<refentry id="glib-building" revision="16 Jan 2002"><refmeta><refentrytitle>Compiling the GLib package</refentrytitle><manvolnum>3</manvolnum><refmiscinfo>GLib Library</refmiscinfo></refmeta><refnamediv><refname>Compiling the GLib Package</refname><refpurpose>How to compile GLib itself</refpurpose>  </refnamediv>    <refsect1 id="building">      <title>Building the Library on UNIX</title>      <para>        On UNIX, GLib uses the standard GNU build system,        using <application>autoconf</application> for package        configuration and resolving portability issues,        <application>automake</application> for building makefiles        that comply with the GNU Coding Standards, and        <application>libtool</application> for building shared        libraries on multiple platforms.  The normal sequence for        compiling and installing the GLib library is thus:        <literallayout>          <userinput>./configure</userinput>          <userinput>make</userinput>          <userinput>make install</userinput>        </literallayout>      </para>      <para>        The standard options provided by <application>GNU        autoconf</application> may be passed to the        <command>configure</command> script.  Please see the        <application>autoconf</application> documentation or run        <command>./configure --help</command> for information about        the standard options.      </para>      <para>        The GTK+ documentation contains         <ulink url="../gtk/gtk-building.html">further details</ulink> 	about the build process and ways to influence it.       </para>    </refsect1>    <refsect1 id="dependencies">      <title>Dependencies</title>      <para>        Before you can compile the GLib library, you need to have        various other tools and libraries installed on your        system. The two tools needed during the build process (as        differentiated from the tools used in when creating GLib        mentioned above such as <application>autoconf</application>)        are <command>pkg-config</command> and GNU make.      </para>      <itemizedlist>        <listitem>   	  <para>	    <ulink	    url="http://www.freedesktop.org/software/pkgconfig/">pkg-config</ulink>	    is a tool for tracking the compilation flags needed for	    libraries that are used by the GLib library. (For each	    library, a small <literal>.pc</literal> text file is             installed in a standard location that contains the compilation             flags needed for that library along with version number             information.)  The version of <command>pkg-config</command>             needed to build GLib is mirrored in the 	    <filename>dependencies</filename> directory	    on the <ulink url="ftp://ftp.gtk.org/pub/gtk/v2.2/">GTK+ FTP	    site.</ulink>	  </para>        </listitem>        <listitem>	  <para>	    The GTK+ makefiles will mostly work with different versions	    of <command>make</command>, however, there tends to be	    a few incompatibilities, so the GTK+ team recommends	    installing <ulink url="http://www.gnu.org/software/make">GNU	    make</ulink> if you don't already have it on your system	    and using it. (It may be called <command>gmake</command>	    rather than <command>make</command>.)	  </para>        </listitem>      </itemizedlist>      <para>        GLib depends on a number of other libraries.      </para>      <itemizedlist>        <listitem>	  <para>	  The <ulink url="http://www.gnu.org/software/libiconv/">GNU	  libiconv library</ulink> is needed to build GLib if your	  system doesn't have the <function>iconv()</function>	  function for doing conversion between character	  encodings. Most modern systems should have	  <function>iconv()</function>, however many older systems lack 	  an <function>iconv()</function> implementation. On such systems, 	  you must install the libiconv library. This can be found at:	  <ulink url="http://www.gnu.org/software/libiconv">http://www.gnu.org/software/libiconv</ulink>.	  	</para>        <para>	  If your system has an <function>iconv()</function> implementation but	  you want to use libiconv instead, you can pass the	  --with-libiconv option to configure. This forces	  libiconv to be used.  	</para>        <para>	  Note that if you have libiconv installed in your default include	  search path (for instance, in <filename>/usr/local/</filename>), but	  don't enable it, you will get an error while compiling GLib because	  the <filename>iconv.h</filename> that libiconv installs hides the	  system iconv. 	</para>	<para>	  If you are using the native iconv implementation on Solaris	  instead of libiconv, you'll need to make sure that you have 	  the converters between locale encodings and UTF-8 installed.	  At a minimum you'll need the SUNWuiu8 package. You probably	  should also install the SUNWciu8, SUNWhiu8, SUNWjiu8, and	  SUNWkiu8 packages.	</para>	<para>	  The native iconv on Compaq Tru64 doesn't contain support for	  UTF-8, so you'll need to use GNU libiconv instead. (When	  using GNU libiconv for GLib, you'll need to use GNU libiconv	  for GNU gettext as well.) This probably applies to related	  operating systems as well.	</para>      </listitem>      <listitem>	<para>	  The libintl library from the <ulink	  url="http://www.gtk.org/software/gettext">GNU gettext	  package</ulink> is needed if your system doesn't have the	  <function>gettext()</function> functionality for handling	  message translation databases.	</para>      </listitem>      <listitem>	<para>	  A thread implementation is needed, unless you want to compile GLib	  without thread support, which is not recommended. The thread support	  in GLib can be based upon several native thread implementations,	  e.g. POSIX threads, DCE threads or Solaris threads. 	</para>      </listitem>    </itemizedlist>    </refsect1>    <refsect1 id="extra-configuration-options">      <title>Extra Configuration Options</title>      <para>        In addition to the normal options, the        <command>configure</command> script in the GLib        library supports these additional arguments:        <cmdsynopsis>          <command>configure</command>          <group>            <arg>--enable-debug=[no|minimum|yes]</arg>          </group>          <group>            <arg>--disable-gc-friendly</arg>            <arg>--enable-gc-friendly</arg>          </group>          <group>            <arg>--disable-mem-pools</arg>            <arg>--enable-mem-pools</arg>          </group>          <group>            <arg>--disable-threads</arg>            <arg>--enable-threads</arg>          </group>          <group>            <arg>--with-threads=[none|posix|dce|win32]</arg>          </group>	  <group>             <arg>--disable-included-printf</arg>             <arg>--enable-included-printf</arg>          </group>	  <group>             <arg>--disable-visibility</arg>             <arg>--enable-visibility</arg>          </group>          <group>            <arg>--disable-gtk-doc</arg>            <arg>--enable-gtk-doc</arg>          </group>          <group>            <arg>--disable-man</arg>            <arg>--enable-man</arg>          </group>        </cmdsynopsis>      </para>      <formalpara>        <title><systemitem>--enable-debug</systemitem></title>        <para>         Turns on various amounts of debugging support. Setting this to 'no'         disables g_assert(), g_return_if_fail(), g_return_val_if_fail() and         all cast checks between different object types. Setting it to 'minimum'         disables only cast checks. Setting it to 'yes' enables         <link linkend="GLIB-Debug-Options">runtime debugging</link>.         The default is 'minimum'.         Note that 'no' is fast, but dangerous as it tends to destabilize         even mostly bug-free software by changing the effect of many bugs         from simple warnings into fatal crashes. Thus         <option>--enable-debug=no</option> should <emphasis>not</emphasis>         be used for stable releases of GLib.        </para>      </formalpara>      <formalpara>        <title><systemitem>--disable-gc-friendly</systemitem> and          <systemitem>--enable-gc-friendly</systemitem></title>