Welcome to OPT, an Options Parsing Tool.

OPT is a subroutine library for communicating options and parameter
values to a C program via the command line, parameter files,
environment variables, or a rudimentary builtin interactive menu.  For
more information about what OPT is all about, see the file opt.texi or
opt.info or (if it is provided) opt.ps

What follows is a guide to installing OPT on a UNIX system.  I'm
half assuming you know your way around UNIX systems, but please let
me know if I'm unclear or if I've left out anything that would help.
(If you want to install OPT on a non-UNIX system, I have heard one
report that this is possible [and OPT was originally developed -- lo,
these many years ago -- on a DOS system], but you're on your own!)

  1/ first you have to un-archive the opt-XXX.tar.gz file, 
     using commands along these lines:
           cd directory_where_opt_source_will_go
           gzip -d opt-XXX.tar.gz
           tar xvf opt-XXX.tar
  2/ then, it's bascially a generic GNU installation, with configure, 
     make, and make install.  More details can be found in the INSTALL 
     file, but those are details about the generic installation 
     procedure, and contain no OPT-specific notes.

     2a/ You configure with a command like
           ./configure 
         But you can also use the configure command with options.  Type 
           ./configure --help
         to see what those options are.  One of the most useful is the
                       --prefix=PATHNAME
         option, which tells you where to install it.  The OPT-specific 
         options are:
                       --disable-longjmp
                       --with-readline        
         You should only disable longjmp if you have trouble compiling.
         Using readline makes things nicer, but it is not crucial, and
         I wouldn't be surprised if the configure with readline is not 
         that portable.

     2b/ The next step is easy, just type
           make
         If this fails, you may want to reconfigure in step 2a.  If you
         can't get that to work, tell me the problem as specifically as
         you can, and I'll see if I can help.

     2c/ The next step is to type
           make install
         but you should be sure you have permission to write to the
         directories where libopt.a and opt.h will be copied.  This is
         by default /usr/local/lib and /usr/local/include, but that
         can be changed at the configure step (see INSTALL for details).
         Unless you are installing OPT into your personal directory,
         you will probably have to become "root" before you do this
         step.

  3/ You are now done, but if you like, you can go into the test/
     directory and try running 
           checkopt
     The tests in this directory also serve as example code to show you
     how to use the opt package in your own programs.


Happy coding,
jt

$Id: README,v 2.2 1999/11/22 16:34:21 jt Exp $
------------------------------------
James Theiler            jt@lanl.gov
