libusb-1.0.0-dev git

regards

Thank you for the guidance. I used the sudo-apt gets suggested and generally had luck.
The third apt-get complained it couldn't find libreadline-gplv2-dev and then configure returned an error for lack of libreadline, so I took a SWAG at it and did an apt-get for libreadline-dev ... which seemed to quiet down the complaints. Then configure returned an error 'Python requires use of Tcl8.5 and Tk8.5. So even though it had already been done I did it again apt-get install Tcl8.5, which returned 'tcl8.5 is already the newest version.'

So now I'm at an impasse, because configure complains that Python requires tcl8.5 not tcl8.4 and apt-get install says tcl8.5 is what's there.
Please give more guidance. I thought maybe the system would see the latest tcl version after a power cycle, so I shut down and restarted but that did not help.

Hi

You dont say what distro you are running, I would suspect 10.04

Try running apt-get remove tk8.4 tcl8.4

I vaguely remember having to do this otherwise it still defaults to 8.4 on Ubuntu 10.04

regards

That worked! Thanks!
configure runs through to completion, puts up a box saying so, tells me to type make.

after make, I get

Reading 0/169 dependency files
Done reading dependencies
make: Entering directory `/home/robert/linuxcnc-dev/src'
copying shared configs
Compiling libnml/inifile/inifile.cc
/bin/sh: CXX@: not found
make: *** [objects/libnml/inifile/inifile.o] Error 127
make: Leaving directory `/home/robert/linuxcnc-dev/src'
robert@southBayOrganicShapes:~/linuxcnc-dev/src$

After getting the error, I figured maybe I needed to go back to the beginning, so I started again with

.autogen.sh
./configure
make

... and again no errers until make, and the same error (as above) at make.
Thank you for your patience.

After getting the error, I figured maybe I needed to go back to the beginning, so I started again with

.autogen.sh
./configure
make

From /src run make clean
then from the root dir of the sources run git clean -xdf

Now run those steps again and hopefully it will work.

If you get problems, you need to purge all the configs etc before rebuilding or the errors can continue.

The actual error would suggest it could not find the C++ compiler, or it was wrongly specified in the makefile.

regards

I ended up throwing away my whole linuxcnc-dev directory, using git to get it again fresh. Then I went through the steps and everything worked. Very satisfying. Thank you.