Starting over

[Steve Comstock <st...@trainersfriend.com>]

Well, a disk failure has caused me to have to start
my port of Apache to z/OS over again.

Bit of a bummer, but also a chance to start over with
a clean slate.

Based on some of the suggestions and posts, I find I'm
bewildered a bit by the open source world.

For example, Greg Ames asked me: "Where did you
get your build tools, especially libtool?"

It never would have occurred to me to scuttle around
grabbing build tools. My experience is: you get an
application, whether for Windows or z/OS, and you
install it. Install shield, or its cousins, either
come with the package or the OS; in the z/OS world
you either simply unpack (RECEIVE) or you use SMP/E,
which is part of the OS.

So, help me out here. How would I find out the right
tools to grab to build Apache for my environment?
I'm trying to write a narrative, to direct those
who follow, in a linear (or relatively linear) or
rational (or relatively rational).

If I were rational, I guess I would start with
the Apache site: Apache.org, which has a link to
the httpd project (httpd.apache.org) which contains
the following interesting / promising links for
my efforts:

   Download
     ( http://httpd.apache.org/download.cgi )

   Documentation, Version 2.2
     ( http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/ )


The Download site tells me Apache 2.2.9	is the best
available option, and gives me two Unix sources,
three Windows sources, and an Others; none of these
mention z/OS, so I'll take the closest to this, which
is Unix; the first choice is a .gz file, the second
is a .bz2 file. Either way, I'll have to download a
file to unzip the tarball. I choose the .gz file
because the z/OS Ported Tools page has a port for gzip.

    You see, I can make some basic deductions and
    apply some reasonably knowledgable reasoning
    to select the files I need. But then...

No clues on the Download page about installing. So,
I roll over to the Documentation page, which has lots
of interesting links...

Under Reference Manual I see "Compiling and Installing"
hey, that looks like just the thing! Go there
   ( http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/install.html )

And I am told pretty clearly that I will need libtool
and autoconf. Now please remember I am a stranger in
a strange land. There is no definition nor link to any
place to get these tools. Where do I go? What do they
do, anyway? You could help the cause a lot by providing
this kind of information. I know that people who "know"
know. Reminds me of the ancient days of mainframes when
the systems people were kind of high priests and were
jealous of letting their knowldege be widely available.

Anyway, Google ends up pointing me back to the IBM
Ported Tools page, which contains a large tarball with
lots of tools, including libtool and autoconf. Of
course, I have no idea if these are "right" for Apache
2.2.9 on z/OS 1.9. But we'll give it a try.

OK, so I'm off. We'll send back dispatches from the
trenches.



Kind regards,

-Steve Comstock
The Trainer's Friend, Inc.

303-393-8716
http://www.trainersfriend.com

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     * Our classes include
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Starting over

[Greg Ames <gr...@gmail.com>]

On Thu, Jun 26, 2008 at 12:45 AM, William A. Rowe, Jr.
<wr...@rowe-clan.net> wrote:
> Steve Comstock wrote:
>>
>> And I am told pretty clearly that I will need libtool
>> and autoconf. Now please remember I am a stranger in
>> a strange land. There is no definition nor link to any
>> place to get these tools. Where do I go? What do they
>> do, anyway? You could help the cause a lot by providing
>> this kind of information. I know that people who "know"
>> know. Reminds me of the ancient days of mainframes when
>> the systems people were kind of high priests and were
>> jealous of letting their knowldege be widely available.
>
> Steve, you shouldn't need to reinstall libtool or autoconf,
> in fact as of 2.2.9 (and apr 1.3.2) these were bleeding edge.

Unfortunately GNU libtool is not capable of building httpd on z/OS.
We use a homegrown libtool which understands enough about z/OS and
httpd to get it to work.  fwiw, it also understands BeOS thanks to
David Reid.

> You only need such things if you were to run ./buildconf,
> which I don't suggest you do.

./buildconf is where libtoolize is done which is necessary.  I don't
*think* you need the rest of buildconf, but we always run buildconf so
that might be the path of least resistance.

Greg

Re: Starting over

["William A. Rowe, Jr." <wr...@rowe-clan.net>]

Steve Comstock wrote:
> 
> And I am told pretty clearly that I will need libtool
> and autoconf. Now please remember I am a stranger in
> a strange land. There is no definition nor link to any
> place to get these tools. Where do I go? What do they
> do, anyway? You could help the cause a lot by providing
> this kind of information. I know that people who "know"
> know. Reminds me of the ancient days of mainframes when
> the systems people were kind of high priests and were
> jealous of letting their knowldege be widely available.

Steve, you shouldn't need to reinstall libtool or autoconf,
in fact as of 2.2.9 (and apr 1.3.2) these were bleeding edge.

You only need such things if you were to run ./buildconf,
which I don't suggest you do.  I think Greg may have confused
you further.  We use these to create the tarball you obtained
so that you don't have to grab anything (except compiler, linker
etc etc).

Sorry bout your disk crash :(

Bill