1 wxWindows 2.5 for X11 installation
2 ----------------------------------
6 If you experience problems installing, please re-read these
7 instructions and other related files (todo.txt, bugs.txt and
8 osname.txt for your platform if it exists) carefully before
9 mailing wxwin-users or the author. Preferably, try to fix the
10 problem first and then send a patch to the author.
12 When sending bug reports tell us what version of wxWindows you are
13 using (including the beta) and what compiler on what system. One
14 example: wxX11 2.5.0, gcc 2.95.4, Redhat 6.2
19 - Download wxX11-x.y.z.tgz, where x.y.z is the version number.
20 Download documentation in a preferred format, such as
21 wxWindows-HTML.zip or wxWindows-PDF.zip.
23 - Make a directory such as ~/wx and unarchive the files into this
26 - It is recommended that you install bison and flex; using yacc
27 and lex may require tweaking of the makefiles. You also need
28 libXpm if you want to have XPM support in wxWindows (recommended).
30 - You can now use configure to build wxWindows and the samples.
32 Using configure is the recommended way to build the library. If it doesn't
33 work for you for whatever reason, please report it (together with detailed
34 information about your platform and the (relevant part of) contents of
35 config.log file) to wx-dev@lists.wxwindows.org.
37 COMPILING USING CONFIGURE
38 =========================
43 If you compile wxWindows on Linux for the first time and don't like to read
44 install instructions just do (in the base dir):
46 > ./configure --with-x11
48 > su <type root password>
53 Afterwards you can continue with
56 > su <type root password>
61 If you want to remove wxWindows on Unix you can do this:
63 > su <type root password>
71 If you want to do some more serious cross-platform programming with wxWindows,
72 such as for GTK and X11, you can now build two complete libraries and use
73 them concurrently. For this end, you have to create a directory for each build
74 of wxWindows - you may also want to create different versions of wxWindows
75 and test them concurrently. Most typically, this would be a version configured
76 with --enable-debug_flag and one without. Note, that only one build can
77 currently be installed, so you'd have to use local version of the library for
80 For building three versions (one GTK, one X11 and a debug version of the GTK
81 source) you'd do this:
85 ../configure --with-x11
91 ../configure --with-gtk
97 ../configure --with-gtk --enable-debug_flag
101 * The simplest errors
102 ---------------------
104 You get errors during compilation: The reason is that you probably have a
105 broken compiler. GCC 2.8 and earlier versions and egcs are likely to cause
106 problems due to incomplete support for C++ and optimisation bugs. Best to use
109 You get immediate segfault when starting any sample or application: This is
110 either due to having compiled the library with different flags or options than
111 your program - typically you might have the __WXDEBUG__ option set for the
112 library but not for your program - or due to using a compiler with optimisation
115 * The simplest program
116 ----------------------
118 Now create your super-application myfoo.cpp and compile anywhere with
120 g++ myfoo.cpp `wx-config --libs --cxxflags` -o myfoo
125 The Unix variants of wxWindows use GNU configure. If you have problems with
126 your make use GNU make instead.
128 If you have general problems with installation, see the wxWindows website at
130 http://www.wxwindows.org/
132 for newest information. If you still don't have any success, please send a bug
133 report to one of our mailing lists (see my homepage) INCLUDING A DESCRIPTION OF
134 YOUR SYSTEM AND YOUR PROBLEM, SUCH AS YOUR VERSION OF X, WHAT DISTRIBUTION
135 YOU USE AND WHAT ERROR WAS REPORTED. I know this has no effect, but I tried...
140 wxWindows/X11 requires the X11 library to be installed on your system.
142 * Additional libraries
143 ----------------------
145 wxWindows/X11 requires a thread library and X libraries known to work with
146 threads. This is the case on all commercial Unix-Variants and all
147 Linux-Versions that are based on glibc 2 except RedHat 5.0 which is broken in
148 many aspects. As of writing this, these Linux distributions have correct glibc
157 You can disable thread support by running
159 ./configure --disable-threads
161 su <type root password>
166 * Building wxX11 on OS/2
167 ------------------------
169 Please send comments and question about the OS/2 installation
170 to Andrea Venturoli <a.ventu@flashnet.it> and patches to
171 the wxWindows mailing list.
173 You'll need OS/2 Warp (4.00FP#6), X-Free86/2 (3.3.3 or newer),
174 emx (0.9d fix 1), flex (2.5.4), yacc (1.8), unix like shell,
175 e.g. korn shell (5.2.13), Autoconf (2.13), GNU file utilities (3.6),
176 GNU text utilities (1.3), GNU shell utilites (1.12), m4 (1.4),
177 sed (2.05), grep (2.0), Awk (3.0.3), GNU Make (3.76.1).
