Work in progress. Contributors: Tim Duff, (your-name-here)

1. fork Macaulay2
2. git clone yourfork
3. Install emacs

Step 1 is perhaps optional if you don't intend to submit a pull request.

• README: generally a good place to start
• BUILD directory: "This directory may be used as a convenient location for the build directory trees."
• INSTALL & INSTALL.mac: Instructions. See OS-specific cheatsheets (to be written.)
• Macaulay2 directory: contains most of Macaulay2 itself, w/ important subdirectories
  • e: the engine (C++ language)
  • d: the interpreter (D language)
  • m2: the top level core (Macaulay2 language)
  • packages: where most users' code goes
  • also c directory: C code obtained from D code is placed here
• configure.ac: autoconf script that generates actual configure file
• distributions:

1. deb -> ubuntu, debian
2. dmg -> Mac
3. freebsd
4. other OS? tar file

• libraries
  • obtained from tar files
  • eg 4ti2, gfan
  • each directory contains instructions for how to build
• submodules
  • like "libraries", but obtained from git

GNU paradigm: configure, then make. In this example, build directory is M2/M2/BUILD/cleveland

cd M2/M2/
make
./configure -h
mkdir BUILD/cleveland
cd BUILD/cleveland
../../configure --enable-download
make

Tips

• potentially helpful make flags
  • -jn : use n threads
  • -C dir : recompile only in dir
• there are OS-specific additional instructions
  • for instance, set FC = gfortran for Debian systems
• configure options
  • some standard (like --help)
  • some less standard (--disable-gfan)

Things configure does:

• output: version, environment variables, OS, many checks
• checks for libraries (eg. mpir) and builds if not there / not right version. tricky. cMake improvements?
• starts to create files needed for make
• transformation: eg. foo.in -> foo. replaces identifiers (@PACKAGE_NAME) with their system-specific values
• can define macros w/ autoconf
  • AC_DEFUN. some other way?
  • arguments need square brackets -- final part created by AC_OUTPUT

• how to use make
• anything else?

Quick links:

• INSTALL
• Downloads
• Internals: Meeting Notes