http://invisible-island.net/lynx/
Copyright © 1997-2014,2015 by Thomas E. Dickey

Synopsis

In 1997 (shortly after Lynx 2.6 was announced), I became involved with Lynx development. Although Lynx ran on many platforms, its Unix build configuration needed improvement. This project arose out of tracking issues on the lynx-dev mailing list.

Plans/Progress

At the start, Lynx used a makefile with a separate rule for every combination of platform and library (curses, ncurses, slang). It was unmaintainable. Here is a small slice listing some of the targets:

all:
        @echo
        @echo "Please run make with one of the following arguments"
        @echo "aix4       -- for RS/6000 running AIX 4.n and some 3.2"
        @echo "aix32      -- for RS/6000 running AIX 3.2"
        @echo "aix31      -- for RS/6000 running AIX 3.1 with curses bug"
        @echo "apollo     -- apollo systems (untested)"
        @echo "bsdi       -- BSD Interactive"
        @echo "bsdi-ncurses -- BSD/OS(v2.0 or later) using ncurses(v1.9.4 or later) package."
        @echo "clix       -- for Intergraph CLIX"
        @echo "convex     -- for Convex C-series"
        @echo "convex-ncurses -- for Convex C-series with ncurses package"

and an example of one of the 58 targets:

convex-ncurses:
        cd WWW/Library/convex; $(MAKE) LYFLAGS="$(SITE_LYDEFS)"
        cd src; $(MAKE) all CC="cc" MCFLAGS="-O \
                -I/usr/local/include \
                -DNCURSES -DFANCY_CURSES \
                -D__STDC__ \
                -DNO_PUTENV -DNO_CBREAK -DNO_KEYPAD -DUSE_DIRENT -DUNIX \
                -DSTDC_HEADERS -I../$(WWWINC) $(SITE_DEFS)" \
                LIBS="-L/usr/local/lib -lncurses -ltermcap \
                $(WAISLIB) $(SOCKSLIB) $(SITE_LIBS)" \
                WWWLIB="../WWW/Library/convex/libwww.a"

I worked with Jim Spath on this. As of Lynx 2.8, it was mostly complete.

This was my plan. It took more than one step, so I applied intermediate versions into the developmental sources, both to get feedback, as well as to simplify synchronization.

• Convert preprocessor symbols into form consistent with autoconf.
• Generate config.h, included in all files.
• Replace the top-level Makefile by generating makefile from makefile.in with an auto-configure script.
• Implement configuration script tests to consolidate the variations within each hardware platform.
• Combine/eliminate platform-specific directories under WWW.
• Reduce the top-level makefile to a single target (i.e., lynx). (At this point, the top-level Makefile can be deleted, as well as some of the scaffolding for config.h).
• Generate makefiles for subdirectories, simplifying the lynx target.
• Implement configuration script tests to eliminate most Unix #ifdef's. (Not all #ifdef's are driven from the top-level Makefile).
• Add options to the configure script to support common user options (such as whether DirEd is built).

Related links

• Current development versions of Lynx
• Jim Spath's working stuff
• Analyzing problems with configure scripts
• my autoconf macros are maintained separately from the programs in which they are used.

Feedback

If you have built Lynx on an obscure platform, or have other contributions, we are interested in hearing from you. Comments can be directed to the Lynx Developers List at lynx-dev@nongnu.org.