Install GD Library on RedHat machine for twiki

Question

My ultimate goal is to run a twiki website for my research group.

I have space on RedHat server that is running Apache, etc., but upon which I do not have root access. Since I cannot install perl modules with the current permissions, I've decided to manually install a local version of perl. Got that working no problem. The following modules are required to get twiki to work:

• FreezeThaw - http://search.cpan.org/~ilyaz/FreezeThaw
• CGI::Session - http://search.cpan.org/~markstos/CGI-Session
• Error - http://search.cpan.org/~shlomif/Error
• GD - http://search.cpan.org/~lds/GD
• HTML::Tree - http://search.cpan.org/~petek/HTML-Tree
• Time-modules - http://search.cpan.org/~muir/Time-modules

I have installed FreezeThaw, CGI, Error, and it fails on GD with the following error:

UNRECOVERABLE ERROR Could not find gdlib-config in the search path.

Please install libgd 2.0.28 or higher. If you want to try to

compile anyway, please rerun this script with the option --ignore_missing_gd.

In searching for how to get around this newest obstacle, I found a previous SO question: How to install GD library with Strawberry Perl asked about installing this and the top answer suggested manually compiling gdlib. You'll note, however, that that link is broken. The base site: http://www.libgd.org/ is basically down saying to go to the project's bitbucket page.

So I got the tarball from that page and am trying to install it. The following problems occur when I follow the instructions included. README.TXT says: "If the sources have been fetched from CVS, run bootstrap.sh [options]."

Running bootstrap.sh yields:

configure.ac:64: warning: macro `AM_ICONV' not found in library

configure.ac:10: required directory ./config does not exist cp: cannot

create regular file `config/config.guess': No such file or directory

configure.ac:11: installing `config/config.guess' configure.ac:11:

error while copying cp: cannot create regular file

`config/config.sub': No such file or directory configure.ac:11:

installing `config/config.sub' configure.ac:11: error while

copying cp: cannot create regular file `config/install-sh': No such

file or directory configure.ac:28: installing `config/install-sh'

configure.ac:28: error while copying cp: cannot create regular

file `config/missing': No such file or directory configure.ac:28:

installing `config/missing' configure.ac:28: error while copying

configure.ac:577: required file `config/Makefile.in' not found

configure.ac:577: required file `config/gdlib-config.in' not found

configure.ac:577: required file `test/Makefile.in' not found

Makefile.am:14: Libtool library used but `LIBTOOL' is undefined

Makefile.am:14: The usual way to define `LIBTOOL' is to add

AC_PROG_LIBTOOL' Makefile.am:14: to configure.ac' and run

aclocal' and autoconf' again. Makefile.am:14: If `AC_PROG_LIBTOOL'

is in `configure.ac', make sure Makefile.am:14: its definition is in

aclocal's search path. cp: cannot create regular file

`config/depcomp': No such file or directory Makefile.am: installing

`config/depcomp' Makefile.am: error while copying Failed

And it says I should also install the following 3rd party libraries:

1. zlib, available from http://www.gzip.org/zlib/ Data compression library

2. libpng, available from http://www.libpng.org/pub/png/ Portable Network Graphics library; requires zlib

3. FreeType 2.x, available from http://www.freetype.org/ Free, high-quality, and portable font engine

4. JPEG library, available from http://www.ijg.org/ Portable JPEG compression/decompression library

5. XPM, available from http://koala.ilog.fr/lehors/xpm.html X Pixmap library

Which I am ignoring for now.

Switching to the generic instructions it says follow the advice in the INSTALL file; which says: "cd to the directory containing the package's source code and type ./configure to configure the package for your system." Which flat does not work: I've cd'ed into every directory of the tarball and running that command does nothing.

So, trying to install twiki required me to install perl, which required me to install the perl modules: FreezeThaw, CGI, Error, HTML, Time-modules, and GD -- which itself required me to install gdlib -- which further suggested I install zlib, libpng, FreeType 2.x, JPEG library, and XPM. And of course, I'm stuck at the installing gdlib stage.

My question is: what other process can possibly demean humanity to such a level? I cannot fathom the depths of cruelty that lay ahead of me as I dive ever deeper into this misery onion. Should I just end it all? Can meaning be brought from this madness? Will the sun come up tomorrow, and if so, does it even matter?

But seriously, any suggestions on what to do differently/better would be much appreciated -- I can't remember what a child's laughter sounds like anymore.

Answer 1

Install the package gd-devel, it contains /usr/bin/gdlib-config.