Re: UNIX newbie question

[guertinp@IRO.UMontreal.CA (Paul Guertin)]

In article <3289hf$1jh@crl3.crl.com> joko@crl.com (Joe Kohn) writes:
>
>Try a 'nice make'. If that fails, look for a README or INSTALL file and
>follow the instructions there.   If that fails, the program may need some
>porting work (SunOS, the Unix we're running, is pretty standard, so this
>should not be a problem)."
>
>A couple of questions...
>
>1) Is that really all it takes to compile a program?

Yes, if the program is accompanied by a Makefile. A Makefile is a
recipe for compiling a program under several systems. The 'make' utility
(which you're invoking with 'nice make', see below) reads that file
and follows the directions.

>2) If I can successfully compile the jpeg to gif converter, how do I run
>   it?

By typing its name, maybe followed by arguments such as file names.
Read the README file to learn the exact syntax.

>3) What on earth is a "nice make"?

It's two commands, actually: 'nice' and 'make'. Make is the program
that will construct an executable from the sources, and nice is a
command that gives a lower scheduling priority to your make, which
means the make will take a little longer to run, but will not
disturb other interactive processes. Try "man make" and "man nice" 
to learn all the nitty-gritty.

Paul Guertin
guertinp@iro.umontreal.ca