Building the X Window System from the X.org Source Distribution : Using a shadow directory of symbolic links for the build
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3. Using a shadow directory of symbolic links for the build

A recommended practice is to use a shadow directory of symbolic links to do the build of X11R6.8.1 as this allows you to keep the source directory unmodified during the build. It has the following benefits:

To make a shadow directory of symbolic links, use the following steps:

If lndir is not already installed on your system, you can build it manually from the X11R6.8.1 sources by running the following commands:
cd xc/config/util
make -f Makefile.ini lndir
cp lndir some directory in your PATH

Occasionally there may be stale links in the build tree, like when files in the source tree are removed or renamed. These can be cleaned up by running the "cleanlinks" script from the build directory (see the cleanlinks(1) manual page). Rarely there will be changes that will require the build tree to be re-created from scratch. A symptom of this can be mysterious build problems. The best solution for this is to remove the build tree, and then re-create it using the steps outlined above.


Building the X Window System from the X.org Source Distribution : Using a shadow directory of symbolic links for the build
Previous: Configuring the source before building
Next: Building and installing the distribution