Re: [PATCH] Add more instructions about how to install git.

From: Brian Gernhardt <brian@gernhardtsoftware.com>
Date: Sep 8, 2009, 15:19 UTC
Message-ID: <D79F79B1-A4F4-4AEA-9E3B-F0CF59019B88@gernhardtsoftware.com>
In-Reply-To: <a4c8a6d00909080752p5b663fc8r8bf1c60023ef39b4@mail.gmail.com>

On Sep 8, 2009, at 10:52 AM, Thiago Farina wrote:

Show 16 quoted lines

> On Tue, Sep 8, 2009 at 10:38 AM, Johannes Sixt<j.sixt@viscovery.net>  
> wrote:
>> Then guessed wrong. You really only have to say "make". The use of
>> autoconf and ./configure is purely optional and not necessary.
> I don't think so.
> Running only "make".
> $ make
> GIT_VERSION = 1.6.5.rc0
>    * new build flags or prefix
>    CC fast-import.o
> In file included from builtin.h:4,
>                 from fast-import.c:143:
> git-compat-util.h:129:25: error: openssl/ssl.h: No such file or  
> directory
> git-compat-util.h:130:25: error: openssl/err.h: No such file or  
> directory

You don't have OpenSSL, a perquisite mentioned in the INSTALL file at line 55. You can do the following:

make NO_OPENSSL=Yes

or save the option so you don't have to retype it each time:

echo "NO_OPENSSL=Yes" > config.mak make

Or install OpenSSL or run the autoconf.

The Makefile tries it's best to be as smart as possible without being a configure script of it's own (see ll. 656-925), and it's highly commented at the beginning so that only a minimal knowledge of make is required (ll. 4-198). I suppose we could note that the defines should be put in a config.mak file.

> Running configure and then make
> $ make configure
> GIT_VERSION = 1.6.5.rc0.dirty
>    GEN configure

  $ ./configure
[lots of output]

> $ make
>    CC fast-import.o

As pointed out before, you forgot to run the generated configure script (as already documented at Makefile:20).

However, it's generally considered preferable to hand-create a config.mak for the few options you need on a regular basis and let the Makefile do it's work. The autoconf files occasionally lag behind the rest of development as they're not widely used by git developers (AFAICT).

I'd personally argue that we should point out in INSTALL that git can be configured via a hand-written config.mak using the defines described at the top of the Makefile before we talk about using autoconf. (Perhaps with quick notes about the most commonly used defines.)

For example, my config.mak contains:

prefix=/usr/local ASCIIDOC8=Yes MAN_BOLD_LITERAL=Yes BLK_SHA1=Yes

The rest of the configuration for my OS (OS X/Darwin, specifically) are handled by the Makefile.

~~ Brian