Downloading and installing SPP is not always the easiest thing in the world to do. This is especially true if you don't know much about building and installing C libraries and Perl modules. I've tried to tailor this page towards people who don't normally install libraries and don't have root permission on their systems. Please let me know how I did. I don't want people not to use SPP because they couldn't install it!

First things first. The two most important things needed to install SPP is a Synopsys license and perl5.6.1 or later. You're on your own getting a Synopsys license, but to find out what version of Perl you have, type:

perl -v

If your version of Perl isn't up to snuff, please talk to your system administrator about upgrading. Otherwise, you can continue on.

SPP is what is called a CPAN Perl module. All CPAN modules are packaged, distibuted, downloaded and installed the same way. The only difference between a regular CPAN module and SPP is that SPP is not distributed on CPAN (a module with such a commercial slant doesn't seem appropriate for CPAN to me). SPP requires that four other CPAN modules also be installed. Additionally, one of those modules requires that the GNU Readline library be installed for it work. All told, SPP requires that you install 5 extra packages! This is unfortunate, but there's really nothing I can about it.

If you feel comfortable installing C libraries and CPAN Perl modules, you can safely skip all the instructions on this page. Just download all the modules I have listed, install, and that's it. However, if you want more detailed instructions for installing, read on.

General Install Steps

1. Install the five CPAN Perl modules.

2. If you got no errors, you're done!

3. If when building Term::ReadLine::Gnu, the following error occurred:

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Could not compile $frlver.

If you have installed the GNU Readline Library (libreadline.{a,so} and
readline/readline.h, etc.) on directories for which your perl is not
configured to search (refer the value of `ccflags' and `libpath' in
the output of `perl -V'), specify the paths as follows;

        perl Makefile.PL --includedir=/yourdir/include --libdir=/yourdir/lib
or
        perl Makefile.PL --prefix=/yourdir

Note that the GNU Readline Library version 2.0 and earlier causes error
here.  Update it to version 2.1 and/or later.

Read INSTALL for more details.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

you need to install the GNU Readline C library, or specify where the readline library is installed as instructed by the above message.

4. If something has gone wrong, please go over this checklist before sending me mail.

Installing the Five CPAN Perl Modules

gunzip <module-name>.tar.gz
tar xvf <module-name>.tar
cd <module-name>

perl Makefile.PL

perl Makefile.PL PREFIX=/path/to/local/install

perl Makefile.PL PREFIX=/path/to/local/install --prefix=/prefix/of/readline/library

make
make install

Installing the GNU Readline C Library

The GNU Readline library is a prerequisite of the Perl module Term::ReadLine::Gnu discussed below. SPP was developed with Readline 4.0, so use 4.0 or later, please don't even try to get it to work with versions before 4.0.

Now, run the following commands:

gunzip readline-4.0.tar.gz
tar xvf readline-4.0.tar
cd readline-4.0

If you're an HPUX user, you need to make the build process produce a relocatable object. If you run a csh or tcsh style shell do this:

setenv CC "gcc -fpic"

If you use an sh or zsh style shell, do this (again, only required for HPUX):

CC="gcc -fpic"
export CC

If you have root privileges on your system, and you want to install the libraries in the default location (/usr/local/lib and /usr/local/include) then you can just type the command:

./configure

If not, you can specify an alternate location to install the libraries with the --prefix switch like this:

./configure --prefix=/home/jsolomon

The example will install in /home/jsolomon/lib and /home/jsolomon/include. Hopefully, ./configure will finish without incident and create a Makefile in the current directory. Now just type:

make
make install

What If Something Goes Wrong?

uname -a
perl -V

What If Everything Goes OK?

If you get SPP up and running, I also want to hear from you. I'd like to start compiling a list of platforms where at least one site has gotten SPP to run. Send me a mail with the output of the two commands mentioned in the previos section and the version of GNU Readline you're using.

Finally, I want to know what you think of SPP in general. Any and all comments are welcome.