- -*- text -*-
- Installation Procedure
-
-0) Preparation
-
-To build and install GNU Wget, you need to unpack the archive (which
-you have presumably done, since you are reading this), and read on.
-Like most GNU utilities, Wget uses the GNU Autoconf mechanism for
-build and installation; those of you familiar with compiling GNU
-software will feel at home.
-
-1) Configuration
-
-To configure Wget, run the configure script provided with the
-distribution. It will create the Makefiles needed to start the
-compilation. You may use the standard arguments Autoconf-created
-configure scripts take, the most important ones being:
+ -*- text -*-
+ GNU Wget Installation Procedure
+ ===============================
+
+0. Introduction
+---------------
+
+This document describes how to build Wget from source code on
+Unix-like systems. If you want to install a precompiled Wget, this
+document is not for you -- refer to the documentation provided by the
+distributors instead. If you already have Wget and want to learn how
+to use it, refer to Wget's Info documentation or man page which you
+should have received with your system. If you are using Windows
+(except for Cygwin), read windows/README instead. If you want to
+compile Wget from source code on a Unix-like system, read on.
+
+The preferred form of building Wget is to get a release archive and
+unpack it (which you have presumably done, since you are reading
+this). If you have obtained the source code via the Subversion
+repository, please follow the instructions in `README.checkout' before
+continuing.
+
+1. Dependencies
+---------------
+
+To build Wget, your system must support a Unix-like command-line
+development environment, including the text-processing utilities (sh,
+grep, awk, sed, etc.) and a functional C compiler. On some GNU/Linux
+systems, this means that you will need to install packages such as
+`gcc', `glibc-devel' (or `libc6-dev') and `make'. Most systems come
+with these packages preinstalled, but it doesn't hurt to check. If
+you have successfully compiled other software from source, you
+probably have them all.
+
+In addition to the C development environment, Wget can use a number of
+optional libraries to provide additional features, such as translated
+messages and support for "https" URLs. The "external" dependencies
+include:
+
+ - OpenSSL -- for "https" URLs.
+ - GNU gettext -- for translated messages.
+
+To be usable for building Wget, the listed libraries must be installed
+with their "development" header files. On GNU/Linux systems this
+typically means installing the corredponsing "lib<name>-devel" or
+"lib<name>-dev" package along with the package with "lib<name>".
+
+2. Configuration
+----------------
+
+Before compiling Wget, you need to "configure" it using the
+`configure' script provided with the distribution. Configuration
+serves two distinct purposes: it enables Wget's build system to
+inspect certain features of your operating system for more robust
+compilation, and it enables you to choose which features you want the
+resulting Wget to have.
+
+As is the case with most GNU software, Wget's configure script was
+generated with GNU Autoconf. If you're not familiar with
+Autoconf-generated scripts, read on.
+
+The most straightforward way to configure Wget is by running the
+configure script without any arguments. After running some
+compilation-related tests, it will create the Makefiles needed to
+build Wget. However, you may wish to customize Wget's configuration
+by providing arguments to `configure'. Wget's configure script
+accepts standard Autoconf arguments, the most important ones being: