[vtkusers] Compiling VTK on LINUX

[Obada Mahdi]

Hi Kalpana!

On Fri, 6 Apr 2007, Kalpana Kanthasamy wrote:
> a) I unzipped the VTK file into directory named VTK, the files are there
> b) I unzipped the Cmake file into directory named cmakelinux, the folders
> that exist are "bin", 'doc", "man" and "share"

This sounds like that "Cmake file" you got your hands on contains a
binary distribution of CMake, whereas that article

> c) I found this article to install
[...]

describing how to install CMake using steps involving an optional
bootstrap process and "make"/"make install" are meant for building CMake
from source code.  If that is what you want to do, you need to grab the
archive tagged "Unix Linefeed Source" from

http://www.cmake.org/HTML/Download.html

and follow the instructions in the article.  However, unless there turns
out to be a problem with the binary distribution, it should be worth
trying to use the CMake executable that you already unpacked in
"cmakelinux/bin":

> and when I used the (b) version "-bash: cmake: command not found" - I have
> tried running it from cmakelinux/bin and cmakelinux, and some errors said
> that the makefile file cant be found, where can I get this.

What exact error message did you get trying to run "cmake" from
"cmakelinux/bin"?  For installing VTK, just unpacking the binary tarball
should be enough, CMake should just work "out of the box".  If you like,
you can then extend the "PATH" settings like you described

> I have set the path using this command, "export
> PATH=/path/to/cmakelinux/bin:$PATH".

and then enter your VTK build directory and start building VTK.  For
example, having unpacked the sources into "/tmp/VTK", just create and
enter an empty build directory "/tmp/VTK-build" and run "ccmake ../VTK"
from there.

If there are any more problems or questions, don't hesitate to ask :-)


HTH,

Obada