On Mon, 15 Aug 2011 07:23:02 +0200, Johannes Pfau wrote: > dsimcha wrote: >>Is there an easy way to compile and install GDC + Phobos, druntime and a >>few custom libraries to your home directory on a machine that you don't >>have root access to? > > I think you could just change the "--prefix=/opt/gdc" to > "--prefix=/home/dsimcha/gdc" and it should work. Or you could use > --prefix="/usr" and 'DESTDIR="/home/dsimcha" make install', I never > understood the difference between prefix and DESTDIR.
The '--prefix="/usr"' options tells the compiled program where it will search for libraries, other binaries, data files, and other information when it runs. The 'DESTDIR="/home/dsimcha"' option tells the compiler to dump the output files in the specified directory. Why is this useful? Mostly it is useful if you are compiling a binary for other people to use, but don't want to wreck your local environment. For example, if I am creating a binary .deb or .rpm, I can compile everything I want so that it expects to run in '/usr' (prefix), but dump the files in '/home/vnayar/myproject/rpm' (DESTDIR). After I run my command, I'll have stuff like: /home/vnayar/myproject/rpm/ + usr/bin/mybin + usr/share/mydata + usr/lib/libmine.so And after I wrap all that up in a .deb package, and someone else installs it, they will have binaries ready to go in /usr/bin, etc.