source: chapter06/flex-inst.xml@ 65e5785

<sect2><title>&nbsp;</title><para>&nbsp;</para></sect2>

<sect2>
<title>Installation of Flex</title>

<para>Prepare Flex for compilation:</para>

<screen><userinput>./configure --prefix=/usr</userinput></screen>

<para>Compile the package:</para>

<screen><userinput>make</userinput></screen>

<para>This package has a test suite available which can perform a number of
checks to ensure it built correctly.  Should you choose to run it, the 
following command will do so:</para>

<screen><userinput>make bigcheck</userinput></screen>

<para>And install the package:</para>

<screen><userinput>make install</userinput></screen>

<para>There are some packages that expect to find the Lex library in
<filename>/usr/lib</filename>. Create a symlink to account for this:</para>

<screen><userinput>ln -s libfl.a /usr/lib/libl.a</userinput></screen>

<para>A few programs don't know about <userinput>flex</userinput> yet and try
to run its predecessor <userinput>lex</userinput>. To support those programs,
create a shell script named <filename>lex</filename> that calls
<userinput>flex</userinput> in Lex emulation mode:</para>

<screen><userinput>cat &gt; /usr/bin/lex &lt;&lt; "EOF"</userinput>
#!/bin/sh
# Begin /usr/bin/lex

exec /usr/bin/flex -l "$@"

# End /usr/bin/lex
<userinput>EOF
chmod 755 /usr/bin/lex</userinput></screen>

</sect2>