| Table of contents: |
| 1) Dependencies for using gnulib-tool (maintainer environment) |
| 2) Dependencies for building the imported code (target environment) |
|
|
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|
| 1) Dependencies for using gnulib-tool (maintainer environment) |
| ************************************************************** |
|
|
| The following packages are needed by maintainers for using 'gnulib-tool'. |
| We call this the "maintainer environment", although it is not necessarily |
| a maintainer's or developer's machine; it can also be some containerized |
| environment. |
|
|
| In general, Gnulib prefers the latest stable version of each package, |
| but in some cases it also supports older versions; this caters to |
| commonly-used software distributions that may lag behind the latest |
| stable package. Support for older versions is not guaranteed, though, |
| and the version numbers in the following list may be incremented |
| at any time. |
|
|
| * A C runtime, compiler, linker, etc. |
| + Mandatory. Using the platform's native 'cc' gives good portability |
| exposure, but you can also use GCC 3.1 or newer. |
| + GCC Homepage: |
| https://gcc.gnu.org/ |
| + Download: |
| https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/gcc/ |
| |
| * A 'make' utility. |
| + Mandatory. Using the platform's native 'make' gives good portability |
| exposure for in-tree builds, but VPATH builds on OpenBSD or Solaris |
| require GNU Make 3.79.1 or newer. |
| + GNU Make Homepage: |
| https://www.gnu.org/software/make/ |
| + Download: |
| https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/make/ |
| |
| * GNU M4 1.4.5 or newer. |
| + Mandatory. |
| 1.4.5 or newer is mandatory, but 1.4.9 or newer is recommended. |
| If you want to build it from source, use the tarball from |
| https://gitlab.com/gnu-m4/ci-distcheck/-/jobs/artifacts/master/raw/m4-snapshot.tar?job=check-optimized |
| + Homepage: |
| https://www.gnu.org/software/m4/ |
| + Download: |
| https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/m4/ |
| |
| * Autoconf 2.64 or newer. |
| + Mandatory. |
| + Homepage: |
| https://www.gnu.org/software/autoconf/ |
| + Download: |
| https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/autoconf/ |
| |
| * Automake 1.14 or newer. |
| + Mandatory. |
| + Homepage: |
| https://www.gnu.org/software/automake/ |
| + Download: |
| https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/automake/ |
| |
| * A shell |
| + Mandatory. Using the platform's native 'sh' gives good portability |
| exposure, but you can also use Bash. |
| + Homepage: |
| https://www.gnu.org/software/bash/ |
| + Download: |
| https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/bash/ |
| |
| * Core POSIX utilities, including: |
| [ basename cat chgrp chmod chown cp dd echo expand expr |
| false hostname install join kill ln ls md5sum mkdir mkfifo |
| mknod mv printenv pwd rm rmdir sleep sort tee test touch |
| true uname |
| + Mandatory. Using the platform's native utilities gives good portability |
| exposure, but you can also use GNU coreutils. |
| + Homepage: |
| https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/ |
| + Download: |
| https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/coreutils/ |
| |
| * The comparison utilities 'cmp' and 'diff'. |
| + Mandatory. Using the platform's native utilities gives good portability |
| exposure, but you can also use GNU diffutils. |
| + Homepage: |
| https://www.gnu.org/software/diffutils/ |
| + Download: |
| https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/diffutils/ |
| |
| * The patch utility 'patch'. |
| + Mandatory if you use gnulib-local diffs. Using the platform's native |
| utilities gives good portability exposure, but you can also use GNU |
| patch. |
| + Homepage: |
| https://www.gnu.org/software/patch/ |
| + Download: |
| https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/patch/ |
| |
| * Grep. |
| + Mandatory. Using the platform's native grep gives good portability |
| exposure, but you can also use GNU grep. |
| + Homepage: |
| https://www.gnu.org/software/grep/ |
| + Download: |
| https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/grep/ |
| |
| * Awk. |
| + Mandatory. |
| Using the platform's native awk, mawk, or nawk gives good portability |
| exposure, but you can also use GNU awk. |
| + Homepage: |
| https://www.gnu.org/software/gawk/ |
| + Download: |
| https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/gawk/ |
| |
| * Python 3.7 or newer. |
| * Recommended. |
| Without it, gnulib-tool is between 8 times and 100 times slower and may lack |
| functionality added after April 2024. |
| + Homepage: |
| https://www.python.org/ |
| + Download: |
| https://www.python.org/downloads/ |
| + Pre-built package name: |
| - On Debian and Debian-based systems: python3, |
| - On Red Hat distributions: python3. |
| - Other: https://repology.org/project/python/versions |
| |
| * GNU gettext. |
| + If your project wants to follow GNU Coding Standards: |
| + Always use the newest available gettext release, see |
| <https://www.gnu.org/software/gnulib/manual/html_node/gettextize-and-autopoint.html>. |
| + Use the 'gettext' module. |
| + If your project cares more about ease of development on older platforms: |
| + gettext 0.17 or newer. |
| + Use the 'gettext-h' module. |
| + Recommended. |
| Needed if you use modules that use internationalization (many do). |
| + Homepage: |
| https://www.gnu.org/software/gettext/ |
| + Download: |
| https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/gettext/ |
| + Pre-built package name: |
| - On Debian and Debian-based systems: gettext, |
| - On Red Hat distributions: gettext. |
| - Other: https://repology.org/project/gettext/versions |
| |
| * Bison 2.0 or newer. |
| + Recommended. |
| Needed if you use the 'parse-datetime' module. |
| + Homepage: |
| https://www.gnu.org/software/bison/ |
| + Download: |
| https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/bison/ |
| + Pre-built package name: |
| - On Debian and Debian-based systems: bison, |
| - On Red Hat distributions: bison. |
| - Other: https://repology.org/project/bison/versions |
| |
| * GNU gperf 3.0.1 or newer. |
| + 3.0.1 or newer is mandatory, but 3.1 or newer is recommended. |
| Needed if you use the 'iconv_open' module or some of the |
| unictype/*, unicase/*, uninorm/* modules. |
| + Homepage: |
| https://www.gnu.org/software/gperf/ |
| + Download: |
| https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/gperf/ |
| + Pre-built package name: |
| - On Debian and Debian-based systems: gperf, |
| - On Red Hat distributions: gperf. |
| - Other: https://repology.org/project/gperf/versions |
| |
| * Texinfo 4.6 or newer. |
| + Recommended. |
| Needed if you use modules that include documentation. |
| + Homepage: |
| https://www.gnu.org/software/texinfo/ |
| + Download: |
| https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/texinfo/ |
| + Pre-built package name: |
| - On Debian and Debian-based systems: texinfo, |
| - On Red Hat distributions: texinfo. |
| - Other: https://repology.org/project/texinfo/versions |
| |
| * GNU sed. |
| + Recommended. |
| Needed on platforms where the vendor's 'sed' program is too buggy. |
| + Homepage: |
| https://www.gnu.org/software/sed/ |
| + Download: |
| https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/sed/ |
| |
| * GNU libtool 1.5.22 or newer. |
| + Optional. |
| Needed if you want to invoke gnulib-tool with option --libtool. |
| libtool 2.2.x or newer is needed if you want to invoke gnulib-tool |
| with options --create-testdir/--test and --libtool. |
| + Homepage: |
| https://www.gnu.org/software/libtool/ |
| + Download: |
| https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/libtool/ |
| |
| * GNU tar 1.28 or newer. |
| + Optional. |
| Needed if you use the 'gnumakefile' module, which sets TAR_OPTIONS |
| to --sort=names (added in version 1.28) in GNUmakefile for 'make dist'. |
| + Homepage: |
| https://www.gnu.org/software/tar/ |
| + Download: |
| https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/tar/ |
| |
| Note: Solaris 10 is no longer supported as maintainer environment. |
| <https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-gnulib/2024-07/msg00076.html> |
|
|
|
|
| 2) Dependencies for building the imported code (target environment) |
| ******************************************************************* |
| |
| The following packages are needed for building the package that imports |
| code from Gnulib. |
| |
| * A C runtime, compiler, linker, etc. |
| + Mandatory. Using the platform's native 'cc' gives good portability |
| exposure, but you can also use GCC 3.1 or newer. |
| + GCC Homepage: |
| https://gcc.gnu.org/ |
| + Download: |
| https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/gcc/ |
| |
| * A 'make' utility. |
| + Mandatory. Using the platform's native 'make' gives good portability |
| exposure for in-tree builds, but VPATH builds on OpenBSD or Solaris |
| require GNU Make 3.79.1 or newer. |
| + GNU Make Homepage: |
| https://www.gnu.org/software/make/ |
| + Download: |
| https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/make/ |
| |
| * A shell |
| + Mandatory. Using the platform's native 'sh' gives good portability |
| exposure, but you can also use Bash. |
