History: Setting Up An Application - Autotools - Linux

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{DIV(class="bigBold")}Setting Up An Application using GNU Autotools - Linux{DIV}{SPLIT}
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!Introduction
This set of instructions will walk you through setting up a C++ project from scratch using GNU Autotools.

When you have finished this tutorial you will be able to compile a working Ogre Application and you will be ready to start the ((Basic Tutorials)).

{maketoc}

!Prerequisites
You should have a working build environment set up ({MONO()}apt-get install build-essentials on Ubuntu{MONO})
Make sure that {MONO()}autoconf{MONO} + {MONO()}automake{MONO} + {MONO()}libtool{MONO} are installed.

!Ogre Wiki Tutorial Framework
Download the ((Ogre Wiki Tutorial Framework)) here:
{ATTACH(id="124", page="Ogre Wiki Tutorial Framework",icon="1")}{ATTACH}

And uncompress it into an empty directory. In the following sections, it is assumed that you are executing the instructions from within that directory.

!bootstrap
{CODE(wrap="1", colors="bash")}#!/bin/sh
 rm -rf autom4te.cache
 libtoolize --force --copy &&  aclocal &&  autoheader &&  automake --add-missing --force-missing --copy --foreign &&  autoconf{CODE}
Make this file (bootstrap) executable.


!configure.ac
{CODE(wrap="1", colors="make")}AC_INIT(configure.ac)
 AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE(SampleApp, 0.1)
 AM_CONFIG_HEADER(config.h)
 
 AC_LANG_CPLUSPLUS
 AC_PROG_CXX
 AM_PROG_LIBTOOL
 
 PKG_CHECK_MODULES(OGRE, [OGRE >= 1.2])
 AC_SUBST(OGRE_CFLAGS)
 AC_SUBST(OGRE_LIBS)
 
 PKG_CHECK_MODULES(OIS, [OIS >= 1.0])
 AC_SUBST(OIS_CFLAGS)
 AC_SUBST(OIS_LIBS)
 
 AC_CONFIG_FILES(Makefile)
 AC_OUTPUT{CODE}

!Makefile.am
{CODE(wrap="1", colors="make")}
noinst_HEADERS= BaseApplication.h TutorialApplication.h

bin_PROGRAMS= OgreApp
 OgreApp_CPPFLAGS= -I$(top_srcdir)
 OgreApp_SOURCES= BaseApplication.cpp TutorialApplication.cpp
 OgreApp_CXXFLAGS= $(OGRE_CFLAGS) $(OIS_CFLAGS)
 OgreApp_LDADD= $(OGRE_LIBS) $(OIS_LIBS)

 EXTRA_DIST = bootstrap
 AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS = foreign{CODE}

!The Autotools Dance
Run this in a console:
{CODE(wrap="1", colors="bash")}./bootstrap && ./configure && make{CODE}

You should have successfully built your Ogre application. :)


!Adding more OGRE libraries
Through out the tutorials you will have to add optional components to the configure.ac file like the OGRE Terrain component in ((Basic Tutorial 3|#http://www.ogre3d.org/tikiwiki/tiki-index.php?page_ref_id=258|Basic Tutorial 3)).

To do this you have first to discover the OGRE libraries available to you. To get that list execute the following command:

{CODE(wrap="1",colors="bash")}pkg-config --list-all | grep OGRE{CODE}

With OGRE 1.7.1 the following list should be displayed:

{CODE(wrap="1",colors="bash")}OGRE-Paging                   OGRE-Paging - General purpose paging component for OGRE
OGRE-PCZ                      OGRE-PCZ - Portal-Connected Zone Scene Manager for OGRE
OGRE-RTShaderSystem           OGRE-RTShaderSystem - Real time shader generation component for OGRE
OGRE                          OGRE - Object-Oriented Graphics Rendering Engine
OGRE-Property                 OGRE-Property - General purpose property component for OGRE
OGRE-Terrain                  OGRE-Terrain - Outdoor terrain component for OGRE{CODE}

To see the options available to you with pkg-config, run:

{CODE(wrap="1",colors="bash")}pkg-config --help{CODE}

An option of interest is {MONO()}--modversion{MONO} which allow to display the version of the package provided as parameter of the command.

To add the required package to your configure.ac, insert the package name followed by >= and the minimum version of that lib required by your application in the second parameter of PKG_CHECK_MODULES after the text {MONO()}OGRE >= 1.2{MONO} between the brackets.

With OGRE-Terrain the code for PKG_CHECK_MODULES will became:

{CODE(wrap="1",colors="make")}PKG_CHECK_MODULES(OGRE, [OGRE >= 1.2 OGRE-Terrain >= 1.7.1]){CODE}

The file Makefile.am doesn't need to be modified.

Alternatively, instead of concatenating all the OGRE related libraries into one call to PKG_CHECK_MODULES, you can create one instance of PKG_CHECK_MODULES for each library to include in the build process. Like it is done for OGRE and OIS in the configure.ac above.

Below is an example with OGRE-Terrain:

{CODE(wrap="1", colors="make")}AC_INIT(configure.ac)
 AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE(SampleApp, 0.1)
 AM_CONFIG_HEADER(config.h)
 
 AC_LANG_CPLUSPLUS
 AC_PROG_CXX
 AM_PROG_LIBTOOL
 
 PKG_CHECK_MODULES(OGRE, [OGRE >= 1.2])
 AC_SUBST(OGRE_CFLAGS)
 AC_SUBST(OGRE_LIBS)

 PKG_CHECK_MODULES(OGRE_TERRAIN, [OGRE-Terrain >= 1.2])
 AC_SUBST(OGRE_TERRAIN_CFLAGS)
 AC_SUBST(OGRE_TERRAIN_LIBS)
 
 PKG_CHECK_MODULES(OIS, [OIS >= 1.0])
 AC_SUBST(OIS_CFLAGS)
 AC_SUBST(OIS_LIBS)
 
 AC_CONFIG_FILES(Makefile)
 AC_OUTPUT{CODE}

In that case, you need to modify the Makefile.am accordingly. With the configure.ac above, the corresponding Makefile.am is:

{CODE(wrap="1", colors="make")}
noinst_HEADERS= BaseApplication.h TutorialApplication.h

bin_PROGRAMS= OgreApp
 OgreApp_CPPFLAGS= -I$(top_srcdir)
 OgreApp_SOURCES= BaseApplication.cpp TutorialApplication.cpp
 OgreApp_CXXFLAGS= $(OGRE_CFLAGS) $(OGRE_TERRAIN_CFLAGS) $(OIS_CFLAGS)
 OgreApp_LDADD= $(OGRE_LIBS) $(OGRE_TERRAIN_LIBS) $(OIS_LIBS)

 EXTRA_DIST = bootstrap
 AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS = foreign{CODE}

!Possible Improvements
Make a new build target which either copies the executable to a '''dist''' directory - see ((dflkjf)) - or a target which copies the Ogre configuration files (plugins.cfg and resources.cfg) from /usr/local/share/OGRE.

Another improvement would be to search the source code into a subdirectory called {MONO()}src/{MONO} and instruct the user to put the Tutorial Framework sources in that location.