need KDevelop help!!!!

[permutations]

I'm using Knoppix because I have a Web site with a Unix server, a CGI program written in C, and a Windows development system. I needed a way to compile my CGI for Unix. But I'm having an AWFUL time. I need help BADLY. I'm very unfamiliar with Unix-isms such as all the different flavors of makefiles and configure files. I have no idea what these things do--pages and pages of indecipherable code. And I'm also lost when it comes to KDevelop. I can't figure out what all that auto-generate stuff is.

I know how to write a makefile that says simply what the input files are and where the libraries I want to link to are, but I can't for the life of me figure out how to communicate this to KDevelop, which is insistent on generating its own makefiles using all these other weird files that I can't decipher.

I finally managed to get the project set up to the point where I could try to compile, but I have two serious problems and not the hint of a solution:

(1) I'm getting a zillion errors complaining about every trigonometric function I call (sin(), cos(), etc.). I have math.h included at the top and this compiled fine on Windows. I also confirmed that math.h is on the Knoppix CD, though I can't begin to say if it's in the right place or if I need to do something special to point to it (evidence suggests I should). The Help file is not searchable.

(2) KDevelop does not know about the special library I need to link to, though I tried to put this in the makefile that it (of course) ignored. HOW DO I TELL IT ABOUT MY LIBRARY???? (I did manage, by some miracle, to compile the library.)

I wish I could find a consise overview of KDevelop and its weirdness for reasonably intelligent developers coming from the Windows platform, but I can find NOTHING. Please can someone help me??????? What I want to do is so simple, and it looks like it may take half my lifetime. It would be worlds easier to just get a Windows server.

[permutations]

I posted too quick... I found answers to my math.h and custom library problem on another forum. That's fixed.

I still sure would like to learn what all these makefiles and configure files are, and what all that weird code means. Maybe I don't need to know.

[baldyeti]

I don't know KDevelop at all, but I think I can help with the following point:

(1) I'm getting a zillion errors complaining about every trigonometric function I call (sin(), cos(), etc.). I have math.h included at the top and this compiled fine on Windows. I also confirmed that math.h is on the Knoppix CD, though I can't begin to say if it's in the right place or if I need to do something special to point to it (evidence suggests I should). The Help file is not searchable.

You need to add '-lm' to your CC command flags. That'll pull in the math lib at link time.

Other than that, if your program is a CGI, it just deals with stdin/stdout and environment variables, so I'm not sure what you'd gain in forcing this type of project into the IDE. Just my 2 (euro) cents, of course!

[permutations]

The main reason I put it in KDevelop is that I don't know how to compile it from the command line. You want to tell me?

I did just manage to successfully compile. Still, it would be good to have some knowledge of what I'm doing here.

[mcaycedo]

If you only want to compile some C files, you should try "gcc". When you use KDevelop, it's an complete (IDE), so, maybe it's too much for your work. With gcc, you will compile only. In the command line type "gcc -o execfile sourcefile.c".

This will compile the "sourcefile.c" to "execfile". I'm not sure if this will work with your cgi, but you should try to investigate if this options works for you.

[permutations]

P.S. What is the easiest way to refresh the files in a KDevelop project? I'm doing my primary development on the Windows machine, and then moving files over to Knoppix just for compilation under Unix.