Re: [igraph] Getting the latest development version of igraph

[Tamas Nepusz]

Hi,

> I installed autoconf, automake, and libtool.  Hopefully that is all 
> Iwill need.
You'll also need libxml2-dev if you want to use the GraphML import
functionality - but igraph is able to compile with this feature disabled.

> I previously installed igraph-0.4.4 on this system.  I haven't 
> runthese programs yet:
> 
> ./bootstrap.sh
> ./configure
> make
> make install
> 
> - should I be root (sudo) to run these programs?
You only need root access to run make install if you install igraph into a
directory that's writable only by the root user (such as /usr/include/igraph).

> - will there be a conflict between the two versions?
I don't think so as long as they are in different directories. But if you
compile a C program that's linked to the development version of igraph, you
must make sure that the development library is loaded when executing the
program. (The easiest way to achieve this is using the LD_PRELOAD or
LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variables. Another easy way is to link igraph
statically when compiling your own program). Note that this applies only to
the C core - I don't know how the R interface chooses the igraph version,
maybe it's also linked statically. Gabor will surely tell you more about that
if you need it.

> willthere be a way to discriminate between the two versions on my 
> system?  What would you advise in this case?
I'd suggest you to install the development version into a different directory.
Simply typing ./configure will install igraph into /usr/local/lib and
/usr/local/include. If you type something like:

./configure --prefix=/opt

then igraph will be installed in /opt/lib and /opt/include, respectively. So
simply choose a directory where you want to install the dev version and make
sure it's different from the location of the stable version.

--
Tamas