Please note: This section is only relevant when compiling source distributions with support for Tcl/Tk.
Most UNIX machines today have Tcl/Tk preinstalled. This reduces the risk of installation difficulties since the linker and the runtime linker usually finds Tcl/Tk in its default paths. Most other installation and/or configuration problems related to Tcl/Tk are caused by improper installation or installation in a path where the linker and runtime linker cannot find Tcl/Tk.
Tcl/Tk is configured for installation similar to SICStus; by the use
of a configure script generated by GNU Autoconf. The
installation directory is specified by the --prefix option. The
value of this option is referred to as the installation-dir
below.
Tcl_Init
and/or Tk_Init. What should I do?
The following message from configure indicates that it could
not link a test program with the Tcl/Tk libraries.
...
checking for Tcl_Init in -ltcl8.3... no
checking for Tk_Init in -ltk8.3... no
...
The common cause of this is that the compiler cannot find
-ltcl8.3 and/or -ltk8.3 (or whichever version it tries
to find), usually because Tcl/Tk has been installed in a non-standard
directory (i.e. different from /usr/lib, /usr/local/lib, etc.).
If you've installed Tcl/Tk in installation-dir, specify the
following to configure:
% ./configure --with-tcltk=installation-dir more options
The problem can occur even if the Tcl/Tk shared libraries can be
found, but the link-phase failed due to other reasons. If this occurs,
it is often useful to look in config.log, where output from
compilation stages etc. is logged.
You can use:
% ./configure --with-tcl=tclinstallpath --with-tk=tkinstallpath
You need to specify --enable-shared when configuring Tcl/Tk. This is not enabled by default.