linuxgeek: Re: [LINUX_Newbies] Question about ./configure

On 25Jun2012 14:14, msulli1355 <msulli1355@gmail.com> wrote:
| I'm a Gentoo user.

Me too.

| I started using Gentoo in 2005. Since that time
| I've very rarely been able to install non-portage software successully.
| Usually it fails during the make phase. Otherwise, non-portage software
| has always used the ./configure-make-make install cycle. As a result,
| I'm completely clueless when it comes to building non-portage software.
| I'm currently trying to build some source code I downloaded from svn:
|
| michael@carter /home/work/trunk $ ./configure

Before we dig into the actual issue, I would like to suggest that this
is not how you should be invoking configure. By default, configure will
build things to install in /usr. That is where the vendr (Gentoo)
packages are installed. This generally does not play out well later.

Instead, build third party (i.e. not from emerge) packages thus:

./configure --prefix=/us/local

This installs under /us/local (eg /us/local/bin/lua and so forth), and
will not conflict with packages from Gentoo. /usr/local/bin is usually
in the default $PATH (check yours to be sure) exactly to accomodate this
scheme.

[...]
| checking for pkg-config... /usr/bin/pkg-config
| checking pkg-config is at least version 0.9.0... yes
| checking for LUA... no
| configure: error: Package requirements (lua5.1 >= LUA_REQUIRED_VERSION) were not met:
|
| No package 'lua5.1' found
|
| Consider adjusting the PKG_CONFIG_PATH environment variable if you
| installed software in a non-standard prefix.
|
| Alternatively, you may set the environment variables LUA_CFLAGS
| and LUA_LIBS to avoid the need to call pkg-config.
| See the pkg-config man page for more details.

It looks like configure is looking for 'lua5.1'. But lua is known as
'lua' to pkg-config on gentoo:

pkg-config --list-all | grep lua

Also:

find /usr -xdev -name lua\*.pc

The .pc file it finds is just a text file, you can "cat" it to inspect
it.

Just to check, try this:

pkg-config --exists lua && echo YES

It should print YES. And this:

pkg-config --modversion lua

should show something like 5.1.4.

Now look in the build directory, where you ran configure, using:

ls -ltra

the recent files are at the bottom of the listing. There should be a
"config.log" file. See if it has useful stuff that the bottom, where
its checks for lua failed.

Finally, run:

./configure --help

That will print a huge amount of standard boilerplate, but buried in it
about halfway down is a section on options for the build, which can have
lua-specific things to assist it in finding lua. But it looks to me like
it is simply looking for lua incorrectly.

Since configure is just a (huge and ugly) shell script, we may end up
having to hack it into sanity.

Cheers,
--

Ed Campbell's <ed@Tekelex.Com> pointers for long trips:
4. Inspect your bike carefully, check the oil, and lube the chain
every time you stop.