Return to INSTALL CVS log

Up to [gforth] / gforth

Added INSTALL.DOS
make DOS compile fool-proof (almost ;-)
Use autoconf macro to select GCC and abort if not available.

    1: You need gcc version 2.0 or later to compile gforth.
    2: 
    3: First, type
    4: 
    5: ./configure
    6: 
    7: or
    8: 
    9: CC=<whatever you call your gcc> ./configure
   10: 
   11: if your local gcc installation uses a different name (e.g. gcc-2.7.2),
   12: or you want to generate for a different binary format (e.g.  "gcc -b
   13: i486-linuxaout -V 2.7.0" to generate an a.out executable under Linux
   14: which you may give your friends who don't have ELF libraries).
   15: 
   16: configure has the following useful parameters:
   17:   --prefix=PREFIX         install architecture-independent files in PREFIX
   18:                           [default: /usr/local]
   19:   --exec-prefix=PREFIX    install architecture-dependent files in PREFIX
   20:                           [default: same as prefix]
   21:   --enable-force-reg      Use explicit register declarations if they appear in
   22:                           the machine.h file. This can cause a good speedup,
   23:                           but also incorrect code with some gcc versions on
   24:                           some processors (default disabled).
   25:   --enable-direct-threaded      Force direct threading. This may not work on
   26:                                 some machines and may cause slowdown on others.
   27:                                 (default processor-dependent)
   28:   --enable-indirect-threaded    Force indirect threading. This can cause a
   29:                                 slowdown on some machines.
   30:                                 (default processor-dependent)
   31:   --with-debug     specifies option -g to compile with debug info (default)
   32:    --without-debug  omits the -g switch and creates smaller images on
   33:                     machines where strip has problems with gcc style
   34:                     debugging informations.
   35:   --help: tells you about other parameters.
   36: 
   37: If you don't like the defaults for the installation directories, you
   38: should override them already during configure.  E.g., if you want to
   39: install in the /gnu hierarchy instead of in the default /usr/local
   40: hierarchy, say
   41: 
   42: ./configure --prefix=/gnu
   43: 
   44: After, configuration, type
   45: 
   46: make
   47: 
   48: If your make has trouble with the Makefile, "make gforth" might work.
   49: 
   50: If your installed gcc isn't called "gcc" (e.g., called "gcc-2.7.2"), type
   51: 
   52: make GCC=<whatever you call your gcc>
   53: 
   54: instead. The more appropriate place to select your compiler is when
   55: running configure.
   56: 
   57: Now you can check whether your shiny new Forth system works. Say
   58: 
   59: make test
   60: 
   61: You can run some benchmarks with
   62: 
   63: make bench
   64: 
   65: and compare them with the results in Benchres and in the manual.
   66: 
   67: If everything is allright, you may want to install gforth. Type
   68: 
   69: make install
   70: 
   71: You have to make an entry in the info directory file manually.
   72: 
   73: For paper documentation, print gforth.ps (a Postscript file (300dpi
   74: fonts, i.e., it works, but does not produce best quality on better
   75: printers)), or say
   76: 
   77: make gforth.dvi
   78: 
   79: and print the resulting file gforth.dvi. You can also get the
   80: documentation in HTML format by typing
   81: 
   82: make html
   83: 
   84: 		Multiple Versions and Deinstallation
   85: 
   86: Several versions of Gforth can be installed and used at the same
   87: time. Version `foo' can be invoked with `gforth-foo'. We recommend to
   88: keep the old version for some time after a new one has been installed.
   89: 
   90: You can deinstall this version of Gforth with 'make uninstall' and
   91: version foo with 'make uninstall VERSION=foo'. 'make uninstall' also
   92: tells you how to uninstall Gforth completely.
   93: 
   94: 			A Possible Problem
   95: 
   96: You need to read this only if you see a message like
   97: 
   98: "gforth: Cannot load nonrelocatable image (compiled for address 0x1234) at address 0x5678
   99: The Gforth installer should look into the INSTALL file"
  100: 
  101: Gforth supports both relocatable and fixed-address images. If you load
  102: normal Forth code and save the image, you get a fixed-address
  103: image. Producing a relocatable image is more difficult.
  104: 
  105: Therefore, Gforth has only a relocatable image of the kernel
  106: (kernal.fi), which is powerful enough to load the rest of
  107: Gforth. However, loading the rest takes a noticable amount of time. To
  108: avoid this delay (which would occur on every startup), the
  109: installation procedure produces an image fixed at an address
  110: determined at the Gforth run that produced the image. This
  111: fixed-address image is loaded by default. On most OSs this works,
  112: because the first chunk of memory is always allocated at the same
  113: address. If the address changes, you get the message above.
  114: 
  115: An image address change can be caused by a change of the gforth
  116: executable, or by a change (upgrade) of the OS; in these cases you
  117: just have to rebuild and reinstall the fixed address image with
  118: 
  119: rm gforth.fi; make gforth.fi; make install
  120: 
  121: If you get such a message with a different address in place of the
  122: 0x5678 each time you try to start gforth, you cannot use fixed-address
  123: images on your OS. In this case, send us a message so that we start
  124: searching for a comfortable solution to this problem. In the
  125: meantime, start gforth with
  126: 
  127: gforth -i kernal.fi startup.fs
  128: