Kdrill Installation Guide

Here's a quick start guide to installing kdrill, if you're new at all this free software source stuff.

Special note to Debian Linux users: Look lower down

First of all, you'll have to install gzip, if you haven't already got it. gzip source can be gotten from ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu, or from one of the many gnu mirror sites.

Once you have also copied the kdrillX.X.X.tar.gz distribution to your machine, use "gunzip kdrill*.tar.gz" to uncompress the file. You will then have a tar file.
(If this doen't work, you probably forgot to put ftp in binary mode before transferring the file, or something similar.)

To extract the source files from the tar file, use "tar xvf kdrill*.tar". This will make a directory that looks something like kdrillX.X.X. cd into that directory.
You should take a look at the INSTALL file while you're there. But this page will also tell you pretty much what you need to know to get things working.

Imakefile configuration

You should now edit the file "Imakefile" to look for things to customize. In particular, you should pick where you are going to install the kdrill related libraries. The default location for the primary library is "/usr/local/lib/kanjidic.gz". You will have to download the kanjidic library from one of the locations mentioned in the README file.

Now run "xmkmf". This will create a "Makefile", from the template "Imakefile".

If "xmkmf" gives you "command not found" or something similar, try each of the following once, until at least one of them works, or they all fail.

If none of the above work, ask your system administrator to install xmkmf.

You should now be able to run "make", and watch the program be compiled.

Installation

Once kdrill has compiled successfully, you then have to install it.
If you have sysadmin priveleges on your system, you should be able to just 

make install
make install.man

The first command will install the binary "kdrill", and the "app-defaults" file. The second will install the manpage for kdrill.

If you do NOT have sysadmin privileges, then make sure BINDIR in the Makefile has been overridden to where you really want to install it
(for example, /my/home/dir/bin)
You should then be able to run "make install"

If "make install" does not work for you, then just "cp kdrill /where/ever" should be fine. Ideally, you might also run one of the following

to give you a more readable ascii version of the kdrill manpage documentation. The commands listed above that have "ul -t dumb" in them, will give you a pure ascii file. The ones without the "ul" in them, will format the documentation appropriately for the terminal you run the command from.

Libraries

Don't forget the kanjidic library mentioned above. That is the normal default library. If you don't want to get it yet, or really need to learn your basic kana characters first, then use one of the .dic files in the "makedic" subdirectory.

You should be able to run kdrill with 

kdrill -kdictfile makedic/hira.dic

Note for SGI/IRIX users

If you havent already, you will probably need to go to http://freeware.sgi.com and pick up the "X11 international fonts". (the "intlfonts" package). This will get you the correct fonts that you need.

Note for Debian Linux

If you have a relatively recent version of kdrill, but you want to try the *latest* version, even though there isnt a debian package for it... you can try the following, to generate your own package 
apt-get source kdrill
cd kdrillXXXXX
uupdate
debuild
dpkg -i ../kdrillXXXXX.deb

If the regular build instructions do not work for you, something is seriously wrong with your system. Review the requirements for running kdrill, in the README file. If your system meets the requirements listed, and you still have problems, feel free to email me.
phil@bolthole.com