documented wxGetApp()

[wxWidgets.git] / docs / x11 / install.txt

wxWindows 2.5 for X11 installation
----------------------------------

IMPORTANT NOTE:

  If you experience problems installing, please re-read these
  instructions and other related files (todo.txt, bugs.txt and
  osname.txt for your platform if it exists) carefully before
  mailing wxwin-users or the author. Preferably, try to fix the
  problem first and then send a patch to the author.

  When sending bug reports tell us what version of wxWindows you are 
  using (including the beta) and what compiler on what system. One 
  example: wxX11 2.5.0, gcc 2.95.4, Redhat 6.2

First steps
-----------

- Download wxX11-x.y.z.tgz, where x.y.z is the version number.
  Download documentation in a preferred format, such as
  wxWindows-HTML.zip or wxWindows-PDF.zip.

- Make a directory such as ~/wx and unarchive the files into this
  directory.

- It is recommended that you install bison and flex; using yacc
  and lex may require tweaking of the makefiles. You also need
  libXpm if you want to have XPM support in wxWindows (recommended).

- You can now use configure to build wxWindows and the samples.

  Using configure is the recommended way to build the library. If it doesn't
  work for you for whatever reason, please report it (together with detailed
  information about your platform and the (relevant part of) contents of
  config.log file) to wx-dev@lists.wxwindows.org.

COMPILING USING CONFIGURE
=========================

* The simplest case
-------------------

If you compile wxWindows on Linux for the first time and don't like to read 
install instructions just do (in the base dir):

> ./configure --with-x11
> make
> su <type root password>
> make install
> ldconfig
> exit

Afterwards you can continue with

> make
> su <type root password>
> make install
> ldconfig
> exit

If you want to remove wxWindows on Unix you can do this:

> su <type root password>
> make uninstall
> ldconfig
> exit

* The expert case
-----------------

If you want to do some more serious cross-platform programming with wxWindows, 
such as for GTK and X11, you can now build two complete libraries and use 
them concurrently. For this end, you have to create a directory for each build 
of wxWindows - you may also want to create different versions of wxWindows
and test them concurrently. Most typically, this would be a version configured 
with --enable-debug_flag and one without. Note, that only one build can
currently be installed, so you'd have to use local version of the library for
that purpose.

For building three versions (one GTK, one X11 and a debug version of the GTK 
source) you'd do this:

md buildx11
cd buildx11
../configure --with-x11
make
cd ..

md buildgtk
cd buildgtk
../configure --with-gtk
make
cd ..

md buildgtkd
cd buildgtkd
../configure --with-gtk --enable-debug_flag
make
cd ..

* The simplest errors
---------------------

You get errors during compilation: The reason is that you probably have a
broken compiler.  GCC 2.8 and earlier versions and egcs are likely to cause
problems due to incomplete support for C++ and optimisation bugs.  Best to use
GCC 2.95 or later.

You get immediate segfault when starting any sample or application: This is
either due to having compiled the library with different flags or options than
your program - typically you might have the __WXDEBUG__ option set for the
library but not for your program - or due to using a compiler with optimisation
bugs.

* The simplest program
----------------------

Now create your super-application myfoo.cpp and compile anywhere with

g++ myfoo.cpp `wx-config --libs --cxxflags` -o myfoo

* General
---------

The Unix variants of wxWindows use GNU configure. If you have problems with
your make use GNU make instead.

If you have general problems with installation, see the wxWindows website at 

  http://www.wxwindows.org/
  
for newest information. If you still don't have any success, please send a bug 
report to one of our mailing lists (see my homepage) INCLUDING A DESCRIPTION OF 
YOUR SYSTEM AND YOUR PROBLEM, SUCH AS YOUR VERSION OF X, WHAT DISTRIBUTION 
YOU USE AND WHAT ERROR WAS REPORTED. I know this has no effect, but I tried...

* GUI libraries
---------------

wxWindows/X11 requires the X11 library to be installed on your system.
  
* Additional libraries
----------------------

wxWindows/X11 requires a thread library and X libraries known to work with
threads.  This is the case on all commercial Unix-Variants and all
Linux-Versions that are based on glibc 2 except RedHat 5.0 which is broken in
many aspects. As of writing this, these Linux distributions have correct glibc
2 support:

 - RedHat 5.1
 - Debian 2.0 and 3.0
 - Stampede
 - DLD 6.0
 - SuSE 6.0
 
You can disable thread support by running 

./configure --disable-threads
make
su <type root password>
make install
ldconfig
exit
  
* Building wxX11 on OS/2
------------------------

Please send comments and question about the OS/2 installation
to Andrea Venturoli <a.ventu@flashnet.it> and patches to
the wxWindows mailing list.

