Need help compiling source code

[gduncan]

I'm not quite up to speed on the UNIX side of Mac OS X, but I'm trying to learn. Honestly, it often throws me for a loop! Here is my dilemma:

I'm trying to compile source code for programs that track earth-orbiting satellites. The software in question is Predict and gsat. Here is the link to the website where you can download the Predict/gsat packages and here is the link to the website that explains how to compile it for OS X.

When I try to execute the "./configure" command in the Terminal per the instructions I'm confronted with the following message:

Last login: Thu Feb 23 21:46:28 on ttyp3
Voyager:~ root# cd /users/gduncan/desktop/predict/
Voyager:/users/gduncan/desktop/predict root# ./configure
One moment please... ld: can't use -s with input files containg indirect symbols (output file must contain at least global symbols, for maximum stripping use -x)
Compilation failed. Are you sure you have a C compiler (gcc) installed?
Voyager:/users/gduncan/desktop/predict root#

I thought sure that I have a C compiler installed. I've certainly installed the Developer Tools.

Any ideas? Thanks...

[spb]

The command:

which gcc

should show you if gcc is in your path.

I'm doubtful that this is the problem...

It looks like there is a problem with the configure script and ld. The output says that there is a problem with the flag -s so maybe you can look at the configure script and see where the -s comes from and remove it. A better approach would be to see if you can pass to the configure script options -- for instance you might be able to pass LDFLAG

./configure LDFLAG=-x

What can and can't be passed to configure will be in the documentation. Is there a README file that tells you about configure?

[tomdkat]

Does OS X come with the GNU linker? Some open source apps assume use of GNU build tools and that can cause problems on systems that don't have GNU build tools involved.

Peace...

[gduncan]

Well, I must say thank you for all the advice. I've tried all the above suggestions, but nothing has worked so far.

I may end up re-formatting the hard drive and re-installing the system software. Perhaps I'll even run down to the Apple Store and buy 10.4 Tiger.

[macbri]

Hi -

Try removing the offending "-s" flag from the compile line in ./configure so the line now reads:

cc -Wall installer.c -lncurser -o installer

Admittedly I compiled this successfully without the change above on both 10.3.9 and 10.4.5 with no problems (a few warnings on the latter, but otherwise ok), but this might get you started.