On Sat, 9 Feb 2002 tgphelps / iglou.com wrote:

> I want to understand the Ruby build process in particular, and the
> general open-source build process in general. From what I see, most open
> source products use the same configure/make/make test/make install
> procedure. Can someone please tell me, or simply point me to docs about,
> how this works? For instance,
>

(See below)

> Is the configure script fairly constant across all products? Is it
> maintained by someone? Is there documentation on it?

It can be consistent, thanks to the gnu auto* tools.  See
http://sources.redhat.com/autobook/ for more information.

>
> Are the make files standardized? Is there a general model for what a
> makefile should look like?
>
> Are there (pseudo-)standards about how products install to minimize
> stepping on other products and causing trouble.
>
> I realize that this isn't really a Ruby question, but the answer to my
> question is applicable to my study of Ruby.
>

The ruby build system follows this model, ruby modules seem not too.
Perl doesn't follow this model, YMMV with other packages.

-pate


>