Re: getfem compilation problems on mac os catalina

[edgar]

On 2021-05-06 20:42, Esin B Sozer wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I have been trying to compile getfem 5.4.1 for a week now and I am out 
> of
> ideas what to do,
>
> --- 8< ---- (snip)

Disclaimer 1: I am a user who never managed to run the test cases.
Disclaimer 2: I use GNU/Linux, and I cannot recommend using any OS from 
Macintosh (Apple). Get GNU/Linux, it's free!

TL;DR (too long; didn't read): Look for "3.21 Environment Variables 
Affecting GCC"

Any command that you type in your terminal will be found depending on 
your PATH variable. There are different variables in your terminal which 
help the compiler find the right programs to run. I would recommend you 
to start reading upon those variables. If you are going to be using 
GetFEM or any other library, you'll benefit from it. Use Qwant, 
DuckDuckGo, Startpage or any other search engine to look for "3.21 
Environment Variables Affecting GCC".

Your `--prefix' argument will affect where GetFEM will be installed, not 
how gcc is found. When you execute `./configure', you are asking your 
computer to run the `configure' program in the current directory (`./'). 
If the computer finds a file which is executable (does not need to be a 
binary file, it can be a script) with that name in the specified 
directory, it will try to run it. By doing that, `configure' will take 
the default values for all variables and will try to find the needed 
tools and libraries so that you can later run `make' (note the lack of 
`./'). It is then when GetFEM gets compiled--if your command line 
interpreter is able to find `make', that is (the PATH variable will help 
with that).

Right now, your `configure' cannot find anything, by the looks of it. 
Read about the variables, and then run `./configure --help'. It will 
show you the variables that you can customize to build GetFEM. To set 
your prefix, for example, you can do `configure --prefix=_something_'. 
If you need to set a variable (they are usually in uppercase), you can 
do something like `LANG=en ./configure --prefix=/get/linux'. This would 
tell `configure' to set the variable `LANG' to `en' and use `/get/linux' 
as the path where you intend to install the program.

Good luck!