You'll need OS/2 Warp (4.00FP#6), X-Free86/2 (3.3.3 or newer), 
emx (0.9d fix 1), flex (2.5.4), yacc (1.8), unix like shell,
e.g. korn shell (5.2.13), Autoconf (2.13),  GNU file utilities (3.6),
GNU text utilities (1.3), GNU shell utilites (1.12), m4 (1.4), 
sed (2.05), grep (2.0), Awk (3.0.3), GNU Make (3.76.1).

Open an OS/2 prompt and switch to the directory above.
First set some global environment variables we need:

SET CXXFLAGS=-Zmtd -D__ST_MT_ERRNO__
SET CFLAGS=-Zmtd -D__ST_MT_ERRNO__
SET OSTYPE=OS2X              
SET COMSPEC=sh

Notice you can choose whatever you want, if you don't like OS2X.

Now, run autoconf in the main directory and in the samples, demos
and utils subdirectory. This will generate the OS/2 specific
versions of the configure scripts. Now run
    configure --with-x11
as described above.

To verify X11 installation, configure will try to compile a
sample program that requires X headers/libraries to be either
available via C_INCLUDE_PATH and LIBRARY_PATH or you need to
explicitly set CFLAGS prior to running configure.

If you have pthreads library installed, it will be autodetected
and the library will be compiled with thread-support.

Note that configure assumes your flex will generate files named
"lexyy.c", not "lex.yy.c". If you have a version which does
generate "lex.yy.c", you need to manually change the generated
makefile.

* Building wxX11 on SGI
-----------------------

Using the SGI native compilers, it is recommended that you
also set CFLAGS and CXXFLAGS before running configure. These 
should be set to :

CFLAGS="-mips3 -n32" 
CXXFLAGS="-mips3 -n32"

This is essential if you want to use the resultant binaries 
on any other machine than the one it was compiled on. If you 
have a 64bit machine (Octane) you should also do this to ensure 
you don't accidently build the libraries as 64bit (which is 
untested).

The SGI native compiler support has only been tested on Irix 6.5.

* Create your configuration
---------------------------

Usage:
        ./configure [options]

If you want to use system's C and C++ compiler,
set environment variables CXX and CC as

        % setenv CC cc
        % setenv CXX CC
        % ./configure [options]

to see all the options please use:

        ./configure --help

The basic philosophy is that if you want to use different
configurations, like a debug and a release version, 
or use the same source tree on different systems,
you have only to change the environment variable OSTYPE.
(Sadly this variable is not set by default on some systems
in some shells - on SGI's for example). So you will have to 
set it there. This variable HAS to be set before starting 
configure, so that it knows which system it tries to 
configure for.

Configure will complain if the system variable OSTYPE has 
not been defined. And Make in some circumstances as well...


* General options
-----------------

Given below are the commands to change the default behaviour,
i.e. if it says "--disable-threads" it means that threads
are enabled by default.

You have to add --with-x11 on platforms, where X11 is
not the default (on Linux, configure will default to GTK).

        --with-x11              Use X11.

The following options handle the kind of library you want to build.

        --disable-threads       Compile without thread support. Threads
                                support is also required for the
                                socket code to work.

        --disable-shared        Do not create shared libraries.

        --disable-optimise      Do not optimise the code. Can
                                sometimes be useful for debugging
                                and is required on some architectures
                                such as Sun with gcc 2.8.X which
                                would otherwise produce segvs.

        --enable-profile        Add profiling info to the object 
                                files. Currently broken, I think.
                                
        --enable-no_rtti        Enable compilation without creation of
                                C++ RTTI information in object files. 
                                This will speed-up compilation and reduce 
                                binary size.
                                
        --enable-no_exceptions  Enable compilation without creation of
                                C++ exception information in object files. 
                                This will speed-up compilation and reduce 
                                binary size. Also fewer crashes during the
                                actual compilation...
                                
        --enable-no_deps        Enable compilation without creation of
                                dependency information.
                                
        --enable-permissive     Enable compilation without checking for strict
                                ANSI conformance.  Useful to prevent the build
                                dying with errors as soon as you compile with
                                Solaris' ANSI-defying headers.
                                
        --enable-mem_tracing    Add built-in memory tracing. 
                                
        --enable-dmalloc        Use the dmalloc memory debugger.
                                Read more at www.letters.com/dmalloc/
                                
        --enable-debug_info     Add debug info to object files and
                                executables for use with debuggers
                                such as gdb (or its many frontends).

        --enable-debug_flag     Define __DEBUG__ and __WXDEBUG__ when
                                compiling. This enable wxWindows' very
                                useful internal debugging tricks (such
                                as automatically reporting illegal calls)
                                to work. Note that program and library
                                must be compiled with the same debug 
                                options.

* Feature Options
-----------------

Many of the configure options have been thoroughly tested
in wxWindows snapshot 6, but not yet all (ODBC not).

When producing an executable that is linked statically with wxX11
you'll be surprised at its immense size. This can sometimes be
drastically reduced by removing features from wxWindows that 
are not used in your program. The most relevant such features
are

        --without-libpng        Disables PNG image format code.
        
