Learning how to build from source
March 7, 2008 by Clair Ching
Filed under Explanation
No need to hate building apps from the source tarball! Mitch Meyran’s article on How to love free software in 3 steps is really good read.
Compiling a kernel or an app that you need might feel daunting but he does give helpful hints:
- Read the manual.
- Check out the compile options carefully.
- Don’t forget to create backups!
- Keep a live CD near you just in case.
And don’t worry too much if you’re taking so much time compiling something because you’re reading the manual and stuff. It’s ok. It’s better than having an unusable system. 
Wait a second: what are you compiling?
are you telling me that if I want to compile Audacity (is the first program that came to my mind) I can break my system?
That’s not true at all, unless you’re trying to compile the kernel or a system library like glib.
./configure && make && make install will do the trick in the 99% of the cases.
If you have a package compiled for your distribution, don’t compile, is much easier to install the precompiled package.
If you still want to compile, you only have to remember 1 thing: don’t delete the source folder.
If the program doesn’t work, you just execute “make uninstall” and the program is gone.
Without restarting the system (just in case, it depends on what are you installing, but a “big” library may have been replaced. Still, this is not the usual case), if needed, restart the package that came with the distribution.
No damage done to the system, no remaining files (some empty directories may stay).
Command line and compiling is not something to be afraid of. We need to stop saying things like “this is not scary”, ’cause that makes people think that it actually is