Options to configure

This section summarizes the configure options and arguments used most often:

configure [ hosttype ]
          [ --prefix=dest ]
          [ --exec-prefix=bindest ]
          [ --srcdir=path ]
          [ --target=target ]

The `--prefix' and `--exec-prefix' options are particularly important. If you don't specify a dest or bindest directory, the `Makefile' installs binaries in subdirectories of `/usr/cygnus/progressive-release' (see section How your Developer's Kit was built). These options are important because the dest and bindest directories are used for several purposes, most notably:

• bindest is the directory where binaries are installed.
• bindest is built into the compiler itself for the locations of GCC-specific include files, the locations of GCC subprograms, and the location of the GCC-specific library `libgcc.a'.
• dest is compiled into info as the default directory for the documentation.

See section The Heterogeneous Updateable Toolkit, for hints on setting up your installation to be accessible and easily updated.

hosttype

Configure the development tools to run on the specified hosttype. See section Host names. This argument is not usually required, since configure can automatically determine what kind of machine it runs on.

--prefix=dest

dest is an installation directory path prefix, the root for the directories where make install installs programs, libraries, and other relevant files. After you configure with this option, `make install install-info' installs info files in `dest/info', MAN pages in `dest/man', and (unless you also use `--exec-prefix') binary programs in `dest/bin', and libraries in `dest/lib'. If you specify `--prefix=/usr/local', for example, make install puts the development tools in `/usr/local/bin'. (See section The Heterogeneous Updateable Toolkit, for more detail.) Cygnus uses a dest of `/usr/cygnus/progressive-date'; see section How your Developer's Kit was built. This is also the default dest for your source code. We recommend you always use the `--prefix' option to explicitly set the destination prefix.

--exec-prefix=bindest

`--exec-prefix' serves the same purpose as `--prefix', but affects only machine-dependent binaries (programs and precompiled libraries). Specifying both `--prefix' and `--exec-prefix' allows you to segregate machine-dependent files, so that machine-independent files can be shared (see section The Heterogeneous Updateable Toolkit). The default bindest is normally the value for dest, specified with `--prefix'. Cygnus specifies a bindest value of `/usr/cygnus/progressive-date/H-hosttype'; see section Examples and suggestions. This is also the default for your source distribution, unless you set dest with `--prefix'. We recommend you always use the `--exec-prefix' option to explicitly set the machine-dependent destination prefix.

--srcdir=path

Use this option to configure in directories separate from the source directories. configure writes configuration-specific files in the current directory, but arranges for them to use the source in the directory path. configure creates directories under the working directory in parallel with the source directories below path. The default path is the directory in which configure resides; setting this option is redundant, but explicit. Among other things, you can use this to build (or maintain) several configurations simultaneously, in separate build directories. See section Source and Build Directories.

Warning: This option is only supported if you use GNU Make.

--target=target

Configure the development tools for cross-development (compiling, debugging, or other processing) of programs running on the specified target (see section Target names). Without this option, the toolkit is configured as native, i.e., to manage programs that run on the same system as the development tools themselves. Cross-development tools are named with a prefix of target in order to avoid confusion with the native tools. Thus, if the toolkit is built for a mips-idt-ecoff target, the compiler is named mips-idt-ecoff-gcc, the debugger is named mips-idt-ecoff-gdb, etc.