Re: [LUG] Install from source

Watch it, experts. This is how we end up with not-for-the-rest-of-us systems. Take RFEs seriously. If the computer /doesn't/ do exactly what the user wants and expects, /doesn't/ provide meaningful and effective dialog and feedback, /doesn't/ forgive user error and degrade gracefully, it's the computer's fault, not the user's. I know that view is anathema to most hardcore *n*x geeks, but the smart product designers get it.

On reflection, it seems to me that the original complaint/suggestion/request which we all (me included) laughed off was valid. Shells are dynamic environments, so they are extensible at runtime. Both bash and zsh now offer a customizable handler for uncompletable instructions; debian versions use this facility to go off and try to find the failing command in the apt repositories and suggest the package to install if they find it. There's enormous scope for fuzzy/AI-ish improvement beyond that.

On 10 January 2014 09:48, Robin Cornelius <robin.cornelius@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On 10 January 2014 09:23, George Parker <georgeparker20@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> I read that message to mean "./configure does not exist". If it means "file
> you're trying to configure does not exist" then it should say so. And
> usually that is the message in my experience. I guess the devil is in the
> detail, that colon after ./configure. (Goes off and sulks 'cos the big boys
> laughed at him)

it does mean exactly that "./configure does not exist", configure is a
file, in fact a file that contains a script that does a setup in a
typical autotools style build environment. You are not trying to
configure a file with a configure command, you are trying to run a
script called configure in the local directory, which in this case
does not exist as this particular project uses something else.

Something to note, some sources especially if you get them from
cvs/svn/git etc may use the autotool tools build system, but configure
may not yet exist as there may be some prerequisite steps that are
required that generate this file. The only way to know for sure is to,
as others have said, fine the README, INSTALL, or other instructions
that give a hint how to compile this code.

Robin

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