looking for a sane installation process

[themaddoctor]

I'm looking for a sane installation process. We have a linux system that
already has python2, python3, pkgconf, gcc, gdb, openblas, scipy,...., yet
the sage source code insists on downloading and compiling what amounts
to an entire new linux system. Is there not a sane installation process that
builds against the libraries that already exist on the system and uses
the compilation tools that already exist?

I'm going to leave the priority at "major" because this blocks us from
producing a package for this linux distribution.

CC: @slel

Component: build: configure

Reviewer: Dima Pasechnik

Issue created by migration from https://trac.sagemath.org/ticket/31817

[mkoeppe]

comment:1

Try with reading the README first.

[sheerluck]

comment:2

Take a look at Gentoo Linux: emerge sage literally builds against the libraries that already exist on the system and uses the compilation tools that already exist

[slel]

comment:3

Is there not a sane installation process that
builds against the libraries that already exist
on the system and uses the compilation tools
that already exist?

There is. Follow the instructions in the README:

• https://github.com/sagemath/sage-prod/blob/master/README.md

In particular, the output of the ./configure step
ends with recommendations of system packages to install
to ensure Sage installs as few components as possible.

This works for many distributions (Arch Linux, Conda,
Cygwin, Debian, Fedora, FreeBSD, Gentoo, Homebrew, . Yours might
be supported; you only mention "a linux system".

For many packages, an spkg-configure.m4 script detects
whether that package is already present system-wide
so Sage will use it instead of building its own.

Progress of this "spkg-configure" effort is tracked at

• Meta-ticket: spkg-configure: Try to use as many system packages as possible #27330: Meta-ticket: spkg-configure: Try to use as many system packages as possible

[slel]

comment:4

Marking as duplicate as improving the installation
process is tracked elsewhere.

When you say

this blocks us from producing a package
for this linux distribution

does it blocks installing Sage, or does it block
producing another package that depends on it?

[dimpase]

Reviewer: Dima Pasechnik