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COMP8440: Lab1 - building a2ps

Lab Setup

As this is the first lab, you should carefully read the Lab Setup page and follow all the instructions on that page to get the FOSSD environment installed and running.

Next, if you have not already done so, you should join the comp8440 mailing list using your ANU student email account. Note that you will need to be able to receive email to that account while in the lab. You will find that the email icon in the main menu bar of your lab system can be setup for accessing your ANU mail account.

When you first join the list, please send a very short email to the list to make sure it is working.

Investigating a2ps

The aim of this lab is to build and install the 'anything to postscript' a2ps project. The a2ps project has been chosen as it provides an illustration of many of the types of problems you are likely to run into with your own project.

During this lab we will be spending quite a lot of time running through the various steps below on the projector, while you follow along on your own system. If you run into trouble on your own system, then we will be able to display your screen on the projector, so we can work through the solution for the benefit of all the students.

The lab has a number of parts:

• Investigate the project
  • Who wrote it?
  • Who supports it?
  • Where would you submit a bug report?
  • Where would you get help?
  • How do you get the source code?
  • How active is development?
• Download the source code
• Build and install it

Downloading the code

The source code for a2ps can be downloaded in several different ways, each of which leads to a different level of difficulty in building the project.

If you have time in this lab, try to download and build via all 3 of the following mechanisms:

• Using the apt package manager
• Using a release tarball
• using a source code management system

You should now carefully read the build tips page for instructions on each of these approaches.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of each approach?

Testing a2ps

As the name suggests, a2ps can take ASCII text files and produce postscript. Try creating a file called 'test.txt' then run this:

   a2ps -o test.ps test.txt
   evince test.ps  

That should show you a postscript version of your text file.

Source Code Management (SCM) Tips

You may find some of the tips on the SCM Tips page useful for this lab.

MAKE SURE YOU BACKUP

Make sure you do a backup at the end of the lab, or you may lose all your work.

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