Building XFree86 from a Source Distribution <author>David Dawes, Matthieu Herrb <Date>27 May 2001 <abstract> This document describes how to build XFree86 from the <bf>source</bf> distribution. It is designed to be used in conjunction with the OS-specific README files. </abstract> <toc> <quote> <bf/NOTE:/ Refer to the appropriate OS-specific README file before attempting to build XFree86. These files contain additional information that you may need to successfully build under your OS. </quote> We highly recommend using gcc to build XFree86, but it generally also builds with the native compiler for each platform; <sect>How to get the XFree86 &relvers; source There are a few starting points for getting the XFree86 source. One option is to start directly with the XFree86 &relvers; source distribution. In this case, the procedure is as follows: <itemize> <item>The XFree86 source is contained in files <tt>X&srcvers;src-1.tgz</tt>, <tt>X&srcvers;src-2.tgz</tt> and <tt>X&srcvers;src-3.tgz</tt>. These can be found at <htmlurl name="ftp://ftp.xfree86.org/pub/XFree86/&relvers;/source/" url="ftp://ftp.xfree86.org/pub/XFree86/&relvers;/source/"> and similar locations on XFree86 mirror sites. <tt>X&srcvers;src-2.tgz</tt> contains the fonts and documentation source. <tt>X&srcvers;src-3.tgz</tt> contains the hardcopy documentation. <tt>X&srcvers;src-1.tgz</tt> contains everything else. If you don't need the docs or fonts you can get by with only <tt>X&srcvers;src-1.tgz</tt>. <item>Extract each of these files by running the following from a directory on a filesystem containing enough space (the full source requires around 270MB, and a similar amount is required in addition to this for the compiled binaries): <quote><tt> gzip -d < X410src-1.tgz | tar vxf -<newline> gzip -d < X410src-2.tgz | tar vxf -<newline> gzip -d < X410src-3.tgz | tar vxf -<newline> </tt></quote> <item>If the release is not a full release, it is available as a patch against the previous full release in the <htmlurl name="ftp://ftp.xfree86.org/pub/XFree86/&relvers;/patches/" url="ftp://ftp.xfree86.org/pub/XFree86/&relvers;/patches/"> directory. Get the patch file from there and apply it by running the following command: <quote><tt> cd the directory containing the xc directory<newline> gzip -d < file | patch -s -p0 -E </tt> </quote> Look for special patching instructions in the <htmlurl name="Release Notes" url="http://www.xfree86.org/&relvers;/RELNOTES.html">. </itemize> Another option is to get the source by anonymous CVS or CVSup. See <htmlurl name="http://www.xfree86.org/cvs/" url="http://www.xfree86.org/cvs/"> for details on the different procedure available. All method will produce one main source directory called <tt>xc</tt>. <sect>Configuring the source before building It is recommended that you start the configuration process by going to the <tt>xc/config/cf</tt> directory, and copying the file <tt>xf86site.def</tt> to <tt>host.def</tt>. Then read through the <tt>host.def</tt> file (which is heavily commented), and set any parameters that you want for your configuration. You can usually find out what the default settings are by checking the <tt>.cf</tt> file(s) relevant to your OS. Unlike previous versions, imake can now automatically detect and set the various <bf>OS*Version</bf> parameters, so you shouldn't need to enter those settings explicitly. If you are using just the <tt>X&srcvers;src-1.tgz</tt> part of the source dist, you will need to define <bf>BuildFonts</bf> to <bf>NO</bf>. <sect>Using a shadow directory of symbolic links for the build A recommended practice is to use a shadow directory of symbolic links to do the build of XFree86. This permits to keep the source directory unmodified during the build, which has the following benefits: <itemize> <item>In the case where CVS is used to maintain the source tree up to date, the update process is not disturbed by foreign files not under the control of CVS. <item>It is possible to build XFree86 for several different Operating System or architectures from the same sources, shared by NFS. <item>It is possible to build XFree86 with different configuration options, just by putting a real copy<tt>host.def</tt> in each build tree and by customizing it separately in each build tree. </itemize> To make a shadow directory of symbolic links, use the following steps: <itemize> <item>create the directory at the top of the build tree. It is often created at the same level that the <tt>xc</tt> directory, but this is not mandatory. <quote><tt> cd