Re: Am I using the wrong docs/package?

[Mel Hatzis]

On 04/06/2003 06:51 AM, Chris Jensen wrote:
> Hi,
> I'm having  a fair bit of trouble installing gnats on a gentoo system. 
> Theproblems seem to be so fundamental that I think I must have the wrong 
> package or install docs.
> I've tried 
> http://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/gnats/gnats-3.999.1.tar.gz
> and
> http://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/gnats/gnats-3.999.2.tar.gz
>
> Using the install docs at
> http://www.gnu.org/software/gnats/doc/4_0_beta_snapshot/index.html
>
> However I've been having multiple problems following the install steps:
> 1. ./configure
> Configure seems to ignore some of the options suggested by the Install Guide

You'll find another configure script in the 'gnats' subdirectory....if you
run 'configure --help' on this one, I expect you'll have better luck
locating the options mentioned in the docs.

The Gnats configure setup is in need of some attention - generally,
there are configure scripts in most of the top level sub-directories
which can be unexpected. In any case, you can specify the configure
options presented by the gnats/configure script to the top-level
configure and it should all work.

> 2. make install-info
> Make reports that the makefile has not install-info target.

I can't see an install-info target either. Not sure what gives here.

> 3. mkdb
> Gives problems about
> /usr/local/com/gnatsdb not existing
> So I create that, and make it writeable by the gnats user
> Then it complians that it cant read
> /usr/local/etc/gnats/databases
> So I create it, then it complains that it can't get any defaults from
> /usr/local/share/gnats/
> and it turns out that that's because that directory is empty
>
> So what am I doing wrong. I figure I must be going insane because no one else 
> (on the list) seems to be having these problems.

It seems to me that you haven't successfully run 'make install'.
If everything built, try changing to the 'gnats' subdirectory,
and running a make install from there. This should create the
stuff in /usr/local which you created manually.

I suspect that the error you're getting about not getting defaults from
'/usr/local/share/gnats' is incorrect...the error should probably be that
it can't get the defaults from '/usr/local/etc/gnats' which is where
the 4.0beta binaries look for the gnats 'databases' file (prior to 4.0beta,
the 'databases' file lived in /usr/local/share/gnats).

Note that the databases file contains the path to the gnats data
directory - this is what mkdb requires in order to do it's work.

> I'd really appreciate any help

Hope this helps.

--
Mel Hatzis