Re: [Swarm-Support] Installing under Gentoo Linux

[Carlos Castillo]

Hello,

Thank you for your reply. First I want to say that all I wrote in my
previous e-mail I meant in the most constructive way. I'm also going
to take you up on your offer and write some notes on the installation
process in Linux source-based distros such as Gentoo, Slackware and
LFS (based on my experience, what you've explained and the things I've
read in the mailing-list archives).

>Paul Johnson makes recent source code packages, which do not require
>autoconf and friends, available on his site:
>http://lark.cc.ku.edu/~pauljohn/Swarm
>You can also find there an excellent FAQ.  His latest source tarball:
>http://lark.cc.ku.edu/~pauljohn/Swarm/Swarm-2.2X_Fdr1/swarm
>-2.1.150.20040413.tar.gz
>Is from the cvs just two days ago.

I read Paul's FAQ, and considered trying the snapshot you are pointing
to, however I did not try it because of the fact that it is in the
Fedora directory. I'll try it later on today.

>Can you please explain what you mean by 'syntax errors in the configure
>script'?  A configure script runs very many small test programs.  Some
>of these test programs will give syntax errors.  That is normal.

I mean that when I run ./configure, it does this:

checking build system type... i686-pc-linux-gnu
checking host system type... i686-pc-linux-gnu
checking target system type... i686-pc-linux-gnu
checking for a BSD-compatible install... /bin/install -c
checking whether build environment is sane... yes
checking whether make sets $(MAKE)... yes
checking for working aclocal-1.4... found
checking for working autoconf... found
checking for working automake-1.4... found
checking for working autoheader... found
checking for working makeinfo... found
checking for gcc... gcc
checking for C compiler default output file name... a.out
checking whether the C compiler works... yes
checking whether we are cross compiling... no
checking for suffix of executables...
checking for suffix of object files... o
checking whether we are using the GNU C compiler... yes
checking whether gcc accepts -g... yes
checking for gcc option to accept ANSI C... none needed
./configure: line 2863: syntax error near unexpected token
`no-dependencies,,'
./configure: line 2863: `_AM_IF_OPTION(no-dependencies,,
_AM_DEPENDENCIES(OBJC))'


>A number of header files and other sources are built by the configure
>script.  If you have modified the configure script that would explain
>why they do not build.  Some other sources such as those for Java and
>COM are built by LISP programs invoked by the makefiles when
>appropriately configured.
>Without those headers and auxiliary files, you cannot build working
>code.  So I will ignore most subsequent problems.

>If you think you have trouble with a configure script, please report it
>here.  So we can fix the code that produced the script.  Do not try to
>modify the scripts yourself.  They are too complex and you will just
>waste your time.

I posted the generated and the modified configure script here:

http://www.gia.usb.ve/~carlos/swarm/

>This is a pain.  The name of the file was changed in BLT but not
>documented.  If someone can tell us the BLT version at which the change
>was made, we can fix it in configure.  If we fix it unconditionally it
>will break on older versions of BLT :-(

I don't know at what point the problem started, but I'm sure 2.4z
  (which is the only version linked at: http://blt.sourceforge.net/)
  has the problem. I think it might even be worth solving the problem
  temporarily for versions >=2.4z.

