Compiling Gforth without Gforth?

Question

When I try to compile Gforth 0.7.0, I get the following error:

$ ./configure
$ make
#compiling… 
Undefined symbols:
  "_main", referenced from:
      start in crt1.10.6.o
ld: symbol(s) not found
collect2: ld returned 1 exit status
make[3]: *** [gforth-ll] Error 1
./preforth -p ".:~+:." -e 's" mach16b.fs"' ./kernel/main.fs -e "save-cross kernl16b.fi- /usr/local/bin/gforth-0.7.0 bye"
You need to configure with a gforth in $PATH to build this part
make[3]: *** [kernl16b.fi-] Error 1
make[2]: *** [gforth-ll] Error 2
make[1]: *** [optgforth] Error 2
make: *** [gforth] Error 2
[22:16:01] gforth-0.7.0$ 

I get the same error when installing via ports. I imagine the problem is that Gforth is written, at least partially in Forth, so how do I install it without first installing it (or is the problem something else)?

I am using Mac OS 10.6.

Answer 1

During the configure, I got the message:

...
checking how to invoke m4... m4 -s
checking for gforth... echo "You need to configure with a gforth in \$PATH to build this part" && false
checking for ./arch/386/asm.fs... yes
...

I also found that when I built with plain GCC (in 64-bit mode), things went horribly wrong during the compilation (complaints about mis-specified registers in, I assume, assembler inserts). But when I reconfigured with:

CC="gcc -m32" ./configure --prefix=$HOME

I still got the warning about 'gforth' but the rest of the compilation succeeded. The install came up with a warning about 'chcon' not working, but the error was ignored.

After installation, I was able to type:

Osiris-2 JL: gforth
Gforth 0.7.0, Copyright (C) 1995-2008 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
Gforth comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; for details type `license'
Type `bye' to exit
2 3 +  ok
. 5  ok

Osiris-2 JL: uname -a
Darwin Osiris-2.local 10.2.0 Darwin Kernel Version 10.2.0: Tue Nov  3 10:37:10 PST 2009; root:xnu-1486.2.11~1/RELEASE_I386 i386
Osiris-2 JL: