I really think that changes to top-level files should go to ginac-cvs

[ginac.git] / INSTALL

diff --git a/INSTALL b/INSTALL
index 750d5164c0a134a983143513b0b0fd2d407750aa..ed1c8c50f4f7a767ba00fcc345d74f6f17c9fc5b 100644 (file)
--- a/INSTALL
+++ b/INSTALL
@@ -1,27 +1,82 @@
-Installation:
+PREREQUISITES
 =============
 
+GiNaC requires the CLN library by Bruno Haible, available from either
+one of the following FTP-sites:
+  * <ftp://ftp.santafe.edu/pub/gnu/>,
+  * <ftp://ftp.ilog.fr/pub/Users/haible/gnu/> or
+  * <ftp://ftpthep.physik.uni-mainz.de/pub/gnu/>.
+You will also need a decent ANSI-compliant C++-compiler.  We use
+`post-EGCS' GCC, i.e GCC >= 2.95 for development so if you have a
+different compiler you are on your own.  Note that you may have to use
+the same compiler you compiled CLN with because of differing
+name-mangling schemes.
+
+
+INSTALLATION
+============
+
 As with any autoconfiguring GNU software, installation is as easy as this:
 
-sysprompt> ./configure
-sysprompt> make
-sysprompt> make check
-sysprompt> make install
+ $ ./configure
+ $ make
+ $ make check
+[become root if necessary]
+ # make install
 
 Known to work with:
-  - Linux/x86, EGCS-1.1.2 or GCC 2-95.
+  - Linux on x86, Alpha and Sparc using GCC 2-95.x.
+Known not to work with:
+  - GCC 2.7.x or earlier because proper exception support is missing there.
+
+The "configure" script can be given a number of options to enable and
+disable various features. For a complete list, type:
+
+ $ ./configure --help
+
+A few of the more important ones:
 
-The "make" step takes about 10 minutes, on a 586 DX / 133 MHz / 64 MB or
-about 2 minutes on a P-III /550 MHz / 512 MB.
+ --prefix=PREFIX        install architecture-independent files in PREFIX
+                        [defaults to /usr/local]
+ --exec-prefix=EPREFIX  install architecture-dependent files in EPREFIX
+                        [defaults to the value given to --prefix]
+ --disable-shared       suppress the creation of a shared version of libginac
 
 More detailed installation instructions can be found in the documentation,
 in the doc/ directory.
 
+The time the "make" step takes depends heavily on optimization levels.
+Large amounts of memory (>128MB) will be required by the compiler,
+also depending on optimization.  To give you a rough idea of what you
+have to expect the following table may be helpful.  It was measured on
+an Athlon/800MHz with "enough" memory:
+
+step:         | GCC optimization level:  | comment:
+              |  -O0   |  -O1   |  -O2   |
+--------------+--------+--------+--------+-------------------------------
+make          |   ~4m  |   ~5m  |   ~6m  | building shared and static lib
+make check    |  ~20m  |  ~11m  |  ~12m  | largely due to compilation
+
+
+COMMON PROBLEMS
+===============
+
+Problems with CLN
+-----------------
+
+You should use at least CLN-1.1, since during the development of
+GiNaC various bugs have been discovered and fixed in earlier versions.
+Please install CLN properly on your system before continuing with
+GiNaC.  When using GCC3 as compiler please use at least CLN-1.1.1
+since some parts of GiNaC won't build with CLN-1.1.
+
+Problems with building ginsh
+----------------------------
 
-Problems with CLN:
-==================
+The most common reason why this doesn't succeed is the absence of
+libreadline and/or the corresponding header files.  Depending on what
+your system/distribution is, you will have to install a package called
+libreadline and maybe libreadline-dev.  If your system's vendor
+doesn't supply such packages, go to <ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/readline/>
+and compile it yourself.
 
-You should use at least CLN V1.0.2, since all earlier ones are
-somewhat buggy.  Even V1.0.1 has a few problems and GiNaC will not
-support older versions.  Please install it properly on your system
-before continuing with GiNaC.