DESTDIR and PREFIX of make
Solution 1
./configure --prefix=***
Number 1 determines where the package will go when it is installed, and where it will look for its associated files when it is run. It's what you should use if you're just compiling something for use on a single host.
make install DESTDIR=***
Number 2 is for installing to a temporary directory which is not where the package will be run from. For example this is used when building deb
packages. The person building the package doesn't actually install everything into its final place on his own system. He may have a different version installed already and not want to disturb it, or he may not even be root. So he uses
./configure --prefix=/usr
so the program will expect to be installed in /usr
when it runs, then
make install DESTDIR=debian/tmp
to actually create the directory structure.
make install prefix=***
Number 3 is going to install it to a different place but not create all the directories as DESTDIR=/foo/bar/baz
would. It's commonly used with GNU stow via
./configure --prefix=/usr/local && make && sudo make install prefix=/usr/local/stow/foo
, which would install binaries in /usr/local/stow/foo/bin
. By comparison,
make install DESTDIR=/usr/local/stow/foo
would install binaries in /usr/local/stow/foo/usr/local/bin
.
Solution 2
This can help illustrating the use of DESTDIR
and --prefix
(from here):
Multiple installs using --prefix and DESTDIR:
Sepcify a different --prefix location/option for each build - at configure time. For eg:
untar petsc tar ball ./configure --prefix=/opt/petsc/petsc-3.9.0-mpich --with-mpi-dir=/opt/mpich make make install DESTDIR=/tmp/petsc-pkg untar petsc tar ball ./configure --prefix=/opt/petsc/petsc-3.9.0-openmpi --with-mpi-dir=/opt/openmpi make make install DESTDIR=/tmp/petsc-pkg
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Sean
Updated on July 08, 2022Comments
-
Sean almost 2 years
I am trying to make software install to a specific directory. I found several ways, but not sure what are the differences between them.
./configure --prefix=***
make install DESTDIR=***
make install prefix=***
I am confused about the functions of these three. Do they achieve the same goal?
-
Ryan Pavlik over 11 yearsFor what it's worth, in a cmake-based build you can emulate "case 4" (for stow, etc) by running
cmake -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/foo/bar/baz -P cmake_install.cmake
in the build directory. -
thinkski over 9 years@JackKelly: Thanks! I've been using DESTDIR with GNU stow and have had to fix-up the directory structure with a
mv usr/local/* . && rmdir usr/local && rmdir usr
typically -- usingprefix=
is much better! -
timotheecour almost 6 yearsNote: some software doesn't support
DESTDIR=/tmp/foo make install
; for cmake based projects, I had more luck withcmake -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/tmp/test1 -P cmake_install.cmake
which installs to/tmp/foo/{bin,...}
; see github.com/opencv/opencv/issues/11833#issuecomment-401164056 for an example. -
Good Will over 5 yearsIn case the ./configure file is not provided, one can still install to user-specific directory using: make prefix=/path/to/your/lib/libaio install
-
albert about 5 yearsOne more note:
DESTDIR
andprefix
can be used onmake install
together, i.e.make install DESTDIR=/foo/bar/tmp perfix=/local
. -
Филя Усков almost 3 yearsSo if I run
./configure --prefix=path1
and thenmake install prefix=path2
,path2
overridespath1
, right? Is there any other differences betweenpath1
andpath2
?