# Obtaining and installing dopewars

The dopewars source code and precompiled binaries (in RPM format) are available from the main dopewars web page, at https://dopewars.sourceforge.io/. Just follow the link from there to the download section. "rpm" is the RedHat Package Manager, a program for simplifying installation and upgrade of programs, and is part of the RedHat Linux distribution. If you are using a different distribution, it may be still be included, however. If you do not want to use "rpm", or the installation fails, then you can obtain the source code tarball and recompile the code from scratch.

Prerequisites: dopewars relies on the GLib library for all builds; this library is used for parsing the configuration files, network and string handling, and many other purposes. On a Windows system, this is the only prequisite; the standard Windows libraries are used for everything else. On a Unix/Linux system, you will also need the screen library curses (or the equivalent, such as ncurses or cur_colr) for the text-mode client, and the GTK+ libraries for the graphical client.

- Windows installation
- RPM binary installation
- RPM source installation
- Tarball installation

## Windows installation

The easiest way to install the Windows version is to download the Windows installer program from the download page, and run it (either instruct your web browser to "run from the current location", or save it to somewhere obvious like the Desktop and then double-click on its icon later). This should install all relevant files, and set up Start Menu icons, etc. If, however, you wish to build the program from the source code, see the tarball installation section below, and also see the Windows page.

## RPM binary installation

The binary RPMs are built for Intel systems running RedHat or Fedora Linux. On other systems, these binary RPMs may refuse to install, or may run but then crash with mysterious segmentation faults due to library conflicts.

1. Download the x86_64 (64-bit Intel for RedHat Enterprise 7) RPM with your web browser.
2. Become root on your Unix box (if you cannot become root, then you will probably not be able to use RPM installation, depending on how "rpm" is set up).
3. Change to the directory containing the dopewars rpm, and install it with the command
   `rpm -Uvh dopewars-1.6.2-1.el7.x86_64.rpm`
   This will replace any already-installed earlier version.

## RPM source installation

This route is open to you if your system has "rpm", but the binary RPMs do not work on your system, or your machine is not an Intel (an Alpha or PowerMac, for example). It involves obtaining the RPM of the source code, and then building the binaries from it on your system.

1. Download the source code RPM.
2. Become root and change to the directory containing the new rpm.
3. Build a binary rpm with the command
   `rpmbuild --rebuild dopewars-1.6.2-1.el7.src.rpm`
4. Change to the directory which the binary rpm has been written to (check the output of the above - usually /usr/src/redhat/RPMS/xxx, where xxx is your machine type - for example, "i386" on Intel machines, "alpha" on Alphas, "x86_64" on AMD64 or EM64T machines)
5. Install the binary rpm with the command
   `rpm -Uvh dopewars-1.6.2-1.el7.xxx.rpm`

## Tarball installation

If you don't have, or don't want to use, RPM, you can obtain the source code in gzipped, tarred ("tarball") format and recompile and install it yourself. This is also usually a necessity if you cannot become root (the superuser) on your Unix box, or if you wish to build the Windows version from source code.

Before beginning, you should ensure that you have all the necessary prequisites (see above). To compile on a Windows system, you will need the MinGW compiler and libraries; see the Windows-specific build page for more information.

1. Download the source code tarball.
2. Change to the directory containing the tarball and extract the contents with the command
   `tar -xvzf dopewars-1.6.2.tar.gz`
   (or similar).
3. Change into the dopewars-1.6.2 directory, and read all the important documentation in there ;) Most notably, the INSTALL file gives more details on setup and installation.
4. Build the binary with the commands
   `./configure
   make`
5. Become root and install the dopewars files with
   `make install`

   The configure script will test your system and set up dopewars so that it should compile cleanly. The configure script supports a number of configurable options; for more details, read the INSTALL file in the dopewars-1.6.2 directory.

   If you cannot become root, run the configure script specifying directories for which you have write access for the dopewars files, with a command such as
   `./configure --prefix=/home/user/dopewars`

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Last update: 06-12-2020
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