[svlug] missing tiff.h & tiffio.h

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Skip Evans (skip at bigskypenguin.com):

> I have built ImageMagick for a client, and a site 
> that is used by pro photographers to store images. 
> IM resizes, creates thumbnails, etc, and most 
> people are using jpegs so all is fine.
> 
> However, a few people use tiff files and here it 
> is bombing.
> 
> When I looked in the config.log file for IM I 
> noticed it could not find tiff.h and tiffio.h so 
> those components of IM failed.
> 
> Googling I am having trouble figuring out just 
> where these two header files fit into the scheme 
> of the gcc compiler, why they are missing and how 
> I can rectify the situation.
> 
> What does this say about the state of gcc on the 
> client' server, and how should I approach fixing it?

[Further postings supply the omitted and key detail that this is on
Fedora Core 4.]


1.  A little birdie whose name is rpmsearch.com told me you might be
looking for FC4 package libtiff-devel (package group
/Development/Libraries).

2.  Gosh, I hate to sound like a broken record on this point, Skip, but 
are you _sure_ you're solving the right problem?   90%+ of Linux admins
who build software locally outside their distributions' package regimes
really shouldn't, and are doing so only because they either don't know
how to use that package regime properly, or aren't aware of the serious
long-term maintenance problems they're likely to create, or both.

Here's a favour you could do us, which will save us having to revisit 
point #2 each and every time you're in these situations:  Whenever
you're going to post "I'm trying to build [foo] from upstream tarballs",
please include a "because" clause that explains why your distro's [foo]
binary package doesn't suffice, nor its source package.

In this case, FC4 appears to come with ImageMagick-6.2.2.0-2.[arch].rpm,
and FC4 Updates provides ImageMagick-6.2.2.0-3.fc4.2.[arch].rpm .
(Note that "[arch]" encompasses "src" along with binary achitectures,
and that /usr/bin/rpmbuild can do a great deal to meet local needs, 
without your needing to resort to upstream tarballs.)

So, what _specifically_ about the maintained FC4 packages isn't good
enough, such that you're trying to build stuff entirely on your own?

-- 
Cheers,              Your eyes are weary from staring at the CRT. You feel 
Rick Moen            sleepy.  Notice how restful it is to watch the cursor 
rick at linuxmafia.com  blink.  Close your eyes. The opinions stated above are 
                     yours. You cannot imagine why you ever felt otherwise.