Building Tcl from Source

Compiling Tcl from the source distribution is a two-step process: configuration, which uses a configure script, then compiling, which is controlled by the make program. The configure script examines the current system and makes various settings that are used during compilation. When you run configure, you make some basic choices about how you will compile Tcl, such as whether you will compile with debugging systems, or whether you will turn on threading support. You also define the Tcl installation directory with configure. You use make to compile the source code, install the compiled application, run the test suite, and clean up after yourself.

The make facility is familiar to any Unix programmer. By using the freely ...

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