Installing Bluefish - Install from Source Code

By installing Bluefish from source, you may be able to get a newer version (from SVN) than those distributed as binaries. You may also need to compile from source if no binary is available for your system.

4.1. Quick Installation Overview

This is the short installation description. Consult the other chapters, e.g. Installing Bluefish from Source if you are in doubt.

Bluefish is installed using the standard 'configure, make, make install' steps. Assuming you have downloaded a bluefish source package, for instance bluefish-ver.tar.gz (naturally, change the filename to what's appropriate), you complete the installation with the following steps:

1. tar -zxvf bluefish-ver.tar.gz
2. cd bluefish-ver
3. ./configure (see “Configure Options”)
4. make
5. su -c 'make install'
6. Now, type bluefish to run. You may delete the bluefish-ver directory.

The configure script is used to automatically find the appropriate settings for your system. Because of differences between systems, this compile-time configuration is necessary, and configure solves this challenge easily -- with an added bonus of telling whether you have everything needed to compile.

The configure-script can be configured. This is something you most likely will not need to do, but it is easy to do if necessary. For a complete list of configure options, see Section 5, “Configure Options”

4.2. Installing from Development Source Tree

You can get the latest Bluefish version via SVN using the instructions in Section 4, “Latest Developmental Version”:

cd TheChosenDirectory
svn checkout https://svn.code.sf.net/p/bluefish/code/trunk bluefish-code

Next, install it with the following steps:

1. Enter the directory containing the bluefish source files:
   cd TheChosenDirectory/bluefish-code
2. Next, generate the configure script by running
   ./autogen.sh
3. Then, you run
   ./configure with whatever options you might want (see Section 5, “Configure Options”).
   This example will cause make install to install Bluefish with the specified directory as prefix (i.e. the binary is installed in /usr/bin/bluefish-unstable):./configure --prefix=/usr
   By default, `make install' will install all the files in `/usr/local/bin', `/usr/local/lib' etc.
   Run `./configure -h' to list available options.
   If configure fails, it will probably give a hint telling you what is missing or wrong.
4. Assuming it completed successfully, your next step is to compile Bluefish. To do this, run make.
5. When make has completed, you can install Bluefish: (su to root first, unless you specified a user writable prefix to configure), then issue: # make install.
6. Now, type bluefish-unstable to run.

To update the sources at a later time:

1. Enter the directory containing the bluefish source files: cd TheChosenDirectory/bluefish-code
2. svn update
3. and then run ./configure, make and # make install.

4.3. Problems Compiling?

If compilation fails, first make sure you have the necessary utilities and libraries. See Section 1, “Requirements”.

Next, see if your system is mentioned in Section 3, “System Specific Installation Issues”.

Below is a list of well known problems that have been mentioned on the bluefish-dev list:

• make: *** No targets specified and no makefile found. Stop.
  This will happen if configure fails and you try to run make. It also happens if you're running make from the wrong directory.
• ... more trouble to come ;-)

If you're unable to find a solution (or if you think you have a solution others might want), feel free to contact us on the bluefish-dev list (See Section 2.4, “Contact Us”). You may want to contact the bluefish package maintainer for your distribution first when appropriate.