Slackware Build Scripts
			=======================


Topics
------

  1. Introduction
  2. Configuration
  2. Details about Ikarus
  4. Details about Ypsilon


1. Introduction
---------------

This directory  holds a collection  of build scripts to  package various
Scheme  implementations for Slackware  GNU+Linux.  These  are unofficial
scripts, by no  means related to Slackware or  other Linux distributions
developers.

  Each script is meant  to be run with the GNU Bash  shell, from the top
source directory  of the Scheme implementation's  project.  For example,
with Ikarus we should do:

   $ cd ikarus-0.0.4
   $ bash /path/to/ikarus.sh 0.0.4 1mm

where  the first  argument (0.0.4)  must be  the version  number  of the
implementation,  and  the  second  argument  (1mm) must  be  the  "build
revision": the string "1mm" means "build 1 by Marco Maggi".

  If everything goes well, the result of running a script is a Slackware
package  placed  in  the  current  directory (that  is  the  top  source
directory of the Scheme implementation project).


2. Configuration
----------------

At the top of each script, several variables are set with the idiom:

   : ${prefix:=/usr/local}

these  values  can be  configured  by  presetting  the variable  in  the
environment;  for  example, to  configure  the  installation prefix  for
Ikarus:

   $ cd ikarus-0.0.4
   $ (prefix=/usr \
      bash /path/to/ikarus.sh 0.0.4 1mm)

it is not possible to set values to the empty string, but it is possible
to set them to a single white space, for example:

   $ (prefix=/usr \
      CONFIG_OPTION=' ' \
      bash /path/to/ikarus.sh 0.0.4 1mm)

which sometimes will  do what we need.  It is  mandatory to provide good
values for the TMPDIR and SUDO variables:

* TMPDIR must be  the full pathname of the directory  in which the files
  will be temporarily installed; it  will default to "/tmp"; the scripts
  will take care of removing the temporary files and directories;

* SUDO must  be the  name of  the executable that  allows us  to acquire
  superuser privileges and run a command: it is needed because Slackware
  packages are meant to be built  with "root" as the preferred owner and
  group of everything; it will default to "/usr/bin/sudo".

  Always remember that  we have access to the source  of the scripts, so
we can customise them at will.


3. Details about Ikarus
-----------------------

Ikarus Scheme is  built with the interface to  Libffi activated.  Libffi
allows Ikarus to  offer a foreign functions interface,  we will probably
want it.  Details on linking with Libffi are in the Ikarus User's Guide.
To  disable  linking  with  Libffi  we can  preset  the  "CONFIG_OPTION"
variable to a single white space.

  If we are interested in  precompiling our own libraries for Ikarus, we
need to  precompile the libraries  that are installed with  Ikarus, too.
For this  reason the script  creates a "compile-all.sps"  Scheme program
and runs it to do the precompilation.  The program precompiles most, but
not all the libraries: we may need to customise it.

  The "scheme-script" executable is not included in the package to avoid
file name  collision with  other Schemes that  install it.  This  can be
changed by customising the script.


4. Details about Ypsilon
------------------------

The only  thing to notice is  that currently (checkout 285,  Wed Nov 26,
2008) there is no "configure" script.


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