        --without-libjpeg       Disables JPEG image format code.
        
{       --without-odbc          Disables ODBC code. Not yet. }
        
        --disable-resources     Disables the use of *.wxr type
                                resources.
                
        --disable-threads       Disables threads. Will also
                                disable sockets.

        --disable-sockets       Disables sockets.

        --disable-dnd           Disables Drag'n'Drop.
        
        --disable-clipboard     Disables Clipboard.
        
        --disable-serial        Disables object instance serialisation.
        
        --disable-streams       Disables the wxStream classes.
        
        --disable-file          Disables the wxFile class.
        
        --disable-textfile      Disables the wxTextFile class.
        
        --disable-intl          Disables the internationalisation.
        
        --disable-validators    Disables validators.
        
        --disable-accel         Disables accel.
        
Apart from disabling certain features you can very often "strip"
the program of its debugging information resulting in a significant
reduction in size.

* Compiling
-----------

The following must be done in the base directory (e.g. ~/wxX11
or whatever)

Now the makefiles are created (by configure) and you can compile 
the library by typing:

        make

make yourself some coffee, as it will take some time. On an old
386SX possibly two weeks. During compilation, you'll get a few 
warning messages depending in your compiler.

If you want to be more selective, you can change into a specific
directory and type "make" there.

Then you may install the library and its header files under
/usr/local/include/wx and /usr/local/lib respectively. You
have to log in as root (i.e. run "su" and enter the root
password) and type

        make install    

You can remove any traces of wxWindows by typing

        make uninstall
        
If you want to save disk space by removing unnecessary
object-files:

        make clean

in the various directories will do the work for you.

* Creating a new Project
------------------------

1) The first way uses the installed libraries and header files
automatically using wx-config

g++ myfoo.cpp `wx-config --libs` `wx-config --cxxflags` -o myfoo

Using this way, a make file for the minimal sample would look
like this

CXX = g++

minimal: minimal.o
    $(CXX) -o minimal minimal.o `wx-config --libs` 

minimal.o: minimal.cpp mondrian.xpm
    $(CXX) `wx-config --cxxflags` -c minimal.cpp -o minimal.o

clean: 
        rm -f *.o minimal

This is certain to become the standard way unless we decide
to stick to tmake.

2) The other way creates a project within the source code 
directories of wxWindows. For this endeavour, you'll need
GNU autoconf version 2.14 and add an entry to your Makefile.in
to the bottom of the configure.in script and run autoconf
and configure before you can type make.

* Further notes by Julian Smart
-------------------------------

- You may find the following script useful for compiling wxX11,
  especially if installing from zips (which don't preserve file
  permissions). Make this script executable with the command
  chmod a+x makewxx11.

  -------:x-----Cut here-----:x-----
  # makewxx11
  # Sets permissions (in case we extracted wxX11 from zip files)
  # and makes wxX11.
  # Call from top-level wxWindows directory.
  # Note that this uses standard (but commonly-used) configure options;
  # if you're feeling brave, you may wish to compile with threads:
  # if they're not supported by the target platform, they will be disabled
  # anyhow
  # -- Julian Smart
  chmod a+x configure config.sub config.guess
  ./configure --with-x11 --with-shared --with-debug_flag --with-debug_info --enable-debug --without-threads --without-sockets --without-odbc
  make
  -------:x-----Cut here-----:x-----

  This script will build wxX11 using shared libraries. If you want to build
  a static wxWindows library, use --disable-shared.

Troubleshooting
---------------

- Solaris compilation with gcc: if the compiler has problems with the variable
  argument functions, try putting the gcc fixinclude file paths early in the
  include path.

- If you operator-related compile errors or strange memory problems
  (for example in deletion of string arrays), set wxUSE_GLOBAL_MEMORY_OPERATORS
  and wxUSE_MEMORY_TRACING to 0 in setup.h, and recompile.

- If you get an internal compiler error in gcc, turn off optimisations.

- Some compilers, such as Sun C++, may give a lot of warnings about
  virtual functions being hidden. Please ignore these, it's correct C++ syntax.
  If you find any incorrect instances, though, such as a
  missing 'const' in an overridden function, please let us know.

Other Notes
-----------

- Debugging mode is switched on by default in the makefiles, but using
  configure will create a release build of the library by default: it's
  recommended to use --with-debug_info and --with-debug_flag configure
  switches while developing your application. To compile in non-debug
  mode, remove the -D__WXDEBUG__ switch in make.env (or if using the
  configure system, change --with-debug_flag to --without-debug_flag
  and --with-debug_info to --without-debug_info in the makewxx11
  script).

Bug reports
-----------

Please send bug reports with a description of your environment,
compiler and the error message(s) to the wxwin-developers mailing list at:

    wx-dev@lists.wxwindows.org

Julian Smart, Robert Roebling and Vadim Zeitlin, February 2002.