1 <html xmlns
="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
3 <meta name
="generator" content
="HTML Tidy for Linux (vers 25 March 2009), see www.w3.org" />
5 <title
>Window Maker
: Documentation
</title
>
6 <meta http
-equiv
="Content-Type" content
="text/html; charset=us-ascii" />
7 <link href
="title.css" rel
="stylesheet" type
="text/css" />
11 <?php
include("header.php"); ?
><?php
include("dock.php"); ?
>
14 <table width
="880" border
="0" cellpadding
="1" cellspacing
="1">
16 <td content
="content" colspan
="2" valign
="top">
20 <h1
>Installation Basics
</h1
>
22 <h2
>Downloading
and Extracting
</h2
>
24 <p
>The first necessary step is to
<span
class="newWikiWord"><a title
="Not found. Click to create this page." href
=
25 "/download.edit">download?
</a
></span
> the Window Maker source distribution
. From this point on
, we
'll assume it has
26 been retrieved and is residing on the local hard disk. The next step is to extract it, and change into the source
29 <code># cd /path/to/your/download
30 # gunzip WindowMaker-0.xx.xx.tar.gz
31 # tar -xf WindowMaker-0.xx.xx.tar
32 # cd WindowMaker-0.xx.xx
36 <p>Now that things are extracted, it's time to look at the relevant pieces of documentation
. Most UNIX oriented free
37 software packages come with a README file
, and Window Maker is no exception
. The README file contains a summary
38 overview of what the distribution is
, what the various directories contain
, and other general information
.</p
>
40 <p
>Next
, we have the ChangeLog which describes a
list of changes since the first version
. Although it usually lists
41 technical advancements about the distribution
, it is also useful
for finding out about bug fixes
and recently added
44 <p
>Moving along
, we have the NEWS file
. For now
, we just want to point out its existence
. It will become more useful to
45 novice users over time
. Veteran Window Maker users will find it handy
for keeping their configuration files up to date
,
46 and learning about various changes which affect Window Maker
's behavior.</p>
48 <p>The two remaining files we need to look at are INSTALL and BUGS. The INSTALL file provides additional information
49 that is necessary to install Window Maker successfully. The BUGS file contains a list of known Window Maker bugs. If a
50 user feels they've found a bug in Window Maker
, they should consult the BUGS file first
. If the bug isn
't listed,
51 proceed to the Bug Tracker and see if its there.</p>
55 <p>After extracting the latest version of Window Maker using the previous instructions, the next step is to compile it.
56 First of all, the configure script should be run. It will test to make sure all the necessary libraries, compilers and
57 build tools are available on the local system. The configure script allows for various arguments to be passed to it
58 which relate to Window Maker's installation
. For a complete
list of all configurable settings
, enter
:</p
>
60 <code
># ./configure -help
64 <p
>Three commonly used configuration options are
:</p
>
66 <code
>--prefix
=DIR
--enable
-kde
--enable
-gnome
70 <p
>The first configuration option lets Window Maker be installed into a non
-default installation
directory (e
.g
if
71 Window Maker cannot be installed system wide
for some reason
, a user can specify a path under his
/her home directory
).
72 The
default installation directory is
/usr
/local
/bin
for the wmaker binary
and /usr
/local
/GNUstep
/Apps
for the WPrefs
73 application (the WPrefs installation directory can be specified by using
--with
-appspath
=DIR
). Note that root access
74 will be needed later on during the installation process
if the defaults were used
. The second
and third configuration
75 options will enable Window Maker to fully cooperate with
<a href
="http://kde.org">KDE
</a
> and <a href
=
76 "http://gnome.org">GNOME
</a
> respectively
.</p
>
78 <p
>So
if a user johndoe would like to install the wmaker binary into
/home
/johndoe
/wmaker
/bin instead of the
default
79 /usr
/local
/bin
, and if he wishes to
use Window Maker in cooperation with KDE
, the following arguments would be passed
80 to the configure script
:</p
>
82 <code
> # ./configure --prefix=/home/johndoe/wmaker --enable-kde
86 <p
>After the configure script has been successfully executed
, Window Maker can now be compiled with the make command
;
93 <p
>Now is a good time to get a drink
while the compilation takes place
. Providing the compilation goes well
, the
final
94 step is to install the binaries
and other support files
. This is accomplished by entering
: # make install</p>
96 <p
>Note that this is the step that needs to be performed by root
if the
default installation directory was used
, or if
97 a directory was specified that the running user cannot write to
. If the installing user has root access
, they should
98 first become root by issuing
<code
>su
- root
</code
>. Otherwise
, reconfigure
and recompile Window Maker by specifying a
99 different installation directory
, or kindly ask the local system administator to install it system wide
.</p
>
101 <p
>Once Window Maker is installed system
-wide
, a
default configuration can be installed on a per
-user basis
, through
102 the bundled installation script
, <code
>wmaker
.inst
</code
>. Enter
<code
>wmaker
.inst
</code
> in a terminal emulator to
103 configure Window Maker
for your user
.</p
>
105 <p
>This script copies the
default Window Maker configuration to your user
's home directory and sets Window Maker as the
106 default window manager. It is recommended to create ~/GNUstep before executing the script.</p>