shithub: sox

ref: dd8b63bdc2966c931b73d5f7a17db336cbec6c21
dir: /INSTALL/

View raw version
                           SoX Installation
                           ----------------

SoX should compile and run on any POSIX compatible system (Linux, BSD,
Solaris, Xcode on Mac OS X, Cygwin on MS-Windows, etc.).  For other
compilers/systems, it is often possible to manually construct a custom
`soxconfig.h' and `Makefile' for that system (the minimum requirements
are 32-bit CPU, 64-bit FPU, C89 compiler).

Note that the `play', `rec', and `soxi' programs are in fact just
copies-of or links-to (depending on OS) `sox'.

SoX optionally makes use of some external libraries to obtain support
for additional file formats and/or effects.  Optional libraries should
be installed before compiling SoX.  The current list of supported
libraries, where to get them (if not from your OS distribution), and
their licence types, is as follows:

OpencoreAMR-NB/WB http://sourceforge.net/projects/opencore-amr  Apache
VisualOn AMR-WB   http://sourceforge.net/projects/opencore-amr  Apache
AO                http://xiph.org/ao                    GPL
FLAC              http://flac.sourceforge.net           BSD
LADSPA            http://www.ladspa.org                 LGPL + plugins' licence
Lame MP3 encoder  http://lame.sourceforge.net           LGPL
Twolame MP2 enc.  http://www.twolame.org                LGPL
libltdl           http://www.gnu.org/software/libtool   LGPL
MAD MP3 decoder   http://www.underbit.com/products/mad  GPL
MP3 ID3 tags      http://www.underbit.com/products/mad  GPL
Magic             http://www.darwinsys.com/file         BSD
Ogg Vorbis        http://www.vorbis.com                 BSD
Opus              http://www.opus-codec.org/            BSD
PNG               http://www.libpng.org/pub/png         zlib (BSD-like)
Sndfile           http://www.mega-nerd.com/libsndfile   LGPL
WavPack           http://www.wavpack.com                BSD



Compiling and installing on a POSIX system
------------------------------------------

First install any optional libraries that you need for SoX.  Some
libraries may require pkg-config to be installed to be properly
detected by SoX.

[Only if you're compiling the git sources, first make sure you have
the GNU autotools (automake >= 1.9, autoconf >= 2.62, autoconf-archive)
installed, then run

	autoreconf -i
]

To compile and install SoX (executables, libraries, manual pages) with
a default configuration for your platform, run the following commands:

	./configure
	make
	make install

There should be no errors and few, if any, warnings during the `make'
stage.  Any warnings about pointer mismatch or conversion should
be treated with deep suspicion.

The `make install' command may require `root' priviliges.

To run a selection of tests on the installed sox executable:

	make installcheck

Optionally, HTML & PDF versions of the manual pages can be built and
installed as follows:

	make html
	make install-html
	make pdf
	make install-pdf

Again, `root' priviliges may be needed at the install stages.



Custom build options
--------------------

Selection of optional libraries and of other build options can be made
by adding parameters to the `./configure' command line (above).  Run

	./configure --help

for a complete list of options.

Each optional file-format may be configured to be loaded statically
(the default) or dynamically.  The dynamic option may be useful for
distribution packaging reasons -- for example, to keep separate `free'
and `non-free' software.

If you are building SoX for a `distribution' (i.e. the build will be
used by others), please use --with-distro to identify the distribution
as this information is useful in helping to diagnose SoX bug reports.
For example,

	./configure --with-distro='Super Linux OS 6.1'

If any libraries are installed in a non-standard locations in your
system, the compiler and linker must be informed of this.  Often,
environment variables can be used for this purpose.  For example, if
using the GNU or Clang/LLVM toolchains, the following might be used in
a Bourne-compatible shell:

export CPATH=/usr/local/include
export LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/local/lib

For other compilers and shells, consult their respective manuals.

Optional features
-----------------

Support for some file formats is optional and controlled by --enable-*
flags to configure.  If the value "dyn" is passed to these flags,
e.g. --enable-flac=dyn, the corresponding code is built as a module
and loaded at runtime.

Use of external libraries is controlled by --with-* flags.  Some of
these accept the value "dyn" to enable runtime loading of the library.

The runtime loading feature is mainly useful for distributing the
"sox" executable to systems that may not have all the external
libraries installed.

For a complete list of optional formats and libraries, including which
support runtime loading, refer to the "configure --help" output.

Testing
-------

N.B.: If SoX is configured and compiled to load some file-formats
dynamically, then it will not be able to load them when running SoX
executables from within the source file directory until after SoX has
been installed (temporarily configuring with --without-libltdl removes
this restriction).

After successfully compiling SoX, try translating a sound file.  You
should also playback the new file to make sure it sounds like the
original.  You can either use an external program or SoX itself
if compiled with playback support.

To work with widest range of playback programs, you should chose a
format that is native to your OS; such as .wav for Windows or .aiff for
MacOS.  In the following example, we'll use .xxx as the extension of
your preferred format.

        cd src
	./sox monkey.wav monkey.xxx

You may have to give the sample format and rate for the file. For example,
this command will make a sound file with a data rate of 12,500 samples
per second and the data formatted as 16-bit signed integers:

	./sox monkey.wav -r 12500 -b 16 -e signed-integer monkey.xxx

If playback support was compiled in then it can be played like this:

        ./play monkey.xxx

or, equivalently:

        ./sox monkey.xxx -d

If monkey.xxx plays properly (it's a very short monkey screech),
congratulations! SoX works.

If you're adding new features to SoX or want to perform advance tests
on a new platform then you can use the scripts "tests.sh" and
"testall.sh" to stress SoX.