[Gs-devel] Build question

[Ray Johnston]

Dear John,

The documentation on building Ghostscript is in doc/Make.htm. This
tells you about the 'DEVICE_DEVS' macros that specify the devices
that will be built in to Ghostscript. With the usual unix make files
such as unix-gcc.mak, unixansi.mak, and unixtrad.mak the x11 devices
are included and in fact, the x11 device is the default device.

It is rather rare to not have X support on unix, but all you have to
do to build gs without the x11 devices is to modify:

DEVICE_DEVS=$(DISPLAY_DEV) $(DD)x11.dev $(DD)x11alpha.dev $(DD)x11cmyk.dev \
  $(DD)x11gray2.dev $(DD)x11gray4.dev $(DD)x11mono.dev

to have whatever you want as the default device first on the list,
with whatever other devices you may want to add (that are not included
in the DEVICE_DEVS* definitions that follow). Note that you can have
a device listed on the DEVICE_DEVS= line that also exists on a later
DEVICE_DEVS*= line -- duplicates create no problem for the build.

For example:

DEVICE_DEVS=$(DD)pbm.dev

You (probably) also need to clear out the references to the XINCLUDE=
and XLIBDIRS= and XLIBS= macros so that references will not be
attempted to non-existent libaries during the compile and link steps.

As far as which mailing list, the bug-gs list usually gets more questions
of this ilk. The gs-devel list is usually used for exchanges among
experienced developers on design and implementation issues for new
ghostscript features and capabilities.

I wish you luck in your efforts.

Regards,
Ray Johnston
Artifex Software Inc.
======================================================================
John Rudd wrote:
> 
> So, I'm not sure if this is the right list, but there's nothing that
> clearly says "build/installation help" on the web page of ghostscript
> mailing lists ... so here I am.
> 
> Here's my situation: I'm building ghostscript on a unix system, but one
> that doesn't have X-11 installed, and to which I do not wish to install
> X-11. (I'm actually rather surprised that gs requires it, instead of having
> it built via a separate target than the default build)
> 
> So, what do I need to do to tell the makefile not to build with the X-11
> stuff?  Hopefully it's something reasonable like uncommenting one target or
> something ... but the basic install.htm doesn't make it clear what needs to
> be done.
> 
> (even the section on Nextstep/Openstep doesn't make it clear ... it seems
> to imply that you HAVE to have X11 installed, which is more than a little
> absurd)
> 
> Thanks
> 
> John