Best regards,

Carlos Castillo





> I don't use Swarm on Linux, but I do package up binaries for MacOS X.
>
> I would like to respond to the remarks below.  We are conscious of the
> deficiencies in the Swarm documentation which tend to lead people up
> many blind alleys.  We are trying to build a new and more helpful web
> site at
> http://wiki.swarm.org.  However, Swarm no longer has any official
> funding.  So everything has to be done by volunteers.  We all have a
> living to earn and usually research to get done.  If anyone is able to
> help with coding, testing, debugging, documentation or the website
> please let us know.
>
> I write the following in the hope that it explains why Carlos had the
> problems he did and will help others to avoid them.
>
> On 15/04/2004, at 3:12 PM, Carlos Castillo wrote:
>> I've been trying to install Swarm (cvs) under Gentoo Linux for a
>> couple of
>> days now, and I have more or less succeeded, however I'm having
>> problems
>> getting an application to work. Some developers and/or users might
>> find this
>> information useful.
>>
>> Here's what I have done and the issues I've had to deal with:
>>
>> -Installed the required software (blt2, libpng, xpm, hdf5, zlib,
>> libffi,
>> kaffe, etc). Verified the software worked correctly. Note that there
>> is not
>> a list of packages needed for the development version available at the
>> web
>> page, I used the list of software available at the stable version page.
>
> The business of required packages is non-trivial particularly on Linux.
>   All Linux distributions are different and installers have many options
> about what is and is not included.  Hence it is very hard to provide a
> definitive list of what is needed on Linux.  On MacOS X, for instance,
> it is much easier because the system is more standard.
>
> For guidance
> Required:
> gcc at least version 3.0.x for preference 3.3.x or even 3.4 when it is
> released.  Avoid 3.2.x on most systems.
> Tcl, Tk xpm and BLT are required for the graphical display.
> zlib is required but already included on most modern systems.
> Some foreign function library (ffcall or libffi) is required.  However,
> a version of avcall which is
> part of a ffcall is now included in the sources, and will be used if
> nothing else is specified to configure.
> Libffi is now part of gcc and will not need to be separately installed
> with a recent version of gcc.  It is likely that we will move to using
> libffi exclusively in the future because it should be better supported
> as part of gcc.
>
> Optional packages:
> If you want to use the Java API you need to have either some version of
> the Sun JDK or the opensource Kaffe, but not both.
>
> If you want to use png graphics, you need libpng.
>
> If you wish to use HDF5 archiving, you need libhdf5.  Without it, Lisp
> archiving will be used.
>
>> -Checked out the cvs version after trying the latest stable and failing
>> miserably to install it on a reasonably current Linux system.
>>
>> -./autogen.sh, generates some syntax errors in the configure script, I
>> just
>> deleted the problem areas and all went well
>
> The 'latest stable' or version 2.1.1 will NOT build on any modern
> system.
>
> The CVS checkout is only intended for those with a good understanding
> of the GNU autoconf/automake/libtool suite.  Autogen.sh is just a
> simple driver script for them.  It is expected that it has to be
> modified for particular systems.
>
> Can you please explain what you mean by 'syntax errors in the configure
> script'?  A configure script runs very many small test programs.  Some
> of these test programs will give syntax errors.  That is normal.
>
> All autogen.sh does is invoke the GNU autotools.  Errors in a configure
> script are either caused by problems in the autoconf/automake
> installation on your system or incompatabilities between it and the
> code in Swarm.  The GNU autotools are frequently updated which is why
> the CVS code is not suitable for most users
>
> Paul Johnson makes recent source code packages, which do not require
> autoconf and friends, available on his site:
> http://lark.cc.ku.edu/~pauljohn/Swarm
> You can also find there an excellent FAQ.  His latest source tarball:
> http://lark.cc.ku.edu/~pauljohn/Swarm/Swarm-2.2X_Fdr1/swarm
> -2.1.150.20040413.tar.gz
> Is from the cvs just two days ago.
>
> Using these will avoid all the issues with autotools.   There are also
> binary rpms there for Linux and links to binaries for Windows and MacOS
> X.
>
>>
>> -./configure had problems working with kaffe (which I later came to
>> know
>> was no longer required, but it wasn't mentioned explicitly anywhere), I
>> switched to sun-jdk and all went better.
>>
>> -make initially failed in the tools directory, where I had to compile a
>> couple of source files manually because of missing headers, it couldn't
>> find some required headers. Unless up to this point I have done
>> something
>> wrong, everyone compiling the development version should be running
>> into
>> this problem.
>
> A number of header files and other sources are built by the configure
> script.  If you have modified the configure script that would explain
> why they do not build.  Some other sources such as those for Java and
> COM are built by LISP programs invoked by the makefiles when
> appropriately configured.
> Without those headers and auxiliary files, you cannot build working
> code.  So I will ignore most subsequent problems.
>
> If you think you have trouble with a configure script, please report it
> here.  So we can fix the code that produced the script.  Do not try to
> modify the scripts yourself.  They are too complex and you will just
> waste your time.
>
>> install, but I don't think so. Tweaked the makefile. It compiled but
>> it didn't run. I had to go to the directory where blt was installed
>> and to a
>> symlink from bltGraph.tcl to graph.tcl (I'm using the latest stable of
>> BLT).
>
> This is a pain.  The name of the file was changed in BLT but not
> documented.  If someone can tell us the BLT version at which the change
> was made, we can fix it in configure.  If we fix it unconditionally it
> will break on older versions of BLT :-(
>
>>
>> under linux, does the COM directory have to be built?
>
> COM is only meaningful on Windows.  So it does not build on other
> platforms.
>>
>
> Hope this helps.
> Bill Northcott
>
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