GNUstep SVN Installation Guide

This page is a step-by-step "How-to compile the latest svn version of GNUstep". It's mainly a short summary of different documents available.

NOTE: Instruction on installing GNUstep on Windows are available at Installation on Windows.

Prerequisites

Make sure to have the libraries mentioned as Dependencies installed – from their specific web sites or using your packaging system. (Note that some distributions/variants put header files into separate *-dev or *-devel packages. In this case these must be installed, too!) You may also want to have a look at the article Platform compatibility for notes on your platform.

Download

 svn co http://svn.gna.org/svn/gnustep/modules/core

See also Using Subversion.

Makefile Package

cd core/make
./configure
make
sudo make install

or if already using root:
make install

For configurations options see ./configure --help. For example ./configure --with-layout=fhs enables a more FHS-conformable filesystem layout. ./configure --prefix=MYPATH will install into MYPATH instead of the standard /usr/GNUstep. Typical options are / (into root directly, as NeXT or Apple do), /usr/local/GNUstep, /opt/GNUstep.

Extra configuration needed every time you use "GNUstep" from a command-line:

. /usr/GNUstep/System/Library/Makefiles/GNUstep.sh

For Bourne compatible shells, or

. /usr/GNUstep/System/Library/Makefiles/GNUstep.csh

For csh or tcsh.

Base/Foundation Library

cd core/base
./configure
make
make install

GUI/AppKit Library

cd core/gui
./configure
make
make install

Backend Library

The most stable GNUstep backend currently is the one dependent on libart, but is no longer actively developed. The libcairo has become the official backend but is still unstable.

cd core/back
./configure --enable-graphics=cairo   #for standard backend leave this line out
make
make install