Building ghostscript Under MkLinux

This document describes how to build ghostscript under MkLinux.

Obtaining the Distribution

I obtained the ghostscript 4.0 distribution from ftp.cs.wisc.edu, in the ghost/aladdin directory. I also obtained the standard fonts distribution (from the same directory), and the JPEG source distribution (from the ghost directory).

Running gunzip and un-tar-ing the ghostscript distribution yields a gs4.0 directory. The ghostscript makefiles expect to find the JPEG source in a jpeg-6a subdirectory inside the ghostscript directory. Thus, gunzip the JPEG distribution and un-tar it into the ghostscript directory, or un-tar the JPEG distribution into some other location and change JPEGSRC to reflect that location later on when you configure the makefile for ghostscript.

Setting Up the makefile

I compiled ghostscript using gcc 2.7.2 in ANSI mode; the correct makefile for this is unix-gcc.mak. I made a backup of this file and then created makefile as a symlink to it:

    % cp unix-gcc.mak unix-gcc.mak.bak
    % ln -s unix-gcc.mak makefile        (Note: makefile, not Makefile)

This allows you to make changes to the makefile but still recover (from the backup) if you make a mistake.

The changes I made to the makefile are available as a diff listing, and are described below:

• Specify the JPEG source directory. If you unpack the JPEG distribution into the ghostscript main directory, you shouldn't need to change this. I put my distribution at the same level as the ghostscript directory, so I changed this:

      JSRCDIR=jpeg-6a
  

  To this:

      JSRCDIR=../jpeg-6a
  

• Specify the device drivers you want to compile into the ghostscript binary. The default seems to be to compile every driver in sight. I was interested only in X11 and DeskWriter (DeskJet) support, so I commented out most of the DEVICE_DEVS* variable settings. To do the same, change this:

      DEVICE_DEVS=x11.dev x11alpha.dev x11cmyk.dev x11mono.dev
      DEVICE_DEVS3=deskjet.dev djet500.dev laserjet.dev ljetplus.dev ljet2p.dev ljet3.dev ljet4.dev
      DEVICE_DEVS4=cdeskjet.dev cdjcolor.dev cdjmono.dev cdj550.dev pj.dev pjxl.dev pjxl300.dev
      DEVICE_DEVS6=bj10e.dev bj200.dev bjc600.dev bjc800.dev
      DEVICE_DEVS7=faxg3.dev faxg32d.dev faxg4.dev
      DEVICE_DEVS8=pcxmono.dev pcxgray.dev pcx16.dev pcx256.dev pcx24b.dev
      DEVICE_DEVS9=pbm.dev pbmraw.dev pgm.dev pgmraw.dev pgnm.dev pgnmraw.dev pnm.dev pnmraw.dev ppm.dev ppmraw.dev
      DEVICE_DEVS10=tiffcrle.dev tiffg3.dev tiffg32d.dev tiffg4.dev tifflzw.dev tiffpack.dev
      DEVICE_DEVS11=tiff12nc.dev tiff24nc.dev
      DEVICE_DEVS12=psmono.dev bit.dev bitrgb.dev bitcmyk.dev
      DEVICE_DEVS13=pngmono.dev pnggray.dev png16.dev png256.dev png16m.dev
      DEVICE_DEVS15=pdfwrite.dev
  

  To this:

      DEVICE_DEVS=x11.dev x11alpha.dev x11cmyk.dev x11mono.dev
      DEVICE_DEVS3=deskjet.dev djet500.dev laserjet.dev ljetplus.dev ljet2p.dev ljet3.dev ljet4.dev
      DEVICE_DEVS4=cdeskjet.dev cdjcolor.dev cdjmono.dev cdj550.dev pj.dev pjxl.dev pjxl300.dev
      #DEVICE_DEVS6=bj10e.dev bj200.dev bjc600.dev bjc800.dev
      #DEVICE_DEVS7=faxg3.dev faxg32d.dev faxg4.dev
      #DEVICE_DEVS8=pcxmono.dev pcxgray.dev pcx16.dev pcx256.dev pcx24b.dev
      #DEVICE_DEVS9=pbm.dev pbmraw.dev pgm.dev pgmraw.dev pgnm.dev pgnmraw.dev pnm.dev pnmraw.dev ppm.dev ppmraw.dev
      #DEVICE_DEVS10=tiffcrle.dev tiffg3.dev tiffg32d.dev tiffg4.dev tifflzw.dev tiffpack.dev
      #DEVICE_DEVS11=tiff12nc.dev tiff24nc.dev
      #DEVICE_DEVS12=psmono.dev bit.dev bitrgb.dev bitcmyk.dev
      #DEVICE_DEVS13=pngmono.dev pnggray.dev png16.dev png256.dev png16m.dev
      #DEVICE_DEVS15=pdfwrite.dev
  

• Specify the X11 libraries (if you want X11 support). The makefile originally specifies just Xt, Xext, and X11. However, this results in lots of link time errors. Change this:

      XLIBS=Xt Xext X11
  

  To this:

      XLIBS=Xt SM ICE Xext X11
  

• Specify the location of the X11 libraries (if you want X11 support). They should be located under /usr/X11R6/lib, so change this:

      XLIBDIRS=-L/usr/X11/lib
  

  To this:

      XLIBDIRS=-L/usr/X11R6/lib
  

• The version of gcc supplied with MkLinux currently is 2.7.2, which, as the make.txt file notes, has an optimizer bug that causes bad code to be generated. To work around this, add -Dconst= to CFLAGS. Change this:

      CFLAGS=-O $(GCFLAGS) $(XCFLAGS)
  

  To this:

      CFLAGS=-O $(GCFLAGS) $(XCFLAGS) -Dconst=
  

Build and Install the Distribution

After you've configured the makefile, type make and wait for the build to finish. When it's done, assuming the build succeeds, type make install. At this point you can test the gs interpreter, e.g., with gs tiger.ps to draw the tiger picture in an X window. Anything that requires fonts will still fail, so you need to install the font files from the font distribution. The Fontmap file is installed in the /usr/local/share/ghostscript/4.0 directory, and the fonts can be put there, too.