[tex-live] build requirements

Jonathan Kew jonathan_kew at sil.org
Sun Dec 10 18:23:36 CET 2006


I thought it might be useful to make a list of tools/packages/ 
libraries that need to be available for a successful build of TL  
binaries on a Linux/Unix-ish system. This is in addition to the  
standard compiler/linker/make tools, of course. A "developer"  
workstation may well include all these items as standard, but  
"desktop user" configurations often don't include the development  
tools or headers by default.

So here are some items that I've had to add to a default installation  
in order to build TL binaries (exact package names vary between  
distros and versions):

* flex
* bison
   - needed to build the web2c tools
   - alternatively, I expect lex/yacc would probably also work

* texinfo
   - required during "install" of dvipng
   - the build doesn't use the version just created as part of the TL  
build

* libncurses [or other terminal library & headers?]
   - required by texinfo/info
   - ensure header files are available, not only the shared lib
   - may require a -dev[el] package to be installed

* libfontconfig
   - required by xetex and xdvipdfmx [except on Mac OS X]
   - ensure header (fontconfig/fontconfig.h) is available, not only  
the shared lib
   - may require a -dev[el] package to be installed

Are there others I haven't noted?

Perhaps it would be useful to include these notes in Build/source/ 
README or some such place, after people have added any further  
comments/missing items.

JK



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