179 Open an OS/2 prompt and switch to the directory above.
180 First set some global environment variables we need:
182 SET CXXFLAGS=-Zmtd -D__ST_MT_ERRNO__
183 SET CFLAGS=-Zmtd -D__ST_MT_ERRNO__
187 Notice you can choose whatever you want, if you don't like OS2X.
189 Now, run autoconf in the main directory and in the samples, demos
190 and utils subdirectory. This will generate the OS/2 specific
191 versions of the configure scripts. Now run
195 To verify X11 installation, configure will try to compile a
196 sample program that requires X headers/libraries to be either
197 available via C_INCLUDE_PATH and LIBRARY_PATH or you need to
198 explicitly set CFLAGS prior to running configure.
200 If you have pthreads library installed, it will be autodetected
201 and the library will be compiled with thread-support.
203 Note that configure assumes your flex will generate files named
204 "lexyy.c", not "lex.yy.c". If you have a version which does
205 generate "lex.yy.c", you need to manually change the generated
208 * Building wxX11 on SGI
209 -----------------------
211 Using the SGI native compilers, it is recommended that you
212 also set CFLAGS and CXXFLAGS before running configure. These
216 CXXFLAGS="-mips3 -n32"
218 This is essential if you want to use the resultant binaries
219 on any other machine than the one it was compiled on. If you
220 have a 64bit machine (Octane) you should also do this to ensure
221 you don't accidently build the libraries as 64bit (which is
224 The SGI native compiler support has only been tested on Irix 6.5.
226 * Create your configuration
227 ---------------------------
230 ./configure [options]
232 If you want to use system's C and C++ compiler,
233 set environment variables CXX and CC as
237 % ./configure [options]
239 to see all the options please use:
243 The basic philosophy is that if you want to use different
244 configurations, like a debug and a release version,
245 or use the same source tree on different systems,
246 you have only to change the environment variable OSTYPE.
247 (Sadly this variable is not set by default on some systems
248 in some shells - on SGI's for example). So you will have to
249 set it there. This variable HAS to be set before starting
250 configure, so that it knows which system it tries to
253 Configure will complain if the system variable OSTYPE has
254 not been defined. And Make in some circumstances as well...
260 Given below are the commands to change the default behaviour,
261 i.e. if it says "--disable-threads" it means that threads
262 are enabled by default.
264 You have to add --with-x11 on platforms, where X11 is
265 not the default (on Linux, configure will default to GTK).
269 The following options handle the kind of library you want to build.
271 --disable-threads Compile without thread support. Threads
272 support is also required for the
275 --disable-shared Do not create shared libraries.
277 --disable-optimise Do not optimise the code. Can
278 sometimes be useful for debugging
279 and is required on some architectures
280 such as Sun with gcc 2.8.X which
281 would otherwise produce segvs.
283 --enable-profile Add profiling info to the object
284 files. Currently broken, I think.
286 --enable-no_rtti Enable compilation without creation of
287 C++ RTTI information in object files.
288 This will speed-up compilation and reduce
291 --enable-no_exceptions Enable compilation without creation of
292 C++ exception information in object files.
293 This will speed-up compilation and reduce
294 binary size. Also fewer crashes during the
295 actual compilation...
297 --enable-no_deps Enable compilation without creation of
298 dependency information.
300 --enable-permissive Enable compilation without checking for strict
301 ANSI conformance. Useful to prevent the build
302 dying with errors as soon as you compile with
303 Solaris' ANSI-defying headers.
305 --enable-mem_tracing Add built-in memory tracing.
307 --enable-dmalloc Use the dmalloc memory debugger.
308 Read more at www.letters.com/dmalloc/
310 --enable-debug_info Add debug info to object files and
311 executables for use with debuggers
312 such as gdb (or its many frontends).
314 --enable-debug_flag Define __DEBUG__ and __WXDEBUG__ when
315 compiling. This enable wxWindows' very
316 useful internal debugging tricks (such
317 as automatically reporting illegal calls)
318 to work. Note that program and library
319 must be compiled with the same debug
325 Many of the configure options have been thoroughly tested
326 in wxWindows snapshot 6, but not yet all (ODBC not).
328 When producing an executable that is linked statically with wxX11
329 you'll be surprised at its immense size. This can sometimes be
330 drastically reduced by removing features from wxWindows that
331 are not used in your program. The most relevant such features
334 --without-libpng Disables PNG image format code.