| + Homepage: |
| https://www.gnu.org/software/bash/ |
| + Download: |
| https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/bash/ |
| |
| * Core POSIX utilities, including: |
| [ basename cat chgrp chmod chown cp dd echo expand expr |
| false hostname install kill ln ls md5sum mkdir mkfifo |
| mknod mv printenv pwd rm rmdir sleep sort tee test touch |
| true uname |
| + Mandatory. Using the platform's native utilities gives good portability |
| exposure, but you can also use GNU coreutils. |
| + Homepage: |
| https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/ |
| + Download: |
| https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/coreutils/ |
| |
| * The comparison utilities 'cmp' and 'diff'. |
| + Mandatory. Using the platform's native utilities gives good portability |
| exposure, but you can also use GNU diffutils. |
| + Homepage: |
| https://www.gnu.org/software/diffutils/ |
| + Download: |
| https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/diffutils/ |
| |
| * Grep. |
| + Mandatory. Using the platform's native grep gives good portability |
| exposure, but you can also use GNU grep. |
| + Homepage: |
| https://www.gnu.org/software/grep/ |
| + Download: |
| https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/grep/ |
| |
| * Awk. |
| + Mandatory. |
| Using the platform's native awk, mawk, or nawk gives good portability |
| exposure, but you can also use GNU awk. |
| + Homepage: |
| https://www.gnu.org/software/gawk/ |
| + Download: |
| https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/gawk/ |
| |
| Prerequisites on Windows |
| ------------------------ |
| |
| * Cygwin |
| + Required. |
| Provides a POSIX-like environment and binary packages necessary to |
| build and run software. Native Windows binaries can be built with |
| a packaged mingw tool chain. This method is preferred over MSYS2. |
| + Homepage: |
| https://cygwin.com/ |
| + Download: |
| https://cygwin.com/install.html |
| |
| Libraries |
| --------- |
| |
| Various modules work best with certain libraries installed. These are runtime |
| dependencies that are also build dependencies. |
| |
| For modules 'abort-debug' and 'stack-trace': |
| * libbacktrace |
| + Recommended. |
| Needed for producing C stack traces with source file names and |
| line numbers. |
| + Homepage: |
| https://github.com/ianlancetaylor/libbacktrace |
| + Download: |
| https://github.com/ianlancetaylor/libbacktrace |
| + Pre-built package name: |
| - On Debian and Debian-based systems: libgcc-N-dev, |
| - On Red Hat distributions: --. |
| - Other: https://repology.org/project/libbacktrace/versions |
| |
| For module 'acl': |
| * libacl |
| + Recommended on Linux systems. |
| Needed so that the creation of backup files respects the access control |
| lists (ACLs) set on the original files. |
| + Homepage: |
| https://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/acl/ |
| + Download: |
| https://download.savannah.nongnu.org/releases/acl/ |
| + Pre-built package name: |
| - On Debian and Debian-based systems: libacl1-dev, |
| - On Red Hat distributions: libacl-devel. |
| - Other: https://repology.org/project/acl/versions |
| * libattr |
| + Recommended on Linux systems. |
| Needed so that the creation of backup files respects the access control |
| lists (ACLs) set on the original files, with fewer system calls. |
| + Homepage: |
| https://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/attr/ |
| + Download: |
| https://download.savannah.nongnu.org/releases/attr/ |
| + Pre-built package name: |
| - On Debian and Debian-based systems: libattr1-dev, |
| - On Red Hat distributions: libattr-devel. |
| - Other: https://repology.org/project/attr/versions |
| |
| For module 'gettext-h': |
| * libintl, part of GNU gettext |
| + Not needed on systems with glibc. |
| But highly recommended on all other systems. |
| Needed for localization (translation) of messages to the user's |
| native language. |
| + Homepage: |
| https://www.gnu.org/software/gettext/ |
| + Download: |
| https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/gettext/ |
| + Pre-built package name: |
| - On Debian and Debian-based systems: --, |
| - On Red Hat distributions: --. |
| - Other: https://repology.org/project/gettext/versions |
| + If it is installed in a nonstandard directory, pass the option |
| --with-libintl-prefix=DIR to 'configure'. |
| |
| For module 'iconv': |
| * GNU libiconv |
| + Not needed on systems with glibc and on NetBSD. |
| But highly recommended on all other systems. |
| Needed for character set conversion of strings from/to Unicode. |
| + Homepage: |
| https://www.gnu.org/software/libiconv/ |
| + Download: |
