Subversion Repositories or1k

This is the directory where you configure, compile, test, and install

UNIX versions of Tcl.  This directory also contains source files for Tcl

that are specific to UNIX.  Some of the files in this directory are

used on the PC or Mac platform too, but they all depend on UNIX

(POSIX/ANSI C) interfaces and some of them only make sense under UNIX.

The rest of this file contains instructions on how to do this.  The

release should compile and run either "out of the box" or with trivial

changes on any UNIX-like system that approximates POSIX, BSD, or System

V.  We know that it runs on workstations from Sun, H-P, DEC, IBM, and

SGI, as well as PCs running Linux, BSDI, and SCO UNIX.  To compile for

a PC running Windows, see the README file in the directory ../win.  To

compile for a Macintosh, see the README file in the directory ../mac.

RCS: @(#) $Id: README,v 1.1.1.1 2002-01-16 10:25:37 markom Exp $

How To Compile And Install Tcl:

-------------------------------

(a) Check for patches as described in ../README.

(b) If you have already compiled Tcl once in this directory and are now

    preparing to compile again in the same directory but for a different

    platform, or if you have applied patches, type "make distclean" to

    discard all the configuration information computed previously.

(c) Type "./configure".  This runs a configuration script created by GNU

    autoconf, which configures Tcl for your system and creates a

    Makefile.  The configure script allows you to customize the Tcl

    configuration for your site; for details on how you can do this,

    type "./configure -help" or refer to the autoconf documentation (not

    included here).  Tcl's "configure" supports the following special

    switches in addition to the standard ones:

        --enable-gcc            If this switch is set, Tcl will configure

                                itself to use gcc if it is available on your

                                system.  Note:  it is not safe to modify the

                                Makefile to use gcc after configure is run;

                                if you do this, then information related to

                                dynamic linking will be incorrect.

        --disable-load          If this switch is specified then Tcl will

                                configure itself not to allow dynamic loading,

                                even if your system appears to support it.

                                Normally you can leave this switch out and

                                Tcl will build itself for dynamic loading

                                if your system supports it.

        --enable-shared         If this switch is specified, Tcl will compile

                                itself as a shared library if it can figure

                                out how to do that on this platform.

    Note: be sure to use only absolute path names (those starting with "/")

    in the --prefix and --exec_prefix options.

(d) Type "make".  This will create a library archive called "libtcl.a"

    or "libtcl.so" and an interpreter application called "tclsh" that

    allows you to type Tcl commands interactively or execute script files.

(e) If the make fails then you'll have to personalize the Makefile

    for your site or possibly modify the distribution in other ways.

    First check the file "porting.notes" to see if there are hints

    for compiling on your system.  Then look at the porting Web page

    described later in this file.  If you need to modify Makefile, there

    are comments at the beginning of it that describe the things you

    might want to change and how to change them.

(f) Type "make install" to install Tcl binaries and script files in

    standard places.  You'll need write permission on the installation

    directories to do this.  The installation directories are

    determined by the "configure" script and may be specified with

    the --prefix and --exec_prefix options to "configure".  See the

    Makefile for information on what directories were chosen; you

    can override these choices by modifying the "prefix" and

    "exec_prefix" variables in the Makefile.

(g) At this point you can play with Tcl by invoking the "tclsh"

    program and typing Tcl commands.  However, if you haven't installed

    Tcl then you'll first need to set your TCL_LIBRARY variable to

    hold the full path name of the "library" subdirectory.  Note that

    the installed versions of tclsh, libtcl.a, and libtcl.so have a

    version number in their names, such as "tclsh8.0" or "libtcl8.0.so";

    to use the installed versions, either specify the version number

    or create a symbolic link (e.g. from "tclsh" to "tclsh8.0").

If you have trouble compiling Tcl, read through the file" porting.notes".

It contains information that people have provided about changes they had

to make to compile Tcl in various environments.  Or, check out the

following Web URL:

    http://www.sunlabs.com/cgi-bin/tcl/info.8.0

This is an on-line database of porting information.  We make no guarantees

that this information is accurate, complete, or up-to-date, but you may

find it useful.  If you get Tcl running on a new configuration, we would

be happy to receive new information to add to "porting.notes".  You can

also make a new entry into the on-line Web database.  We're also interested

in hearing how to change the configuration setup so that Tcl compiles out

of the box on more platforms.

Test suite

----------

There is a relatively complete test suite for all of the Tcl core in

the subdirectory "tests".  To use it just type "make test" in this

directory.  You should then see a printout of the test files processed.

If any errors occur, you'll see a much more substantial printout for

each error.  See the README file in the "tests" directory for more

information on the test suite.  Note: don't run the tests as superuser:

this will cause several of them to fail.

The Tcl test suite is very sensitive to proper implementation of

ANSI C library procedures such as sprintf and sscanf.  If the test

suite generates errors, most likely they are due to non-conformance

of your system's ANSI C library;  such problems are unlikely to

affect any real applications so it's probably safe to ignore them.