User:Timothee Flutre/Notebook/Postdoc/2012/11/27

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How to make a GNU package? To understand why using Autotools is a good idea, see these slides by Ludovic Courtès. A very good tutorial by Martin Mann is available here. Make sure that you have an updated version of the Autotools on your system. find a name for the package, for instance "mypkg" mkdir mypkg; cd mypkg create some initial files: touch AUTHORS BUGS ChangeLog NEWS README retrieve the license, for instance GPLv3: wget -O COPYING http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.txt fill the README file (example) create the directory which will contain the source code, and populate it: mkdir src touch src/mytemplate.cpp create the first necessary file, and fill it with AC_INIT, AC_CONFIG_SRCDIR, AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE, AC_PROG_CXX, AC_CONFIG_FILES, and AC_OUTPUT: touch configure.ac # and edit it create the second necessary file, and fill it with SUBDIRS: touch Makefile.am # and edit it get the missing files via the Autotools, such as INSTALL: autoreconf --install # use autoreconf --force the next times #if needed, use: 'automake --add-missing' and 'libtoolize --force' write your code (follow the techniques gathered under the name Pragmatic Defense, look at the hello program) write tests, possibly using CppUnit, and update AC_CONFIG_FILES: mkdir test; cd test/ touch test/Makefile.am write some documentation in Texinfo: mkdir doc; cd doc/ wget -O fdl.texi http://cvs.savannah.gnu.org/viewvc/*checkout*/gnustandards/fdl.texi?root=gnustandards&content-type=text%2Fplain touch manual_mypkg.texi # and edit it make pdf compile the code with the Autotools (see the manual and this tutorial; for the tests, have a look here): ./configure # can be followed by --prefix=$HOME, LDFLAGS=-L/usr/local/lib, 'CXXFLAGS=-O0 -g', etc make # can be followed by LDFLAGS="-L/usr/local/lib -static" as well as CXXFLAGS="-DDEBUG -Wall" make check # to automatically execute the tests make your package available to anyone: make install make distcheck # can be followed by DISTCHECK_CONFIGURE_FLAGS=LDFLAGS=-L/usr/local/lib for instance tar tzvf mypkg-0.1.tar.gz # to check what is in the release version your code, for instance with Git (read the book!): git init git add AUTHORS COPYING ChangeLog INSTALL Makefile.am NEWS README TODO build-aux/* configure.ac git add src/Makefile.am src/hello.cpp git add doc/Makefile.am doc/manual_hello.texi doc/fdl.texi git add tests/Makefile.am tests/test1.bash git commit -m "first commit" # and edit .git/info/exclude or .gitignore, tag your release, etc And check that you have all required files in your repo: cd ~/tmp; git clone ~/<path_to_original_repo>/hello autoreconf --force ./configure make make check make install make distcheck share your code, for instance on GitHub (read the help!) Tips: if your package uses libtool, you need to use gdb like this: $ libtool --mode=execute gdb --args myprogram -i input.txt