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Creating Your Source Tree
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<div class="CHAPTER">
<h1>
<a name="CHA-SOURCE">Creating Your Source Tree</a>
</h1>
<div class="TOC">
<dl>
<dt>
<b>Table of Contents</b>
</dt>
<dt>
<a href="cha-source.html#Z67">Overview of a Gnome
Source Tree</a>
</dt>
<dt>
<a href="z68.html">Source Tree Checklist</a>
</dt>
<dt>
<a href="z69.html"><tt class="FILENAME">
configure.in</tt></a>
</dt>
<dt>
<a href="z70.html"><tt class="FILENAME">
Makefile.am</tt></a>
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<dt>
<a href="z71.html">Relevant GNU Documentation</a>
</dt>
<dt>
<a href="z72.html">Installing Support Files</a>
</dt>
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<p>
Almost all Gnome applications use the same build system
based on the GNU tools <tt class="APPLICATION">
automake</tt>, <tt class="APPLICATION">autoconf</tt>, and
<tt class="APPLICATION">libtool</tt>. GTK+ and Gnome
provide a set of <tt class="APPLICATION">autoconf</tt>
macros that make it easy to create a portable,
standards-compliant build setup. Due to the bewildering
array of tools involved, it can be difficult to figure out
how Gnome source trees work; there are manuals available
for each tool, but none describes the "big picture." This
chapter gives you a simple overview that should help you
get started. It also covers some Gnome-specific details,
and tells you how to ship and install your application's
icons, translations, and documentation.
</p>
<p>
If you're writing a large application, or a library, this
chapter won't have all the information you need; you will
probably need to consult the GNU tools' manuals to get more
details. A complete discussion would fill the entire book.
</p>
<p>
Beginning with this chapter and continuing throughout Part
2 of the book, a sample application called <tt class=
"APPLICATION">GnomeHello</tt> will be used to demonstrate
Gnome features. The <tt class="APPLICATION">GnomeHello</tt>
source code is listed in Appendix E and the entire <tt
class="APPLICATION">GnomeHello</tt> source tree is
available online. It may be convenient to use it as a
template for your own application's source code.
</p>
<p>
You may miss the simple <tt class="APPLICATION">
Makefile</tt> made possible by the <tt class="APPLICATION">
gtk-config</tt> script; there is an equivalent <tt class=
"APPLICATION">gnome-config</tt> script (use <tt class=
"APPLICATION">gnome-config --help</tt> to learn how to use
it). However, these simple makefiles are not adequate for
any real-world application.
</p>
<div class="SECT1">
<h1 class="SECT1">
<a name="Z67">Overview of a Gnome Source Tree</a>
</h1>
<p>
Gnome application build trees and distributed tarballs
follow a set of conventions, most of them widespread in
the free software community. Aspects of these conventions
are formalized in documents such as the GNU Project's
Coding Standards (<a href=
"http://www.gnu.org/prep/standards_toc.html" target=
"_top">http://www.gnu.org/prep/standards_toc.html</a>)
and the Linux Filesystem Hierarchy Standard (<a href=
"http://www.pathname.com/fhs/" target=
"_top">http://www.pathname.com/fhs/</a>). It's worth
using these standards even with non-free
software---partially because they are very good from a
technical standpoint, and partially because "going with
the flow" will save you a lot of trouble, especially if
you're using the GNU toolset. Besides, you might want to
free your software someday.
</p>
<p>
The GNU toolset, including <tt class="APPLICATION">
automake</tt> and <tt class="APPLICATION">autoconf</tt>
will make it easy to comply with these standards.
However, sometimes there are reasons not to use the GNU
tools; for example, you may want a unified build that
works on platforms such as Windows and MacOS. (Some of
the tools do work with Windows using the Cygnus "Cygwin"
environment, however; see <a href=
"http://sourceware.cygnus.com/cygwin" target="_top">
http://sourceware.cygnus.com/cygwin</a>.)
</p>
<p>
If you use <tt class="APPLICATION">autoconf</tt> and <tt
class="APPLICATION">automake</tt>, users are not required
to have these tools in order to build your software. The
purpose of the tools is to build portable shell scripts
and makefiles that will work in the user's environment.
</p>
<p>
The <tt class="APPLICATION">autoconf</tt> package
encompasses the <tt class="APPLICATION">aclocal</tt>, <tt
class="APPLICATION">autoheader</tt>, and <tt class=
"APPLICATION">autoconf</tt> executables. Together, these
tools are used to create a portable shell script called
<tt class="APPLICATION">configure</tt>; <tt class=
"APPLICATION">configure</tt> is distributed to users with
your software package. It explores the compilation system
and creates makefiles and a special header called <tt
class="FILENAME">config.h</tt>. The files created by <tt
class="APPLICATION">configure</tt> are adapted to the
specifics of the user's system.
</p>
<p>
<tt class="APPLICATION">configure</tt> creates each <tt
class="APPLICATION">Makefile</tt> from a template, called
<tt class="APPLICATION">Makefile.in</tt>; <tt class=
"APPLICATION">automake</tt> is a tool for creating these
templates. <tt class="APPLICATION">automake</tt>
generates <tt class="APPLICATION">Makefile.in</tt> from a
hand-written <tt class="APPLICATION">Makefile.am</tt>.
You distribute <tt class="APPLICATION">Makefile.in</tt>
with your software, and users create a <tt class=
"APPLICATION">Makefile</tt> when they run <tt class=
"APPLICATION">configure</tt>.
</p>
<p>
The <tt class="APPLICATION">libtool</tt> package is the
third important GNU tool; its purpose is to abstract the
idiosyncracies of shared libraries (static library
behavior is fairly uniform across UNIX-like systems, but
shared libraries present major portability issues).
</p>
<p>
Informally, here are some of characteristics most Gnome
packages have in common:
</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>
A file called <tt class="FILENAME">README</tt> that
describes the package.
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
A file called <tt class="FILENAME">INSTALL</tt> that
explains how to compile and install the package.
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
A script called <tt class="FILENAME">configure</tt>
that automatically adapts the program to
platform-specific features (or the lack thereof). <tt
class="FILENAME">configure</tt> is expected to take
an argument <tt class="APPLICATION">--prefix</tt>,
specifying where to install the package.
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
Standard <tt class="APPLICATION">make</tt> targets,
such as <tt class="APPLICATION">clean</tt>, etc.
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
A file called <tt class="FILENAME">COPYING</tt>
containing the package's copyright.
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
A <tt class="FILENAME">ChangeLog</tt> in which
changes to the software are recorded.
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
Tar files are traditionally compressed with <tt
class="APPLICATION">gzip</tt> and their name includes
the package version (for example, <tt class=
"FILENAME">foo-0.2.1.tar.gz</tt>). They should unpack
into a single directory, named with package and
version---<tt class="FILENAME">foo-0.2.1</tt>.
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
<i class="FIRSTTERM">Internationalization</i> is
provided via the GNU <tt class="APPLICATION">
gettext</tt> package. A copy of <tt class=
"APPLICATION">gettext</tt> is shipped along with the
application, so users do not have to have one.
</p>
</li>
</ul>
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