_          _                   _
  __| |o ___ __| |__ ___  __ _  ___| |__   ___     distcache
 / _` |_/ __|__   __/ __|/ _` |/ __| '_ \ / , \    Distributed session caching
| (_| | \__ \  | | | (__| (_| | (__| | | |  __/    www.distcache.org
 \__,_|_|___/  |_|  \___|\__,_|\___|_| |_|\___|    distcache.sourceforge.net

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

                                ``This argument repeats that already given in
                                  paragraph 5 and partly contradicts paragraph
                                  3.''  -- Dr. Edgar David Villanueva Nunez
                                           responding to Microsoft,
                                     http://www.gnu.org.pe/resmseng.html


Installation
------------

For now, the compilation instructions are very straightforward.
 o Type "./configure"
 o Type "make"
 o Hope

As for installation, that's also rather easy.
 o As the root user, type "make install"

Note, there used to be some experimental ".spec" code for generating RPMS, but
this has been obsoleted. Already Redhat and Mandrake have RPM packaging for
distcache available (though whether these are in all variations or not is
unknown), and one should look to distribution vendors for properly integrated
packaging. In manual cases, the "./configure && make install" route is advised
as it will typically install in /usr/local/ to avoid smashing package-based
tools.

Something more useful
---------------------

The current version of the code has the standard GNU autotools framework in
place already ("./configure" with all the normal supported options such as
"--prefix"), but there is quite likely some work required to have the code
*use* the facilities of the autotools for better portability, particularly in
the "libnal" networking code. If you have a target platform that has
compilation problems, please give us some information - if you can provide
fixes or allow us shell access to such a machine to fix it ourselves we would
be most grateful; please mail distcache-team@lists.sourceforge.net.

A warning about shared-libraries. For development (and version-control)
reasons, the default settings are to build static libraries only. To build
build and install shared-libraries, the "--enable-shared" flag must be passed
to "./configure". To disable the building of static libraries, add the
"--disable-static" switch also.

A warning also about file sizes. The size of compiled executables can usually
be dramatically reduced (eg. sometimes by up to 90%) by stripping the
executables of symbol information. Unless you have the intention of debugging
applications (or providing detailed debugging information to developers without
first recompiling), it is a wise idea to reduce this bloat. Fortunately, the
GNU autotools have built-in support for this functionality, all you need to do
is to specify "make install-strip" instead of "make install". Note however that
only executables are stripped, libraries are not touched - therefore for
maximum space savings it is recommended to build with static-linking
(--disable-shared).

Before long, 'distcache' should be well supported on the standard Unix-like
platforms as well as Win32 (using Cygwin) because of the GNU autotools suite.
Please feel free to monitor ongoing development in CVS, and contributions are
always welcome!