How to build xindy from sources

1. Get CLISP and the xindy clisp modules; as well as a xindy distribution: platform-independent package and one of the binary packages xindy-2.1-<platform>.tar.gz (it doesn't matter which one you get).

2. Create a development directory, e.g.

     mkdir ~/xindy-dev

3. Unpack CLISP and the modules:

     cd ~/xindy-dev
     gtar -xjf clisp-<version>.tar.bz2
     cd clisp<version>
     gtar -xjf xindy-clisp-modules-<version>.tar.bz2
   

4. Configure CLISP (for Linux):

     ./configure --without-unicode --with-dynamic-ffi --with-noreadline \
         --with-module=regexp-in-libc  --with-module=ordrules-regexp-in-libc
     cd src
     ./makemake --without-unicode --with-dynamic-ffi --with-noreadline \
         --with-module=regexp-in-libc --with-module=ordrules-regexp-in-libc \
         > Makefile
   

5. Configure CLISP (for systems other than Linux):

     ./configure --without-unicode --with-dynamic-ffi --with-noreadline \
         --with-module=regexp --with-module=ordrules
     cd src
     ./makemake --without-unicode --with-dynamic-ffi --with-noreadline \
         --with-module=regexp --with-module=ordrules > Makefile
   

6. Build and check CLISP:

     make config.lisp
     make
     make check
   

7. If all goes well, you end up with the two files we need: ~/xindy-dev/clisp/src/full/lisp.run and ~/xindy-dev/clisp/src/full/lispinit.mem.

8. Unpack the platform-independent and the binary distribution you downloaded earlier:

     cd ~/xindy-dev
     gtar -xzvf ~/xindy-2.1.tar.gz
     cd xindy
     ln -s xindy-2.1 current
     gtar -xzvf ~/xindy-2.1-<platform>.tar.gz
   

9. Rename the binary directory to the name of your hardware architecture, OS, vendor, version etc.:

     cd ~/xindy-dev/xindy/binaries
     mv <oldplatform> <platform>
     cd <platform>
     echo '<platform>' > PLATFORM
   

10. Copy the CLISP files here:

      cp ~/xindy-dev/clisp/src/full/lisp.run xindy.run
      cp ~/xindy-dev/clisp/src/full/lispinit.mem base.mem
    

11. Modify the Makefiles according to your needs and make a new binary package:

      cd ~/xindy-dev/xindy
      gtar -czf ~/xindy-2.1-<platform>.tar.gz ./binaries/<platform>
    

12. Now it's time to actually test xindy, isn't it? Installation instructions, once you got to this point, are included in ~/xindy-dev/xindy/current/INSTALL.

      cd ~/xindy-dev/xindy/binaries/<platform>
      make all
    

    If something fails here, go back to the previous step.