the directory containing the xcdirectory<newline> mkdir build </tt></quote> <item>use the <tt>lndir</tt>command to make the shadow tree: <quote><tt> lndir ../xc </tt></quote> Note that you can refer to the <tt>xc</tt> directory with an absolute path if needed. See the <htmlurl name="lndir(1) manual page" url="http://www.xfree86.org/&relvers;/lndir.1.html"> for details. </itemize> If <tt>lndir</tt> is not already installed on your system, you can build it manually from the XFree86 sources by running the following commands: <quote><tt> cd xc/config/util<newline> make -f Makefile.ini lndir<newline> cp lndir some directory in your PATH </tt></quote> <sect>Building and installing the distribution Before building the distribution, read through the OS-specific <tt/README/ file in <tt>xc/programs/Xserver/hw/xfree86/doc</tt> that is relevant to you. Once those OS-specific details have been taken care of, go your build directory (either the <tt/xc/ directory or the shadow tree created before) and run ``<tt/make World/'' with the <bf/BOOTSTRAPCFLAGS/ set as described in the OS-specific README (if necessary, but most systems supported by XFree86 don't need <bf/BOOTSTRAPCFLAGS/). It is advisable to redirect stdout and stderr to <tt/World.Log/ so that you can track down problems that might occur during the build. With Bourne-like shells (Bash, the Korn shell, <tt>zsh</tt>, etc.) use a command like: <quote><tt> make World > World.log 2>&1 </tt></quote> Witch C-shell variants (<tt>csh</tt>, <tt>tcsh</tt>, etc), use: <quote><tt> make World >& World.log </tt></quote> You can follow the progress of the build by running: <quote><tt> tail -f World.log </tt></quote> in a terminal. When the build is finished, you should check <tt/World.Log/ to see if there were any problems. If there weren't any then you can install the binaries. To do the install, run ``<tt/make install/'' and ``<tt/make install.man/''. Make sure you have enough space in <tt>/usr/X11R6</tt> for the install to succeed. If you want to install on a filesystem other than <tt>/usr</tt>, make a symbolic link to <tt>/usr/X11R6</tt> before installing. <sect>Reconfiguring the server (source distribution) To build a different set of servers or servers with a different set of drivers installed: <enum> <item>Make sure the source for any new drivers is in the correct place (e.g., driver source should be in a subdirectory of <tt>xc/programs/Xserver/hw/xfree86/drivers</tt>). <item>Change the settings of the server defines in <tt/host.def/ to specify which servers you wish to build. Also, change the driver lists to suit your needs. <item>From <tt>xc/programs/Xserver</tt>, run: <tscreen><verb> make Makefile make Makefiles make includes make depend make </verb></tscreen> </enum> <sect>Other useful make targets There are some other useful targets defined in the top level <tt>Makefile</tt>of XFree86: <itemize> <item><bf/Everything/ after a <tt>make World</tt>, <tt>make Everything</tt>does everything a <tt>make World</tt> does, except the cleaning of the tree. It is a way to quickly rebuild the tree after a source patch, but it is not 100% bullet proof. There are cases were it is better to force a full build by using <tt>make World</tt>. <item><bf/clean/ does a partial cleaning of the source tree. Removes object files and generated manual pages, but leaves the Makefiles and the generated dependencies files in place. After a <tt>make clean</tt> you need to re-run <tscreen><verb> make includes make depend make </verb> </tscreen> to rebuild the XFree86. <item><bf/distclean/ does a full cleaning of the source tree, removing all generated files. After a <tt>make distclean</tt>, <tt>make World</tt> is the only option to rebuild XFree86. <item><bf/includes/ generates all generated header files and in-tree symbolic links needed by the build. These files are removed by a <tt>make clean</tt>. <item><bf/depend/ recomputes the dependencies for the various targets in all Makefiles. Depending on the operating system, the dependencies are stored in the Makefile, or as a separate file, called <tt>.depend</tt>. This target needs the generated include files produced by <tt>make includes</tt>. <item><bf/VerifyOS/ displays the detected operating system version. If the numbers shown do not match your system, you probably need to set them manually in <tt>host.def</tt> and report the problem to XFree86@XFree86.org. </itemize> <verb> $XFree86: xc/programs/Xserver/hw/xfree86/doc/sgml/BUILD.sgml,v 3.5 2001/08/10 16:38:10 dawes Exp $ </verb> </article>