336 --without-libjpeg Disables JPEG image format code.
338 { --without-odbc Disables ODBC code. Not yet. }
340 --disable-resources Disables the use of *.wxr type
343 --disable-threads Disables threads. Will also
346 --disable-sockets Disables sockets.
348 --disable-dnd Disables Drag'n'Drop.
350 --disable-clipboard Disables Clipboard.
352 --disable-serial Disables object instance serialisation.
354 --disable-streams Disables the wxStream classes.
356 --disable-file Disables the wxFile class.
358 --disable-textfile Disables the wxTextFile class.
360 --disable-intl Disables the internationalisation.
362 --disable-validators Disables validators.
364 --disable-accel Disables accel.
366 Apart from disabling certain features you can very often "strip"
367 the program of its debugging information resulting in a significant
373 The following must be done in the base directory (e.g. ~/wxX11
376 Now the makefiles are created (by configure) and you can compile
377 the library by typing:
381 make yourself some coffee, as it will take some time. On an old
382 386SX possibly two weeks. During compilation, you'll get a few
383 warning messages depending in your compiler.
385 If you want to be more selective, you can change into a specific
386 directory and type "make" there.
388 Then you may install the library and its header files under
389 /usr/local/include/wx and /usr/local/lib respectively. You
390 have to log in as root (i.e. run "su" and enter the root
395 You can remove any traces of wxWindows by typing
399 If you want to save disk space by removing unnecessary
404 in the various directories will do the work for you.
406 * Creating a new Project
407 ------------------------
409 1) The first way uses the installed libraries and header files
410 automatically using wx-config
412 g++ myfoo.cpp `wx-config --libs` `wx-config --cxxflags` -o myfoo
414 Using this way, a make file for the minimal sample would look
420 $(CXX) -o minimal minimal.o `wx-config --libs`
422 minimal.o: minimal.cpp mondrian.xpm
423 $(CXX) `wx-config --cxxflags` -c minimal.cpp -o minimal.o
428 This is certain to become the standard way unless we decide
431 2) The other way creates a project within the source code
432 directories of wxWindows. For this endeavour, you'll need
433 GNU autoconf version 2.14 and add an entry to your Makefile.in
434 to the bottom of the configure.in script and run autoconf
435 and configure before you can type make.
437 * Further notes by Julian Smart
438 -------------------------------
440 - You may find the following script useful for compiling wxX11,
441 especially if installing from zips (which don't preserve file
442 permissions). Make this script executable with the command
445 -------:x-----Cut here-----:x-----
447 # Sets permissions (in case we extracted wxX11 from zip files)
449 # Call from top-level wxWindows directory.
450 # Note that this uses standard (but commonly-used) configure options;
451 # if you're feeling brave, you may wish to compile with threads:
452 # if they're not supported by the target platform, they will be disabled
455 chmod a+x configure config.sub config.guess
456 ./configure --with-x11 --with-shared --with-debug_flag --with-debug_info --enable-debug --without-threads --without-sockets --without-odbc
458 -------:x-----Cut here-----:x-----
460 This script will build wxX11 using shared libraries. If you want to build
461 a static wxWindows library, use --disable-shared.
466 - Solaris compilation with gcc: if the compiler has problems with the variable
467 argument functions, try putting the gcc fixinclude file paths early in the
470 - If you operator-related compile errors or strange memory problems
471 (for example in deletion of string arrays), set wxUSE_GLOBAL_MEMORY_OPERATORS
472 and wxUSE_MEMORY_TRACING to 0 in setup.h, and recompile.
474 - If you get an internal compiler error in gcc, turn off optimisations.
476 - Some compilers, such as Sun C++, may give a lot of warnings about
477 virtual functions being hidden. Please ignore these, it's correct C++ syntax.
478 If you find any incorrect instances, though, such as a
479 missing 'const' in an overridden function, please let us know.
484 - Debugging mode is switched on by default in the makefiles, but using
485 configure will create a release build of the library by default: it's
486 recommended to use --with-debug_info and --with-debug_flag configure
487 switches while developing your application. To compile in non-debug
488 mode, remove the -D__WXDEBUG__ switch in make.env (or if using the
489 configure system, change --with-debug_flag to --without-debug_flag
490 and --with-debug_info to --without-debug_info in the makewxx11
496 Please send bug reports with a description of your environment,
497 compiler and the error message(s) to the wxwin-developers mailing list at:
499 wx-dev@lists.wxwindows.org
501 Julian Smart, Robert Roebling and Vadim Zeitlin, February 2002.