[ale] Confusion compiling new software

[Thompson Freeman]

On 09/27/2006 03:45:30 PM, James P. Kinney III wrote:
> On Wed, 2006-09-27 at 15:21 -0400, Danny Cox wrote:
<<snip>> One thing to try, is punt: download the package
> again to a different
> > directory, and see if it behaves any differently.
> 
> One other trick to add to the toolbox is to run "make
> distclean" between
> runs. This will make the directory (and its subs) dump
> everything not
> out of the original source tarball. Some configs cause
> problems when
> played in sequence.
> 
I'll respond to three most gracious individuals here, but  
in no particular order.

As to what happened to cause the train wreck, I still don't  
know. I was argrevated, and had errands. So I logged off  
with a three finger salute and some verbal abuse about  
stupidity of machines. A bad way to leave an unworking  
situation, since it just clears lots of error types from  
ram. Slightly satisfying when you are fed up with the  
situation. Figures that things are working again when I get  
back from errands. 8-/.

However, the idea of "make distclean" (or restoring from  
the tarball) both make sense, so I'll try adding that step  
in the future. Points to the pros, and thanks.

Point of the experience could be to keep good housekeeping  
in the computer. Clean up _everything_ as you go along.

My thanks to James, Bjorn, and Danny for their responses.  
All had useful observations, which are going into my notes  
with the expectation of building better habits in me.