| https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/libiconv/ |
| + Pre-built package name: |
| - On Debian and Debian-based systems: --, |
| - On Red Hat distributions: --. |
| - Other: https://repology.org/project/libiconv/versions |
| + If it is installed in a nonstandard directory, pass the option |
| --with-libiconv-prefix=DIR to 'configure'. |
| + On mingw, a slim alternative is the 'win-iconv' package version 0.0.8 |
| from https://github.com/win-iconv/win-iconv . |
| |
| For module 'libgmp': |
| * GNU gmp. |
| + Recommended. |
| Needed for fast multiprecision computations. |
| + Homepage: |
| https://www.gnu.org/software/gmp/ |
| + Download: |
| https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/gmp/ |
| + Pre-built package name: |
| - On Debian and Debian-based systems: libgmp-dev, |
| - On Red Hat distributions: gmp-devel. |
| - Other: https://repology.org/project/gmp/versions |
| + If it is installed in a nonstandard directory, pass the option |
| --with-libgmp-prefix to 'configure'. |
| |
| For module 'readline': |
| * GNU readline |
| + Recommended. |
| Needed for interactive editing of textual input. |
| + Homepage: |
| https://www.gnu.org/software/readline/ |
| + Download: |
| https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/readline/ |
| + Pre-built package name: |
| - On Debian and Debian-based systems: libreadline-dev, |
| - On Red Hat distributions: readline-devel. |
| - Other: https://repology.org/project/readline/versions |
| + If it is installed in a nonstandard directory, pass the option |
| --with-libreadline-prefix=DIR to 'configure'. |
| |
| For modules 'readutmp' and 'boot-time': |
| * systemd libraries |
| + Recommended if systemd >= 254 is present on the system. |
| Needed for fetching current status from systemd-logind instead of |
| from the file /var/run/utmp. |
| + Homepage: |
| https://systemd.io/ |
| + Pre-built package name: |
| - On Debian and Debian-based systems: libsystemd-dev, |
| - On Red Hat distributions: systemd-devel. |
| - Other: https://repology.org/project/systemd/versions |
| |
| For modules 'terminfo' and 'termcap': |
| * GNU ncurses (preferred) |
| or libtermcap (discouraged) or a curses library (legacy). |
| + Recommended. |
| Needed for fancy input/output in terminal emulators. |
| + Homepage: |
| https://www.gnu.org/software/ncurses/ |
| + Download: |
| https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/ncurses/ |
| + Pre-built package name: |
| - On Debian and Debian-based systems: libncurses-dev, |
| - On Red Hat distributions: ncurses-devel. |
| - Other: https://repology.org/project/ncurses/versions |
| + If it is installed in a nonstandard directory, pass the option |
| --with-libncurses-prefix=DIR or --with-libtermcap-prefix to 'configure'. |
| |
| For modules 'crypto/md5-buffer', 'crypto/sha*-buffer': |
| * OpenSSL. |
| + Optional. |
| Needed for optimized crypto hash sums. |
| + Homepage: |
| https://www.openssl.org/ |
| + Download: |
| https://www.openssl.org/source/ |
| + Pre-built package name: |
| - On Debian and Debian-based systems: libssl-dev, |
| - On Red Hat distributions: openssl-devel. |
| - Other: https://repology.org/project/openssl/versions |
| |
| Locales |
| ------- |
| |
| If your package includes the tests for the Gnulib modules that you imported, |
| you will want to maximize the test coverage of these tests, that is, to |
| minimize the number of tests that are skipped. To this effect, you need to |
| install a couple of locales, used by the tests. |
| |
| You can get a listing of the locales installed by default through |
| $ locale -a |
| (Note: On glibc systems, this command displays the encoding names in a |
| mutilated form, e.g. it transforms "en_US.UTF-8" to "en_US.utf8".) |
| |
| To install the needed locales on glibc systems: |
| |
| $ sudo localedef -i en_US -f UTF-8 en_US.UTF-8 |
| $ sudo localedef -i ar_SA -f ISO-8859-6 ar_SA.ISO-8859-6 |
| $ sudo localedef -i de_DE -f UTF-8 de_DE.UTF-8 |
| $ sudo localedef -i es_ES -f UTF-8 es_ES.UTF-8 |
| $ sudo localedef -i fa_IR -f UTF-8 fa_IR |
| $ sudo localedef -i fr_FR -f ISO-8859-1 fr_FR.ISO-8859-1 |
| $ sudo localedef -i fr_FR -f UTF-8 fr_FR.UTF-8 |
| $ sudo localedef -i ja_JP -f EUC-JP ja_JP.EUC-JP |
| $ sudo localedef -i tr_TR -f UTF-8 tr_TR.UTF-8 |
| $ sudo localedef -i zh_CN -f GB18030 zh_CN.GB18030 |
| $ sudo localedef -i zh_HK -f BIG5-HKSCS zh_HK.BIG5-HKSCS |
| |
| On Debian and Debian-based systems, if you want these locales to be |
| persistent across automatic system updates, the approach is different: |
| There, you need to enable the locales in the file /etc/locale.gen and |
| then run |
| $ sudo locale-gen |
| |
