source: chapter03/introduction.xml@ 81fd230

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<sect1 id="materials-introduction">
<title>Introduction</title>
<?dbhtml filename="introduction.html"?>

<para>This chapter includes a list of packages that need to be
downloaded for building a basic Linux system. The listed version numbers
correspond to versions of the software that are known to work, and
this book is based on their use. We highly recommend not using newer
versions because the build commands for one version may not work with
a newer version. The newest package versions may also have problems
that work-arounds have not been developed for yet.</para>

<para>All the URLs, when possible, refer to the package's information
page at <ulink url="http://www.freshmeat.net/"/>. The Freshmeat pages
provide easy access to official download sites, as well as project
websites, mailing lists, FAQ, changelogs, and more.</para>

<para>Download locations may not always be accessible. If a download
location has changed since this book was published, Google (<ulink
url="http://www.google.com"/>) provides a useful search engine for
most packages. If this search is unsuccessful, try one of the
alternate means of downloading discussed at <ulink
url="&lfs-root;lfs/packages.html"/>.</para>

<para>Downloaded packages and patches will need to be stored somewhere
that is conveniently available throughout the entire build. A working
directory is also required to unpack the sources and build them.
<filename class="directory">$LFS/sources</filename> can be used both
as the place to store the tarballs and patches and as a working
directory. By using this directory, the required elements will be
located on the LFS partition and will be available during all stages
of the building process.</para>

<para>To create this directory, execute, as user
<emphasis>root</emphasis>, the following command before starting the
download session:</para>

<screen><userinput>mkdir $LFS/sources</userinput></screen>

<para>Make this directory writable and sticky. <quote>Sticky</quote>
means that even if multiple users have write permission on a
directory, only the owner of a file can delete the file within a
sticky directory. The following command will enable the write and
sticky modes:</para>

<screen><userinput>chmod a+wt $LFS/sources</userinput></screen>

</sect1>