downloading and compiling from source

[Mario Vukelic]

On Sat, 2008-03-08 at 14:15 +0100, Nils Kassube wrote:
> Then make a source directory in your home directory where 
> you unpack the sources you want to compile and install. For many programs 
> the procedure is this sequence of commands:
> 
> configure
> make
> sudo make install

I think it should be added that ./configure --help gives a list of
compile time options that can be passed, since changing the options
often is a reason to self-compile in the first place.

However, if it's just to change options I'd recommend to not build from
vanilla sources but to just rebuild the Ubuntu package. A guide is here:
http://julien.danjou.info/article-apt-build.html (to the OP: don't use
the Debian apt-src repo that is given in the article, but
select Software Sources from the menu System/Administration, and enable
the source code repos there.)

> you should install the package "checkinstall" 
> and change the command sequence above:
> 
> configure
> make
> sudo checkinstall make install

Definitely, otherwise deinstallation can become very messy.