Basic Installation
==================
-The Mono project has developed mono, an x86-specific CL JIT compiler and
-mint, a portable CLI interpreter. The build process of each of these
-depends on nothing more than a C compiler, glib2 and libgc.
+The Mono project has developed mono, a CLI runtime. The build process
+of each of these depends on nothing more than a C compiler and glib2.
However, to provide a working runtime environment, these programs must
-be supplemented by corlib, a CLR assembly to which they are closely
-tied. This package provides the C# sources for corlib as well as some
-additional assemblies and mcs, the Mono C# compiler.
+be supplemented by the class libraries, which are written in C#. This
+package contains the components written in C#: class libraries,
+compilers and tools.
-To build this package, you must already have a C# compiler installed.
-Build instructions for *NIX and Microsoft Windows follow.
+Build Process for Users.
+========================
-Building mcs
-============
+If you only want to build a snapshot or a fresh CVS checkout of the
+sources, you should go into the `mono' sibling directory and issue the
+following command:
-These instructions apply to both Unix and Windows. You need GNU make
-to build the software (on Windows, you will need for example the
-Cygwin environment setup)
+ ./autogen --prefix=/usr/local
+ make fullbuild
+
+That will build and install the code in a single pass. The
+compilation is bundled with the build due to depedencies on the class
+libraries on the runtime.
+
+Build Features for Developers.
+==============================
+
+These instructions apply to both Linux and Windows. To build this
+package, you must already have a C# compiler installed. This means
+that to build on Linux, you need to get a distribution of the MCS
+binaries; these are called monocharges. See README.building for
+information on where to get them. On Windows, you can just use the
+Microsoft compiler. You also need GNU make to build the software (on
+Windows, you will need for example the Cygwin environment setup).
To build the compiler and class libraries, run:
make install
-The default is /usr/local, to change this configuration option type:
+The default prefix is /usr/local. To change this configuration option type:
+
+ echo prefix=/your-prefix >> build/config.make
- echo prefix=/your-prefix > build/config.make
+If you get "corlib out of sync" errors, try
+
+ make PROFILE="atomic"
+
+The difference between the two modes is explained farther down.
+
+Monocharges
+===========
If you are tracking Mono's development, you may sometimes need to share
the compiled libraries with others, you can do:
make monocharge
-Or a light version:
+Or a light version, which contains only the essential libraries and
+results in a much smaller file:
make monocharge-lite
-
Configuration
--------------
+=============
If you want to change the configuration options for the build process,
place your configuration options in build/config.make
-A list of variables that control the build are listed in the
-build/config-default.make
+A list of variables that control the build are listed in the file
+build/config-default.make.
-The Build System
-----------------
+Build profiles? What?
+======================
+
+Don't worry about them too much. If you're wondering which to use:
+use the default if you can (that's why it's the default!) and use
+the atomic if you have to.
+
+The default profile uses the C# compiler and class libaries as they
+are built. This lets you build MCS without needing to have already
+installed it, but can fail if the libraries change significantly.
+(This is the source of the dreaded "corlib out of sync" warning, most
+of the time.)
+
+The atomic profile tries to use the system compiler and preexisting
+MCS libraries. New libaries are built against this constant reference
+point, so if a newly built library has a binary incompatibility, the
+rest of your build can proceed.
+
+If you want to always use the atomic profile, run this command:
+
+ echo PROFILE=atomic >> build/config.make
+
+More About the Build System
+===========================
+
+More information is found in build/README.*. Here's a quick rundown
+of the features:
* Unified build system for Windows and Linux. Windows is still
fairly untested, but "should work." Unfortunately I don't
targets. They're made possible because 'make install' now
supports DESTDIR a la automake, which I'm sure someone cares
about.
-
projects / mono.git / blobdiff