How to Compile and Install Zapping from Source Code

Step 1. Compiling is as simple as

cd zapping
./configure --prefix=/usr
make

Or on FreeBSD and other Unices

cd zapping
./configure --prefix=/usr/X11R6
gmake

The ./configure script configures the source for building. Mainly it determines if and where the required tools and libraries are installed and creates Makefiles with build instructions for the make (or gmake, because a few Gnome macros depend on GNU extensions) program.

The --prefix option tells ./configure where Zapping shall be installed. It should go with other Gnome applications. On Linux usually /usr is correct, on FreeBSD Gnome seems to live in /usr/X11R6. Zapping will work just fine when you install elsewhere, but it may not be in your executable search path, cannot add itself to the Gnome application menu and will not appear in the Gnome documentation list. Note the prefix is compiled into the application to locate its images, .glade files and plugins. So you can start Zapping directly from the compile directory, but it will not work correctly until these files have been installed.

./configure has many more options, to see them type ./configure --help. See also the INSTALL file included with the source package. In particular you might want to make sure the CFLAGS environment variable enables debugging or optimization.

If ./configure complains about missing libraries you may have to install development packages of these libraries. Most distributions ship libraries in two packages, one containing the binary for applications using the library and another with additional files to compile such applications.

All Zapping modules support VPATH-making. That means you can keep source and object code in different directories:

# We assume the source is in /usr/src/zapping
mkdir zap
cd zap
/usr/src/zapping/configure --prefix=/usr
make

Step 2. When make (gmake) finished successfully you can install by typing:

make install

Likewise, to get rid of Zapping type:

make uninstall

Naturally you must type this in the build directory of the version you want to uninstall. A newer version of Zapping may not know which files have been installed by an earlier version.