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@@ -0,0 +1,90 @@ +This directory contains everything you should need to create a working +version of the Miranda system. Before compiling Miranda on a new host: + make cleanup +removes old object files and collects information about the current +platform in .host. + +Then + make +should recreate a working version of Miranda, in this directory. To try +it out say `./mira'. (See below for what to do if things go wrong.) +Before doing the `make' you might want to inspect the first few lines of +Makefile which sets the options to cc and a few other things that might +need adjusting. + +There is a selection of example Miranda scripts in the directory `ex'. +For stress testing the garbage collector try ./mira ex/parafs.m (say +output). Note that in a mira session /e opens the editor (default vi) +on the current script. + +Other makefile targets supported are (need to be executed as root):- + make install +copies the mira executables and associated files (miralib, mira.1) to +the appropriate places in the root filing system, so they can be +accessed by all users; and + make release +creates a gzipped tar image of the binaries suitable for installing +Miranda on other machines of the same object code type. To use the tar +image on another machine, be root, and say + cd / + tar xzpf [pathname] +where [pathname] is the gzipped tarfile. + +Before `make install' or `make release' you should inspect paths BIN, +LIB, MAN at the top of the Makefile and modify if needed, to put things +at the places in the root filing system where you want them to go. + +Be aware that the garbage collector works by scanning the C stack to +find anything that is or seems to be a pointer into the heap (see +bases() in data.c) and is therefore somewhat fragile as it can be foxed +by aggressive compiler optimisations. GC errors manifest as "impossible +event" messages, or segmentation faults. If these appear try +recompiling at a lower level of optimisation (e.g. without -O) or with +a different C compiler - e.g. clang instead of gcc or vice versa. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +What to do if things need changing +---------------------------------- + +It is possible that everything will work first time, just on saying +`make'. If however you are obliged to make changes for the new host +(the XYZ machine say) it best to proceed as follows. + +The second line of the Makefile defines some CFLAGS (used by cc) as +delivered most of these are commented out, leaving -O as the only flag. +Add a flag + -DXYZ +to the CFLAGS line. Then at each place in a source file where you have +to change something, do it in the following style + + #ifdef XYZ + your modified code + #else + the original code + #endif + +You will see that this method has been used to cater for certain machine +dependencies at a few places in the sources. Looking to see where this +has already been done is likely to give you an idea as to which lines +may need modifying for your machine. + +If you are running under System 5 UNIX you may include -DSYSTEM5 in the +CFLAGS line of the Makefile, as a couple of system 5 dependencies are +#ifdef'd in the sources (relate to signal(), unclear if they are still +needed). + +One other place where platform dependency is possible is in twidth() +near bottom of file steer.c, which uses an ioctl() call to find width of +current window. This feature isn't critical, however, just aesthetic. + +The sources have no documentation other than embedded comments: you have +to figure out how things work from these and the Makefile. + +Reports of problems encountered, changes needed, etc to mira-bugs (at) +miranda.org.uk + Thanks! + +David Turner +University of Kent +13.01.2020 |