Install Guide

General steps to configure/compile/install Xastir

1. Install all prerequisites: System Requirements Xastir will not build, or will not have all its features, if these are missing!
2. Get the source code There are two basic ways to get the source code
   1. Clone the Xastir repository
      
      At this time, the Xastir project only has a single release packaged into tar files since our migration to Git as a version control system, and the best way to get the code is through a git clone from Github .

        git clone https://github.com/Xastir/Xastir.git
        cd Xastir
      

      If you're serious about using Xastir, this is how you want to get the source code, as it is easy to stay current during the long periods between official releases.
   2. Get a release tar file
      
      If you absolutely must use a release tarball instead of staying up-to-date with git, you can find them at the releases page. Real releases will always be tagged as "Xastir-Release-" followed by a version number. When you download one by clicking the link, you'll get a tar file called "Xastir-Release-X.Y.Z.tar.gz" where X.Y.Z is the version number.
      
      Unpack the tar file and cd into it:

         tar xzf Xastir-Release-X.Y.Z.tar.gz
         cd Xastir-Release-X.Y.Z
      

      Note: If instead of clicking the source code link you just copy the URL on the release tarball link and then use it as an argument to wget, curl, fetch, or some other program, you will get a file that lacks the "Xastir-" prefix.

      In addition to the prominently marked releases, there are a large number of additional tagged repository states that show up there --- these additional tags can be downloaded as tar or zip files, but they don't have all the files a real release has: if you unpack one you'll just be getting old code that still needs to be put through bootstrap as described below.

3. You are now in the top-level directory of the Xastir source tree.
   
   If you are building a release 2.1.8 or later, or if you got an older version from a git clone, you need one more step here before you run configure: "./bootstrap.sh". Note: bootstrap.sh requires that autoconf and automake packages have already been installed on your system. If you don't have these packages, bootstrap.sh will fail and configure will not be created. Don't bother proceeding if that happens --- install autoconf and automake and rerun bootstrap. If you got Xastir source code from a tarball, you're ready to go, as we have already run bootstrap.sh for you when we produced those tarballs.
   
   Create a build directory in which to compile, and do the build.
   
   

     mkdir -p build
     cd build
     ../configure
     make
     sudo make install (make install-strip can be used after the first time)
     sudo chmod 4555 /usr/local/bin/xastir (only if you use kernel ax.25, see below) 
    

4. Xastir should be installed in /usr/local/bin (the default on most systems). You can run it by typing this from a shell:
   
   

       xastir &