16.5 Optional Features

If the package supports it, you can cause programs to be installed with an extra prefix or suffix on their names by giving configure the option ‘--program-prefix=PREFIX’ or ‘--program-suffix=SUFFIX’.

Some packages pay attention to ‘--enable-feature’ options to configure, where feature indicates an optional part of the package. They may also pay attention to ‘--with-package’ options, where package is something like ‘gnu-as’ or ‘x’ (for the X Window System). The ‘README’ should mention any ‘--enable-’ and ‘--with-’ options that the package recognizes.

For packages that use the X Window System, configure can usually find the X include and library files automatically, but if it doesn't, you can use the configure options ‘--x-includes=dir’ and ‘--x-libraries=dir’ to specify their locations.

Some packages offer the ability to configure how verbose the execution of make will be. For these packages, running ‘./configure --enable-silent-rules’ sets the default to minimal output, which can be overridden with make V=1; while running ‘./configure --disable-silent-rules’ sets the default to verbose, which can be overridden with make V=0.