Re: [Plplot-general] cmake and plplot 574

[Alan W. I. <ir...@be...>]

On 2007-09-06 00:06-0400 David Strang wrote:

> Hello all:
>
> I installed Kubuntu Linux on a PC a few weeka ago and thought I would try installing
> the latest PLPLOT (574). I've been using PLPLOT since the early days of the Amiga.
>
> How do I get this distribution compiled and installed?

Generally, follow the directions at http://www.miscdebris.net/plplot_wiki/.
However, it appears you may have looked at those already so I will attempt
to summarize the absolutely essential stuff below.

>
> I unpacked the tarball to my home directory (for now) and made a build directory at the
> same level.
>
> I ran:
>
> cmake -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=../build_dir -DCMAKE_VERBOSE_MAKEFILE=ON
../plplot-5.7.4 >& cmake.out

Try to distinguish clearly between source, build, and install directory trees.

The root of the source directory tree is where the tarball is unpacked
(plplot-5.7.4).  To make your life simple, never run a build from there (and
if you have done so by accident, remove the source directory and make a
fresh start with a freshly unpacked tarball).

The root of the build directory should be initially empty.  That is the
directory you cd to before you run "cmake", "make", and "make install".  By
separating the source tree and build tree you keep the source tree
untouched.  I presume from the name you have given it, you want that root of
the build tree to be build_dir.  So cd to that directory (and make sure it
is initially empty) before you run cmake, etc.

The root of the install tree is the installation prefix where "make install"
installs stuff.  It should not be build_dir.  Let's suppose you want to use
the $(HOME)/install_dir installation prefix.  (I have specified
$(HOME)/install_dir because I believe you need an absolute path for the
install prefix.) So assuming you are in build_dir, the above command should
be

cmake -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=$(HOME)/install_dir -DCMAKE_VERBOSE_MAKEFILE=ON \
../plplot-5.7.4 >& cmake.out

But that difference in -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX only matters at the "make
install" stage.

I had a look at your cmake.out, and you are missing a lot of stuff you may
want to get later (generally by installing development libraries that PLplot
extended functionality [bindings and drivers] depends on), but it looks like
everything worked to configure a simple build of the core of PLplot (+ C++
and Fortran 77 bindings).  You may have thought nothing happened with make
because a build of such a limited version of PLplot is going to be extremely
fast.

With a fresh start (freshly unpacked tarball, initially empty build_dir),
what does your make.out file look like?  I suspect it will be fine with no
errors.  If so, then move on to

make install >& make_install.out

cd $(HOME)/install_dir/share/plplot5.7.4/examples
make >& make_examples.out

That latter command builds the installed examples.  If you want to test them
run ./plplot-test.sh from that same directory.

Of course, check out the *.out files for any errors/warnings, and if you
encounter some post the complete set of *.out files (no need to repeat
cmake.out, of course since you have already sent it) up to and including the
error to this list (preferably as a compressed tarball attachment).

Alan
__________________________
Alan W. Irwin

Astronomical research affiliation with Department of Physics and Astronomy,
University of Victoria (astrowww.phys.uvic.ca).

Programming affiliations with the FreeEOS equation-of-state implementation
for stellar interiors (freeeos.sf.net); PLplot scientific plotting software
package (plplot.org); the libLASi project (unifont.org/lasi); the Loads of
Linux Links project (loll.sf.net); and the Linux Brochure Project
(lbproject.sf.net).
__________________________

Linux-powered Science
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