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2. Installing VFLib

The VFLib library is distributed in source format, packed and compressed in a .tar.gz or in a .zip format file. This means that the first step for installation is to unpack the archive, but probably you have already done this, if you are reading this documentation!

Now, you have to compile the library, which requires a C++ compiler. The library has been developed under the Linux operating system, using the egcs compiler. However, the code does make use only of standard C++ features, so it should work on other operating systems with any recent compiler.

For Unix systems like Linux we have provided a Makefile that automates the compilation process. You need to edit the file Makefile in order to set the name of your compiler and the relevant compile options (the file provided assumes that the compiler is invoked as g++ and enables full code optimization); after that you only have to issue the command make to build the library.

This will produce a library file named libvf.a in the lib subdirectory. You will need to link this library to your programs for using the graph matching library. You must also remember, when compiling C++ files that use the library, to add the include directory, created when unpacking the library archive, to the compiler include path.

For example, suppose you have a file named my_prog.cc which makes use of the library, and suppose that you have unpacked and built VFLib under the directory /usr/local/vflib/. Then the command to produce an object file my_prog.o would be:


  g++ -c -I/usr/local/vflib/include my_prog.cc

where the -c flag tells the compiler to stop after producing the object file, and the -I flag adds the specified directory to the include path.

The command to produce an executable would be:


  g++ -o my_prog my_prog.o -L/usr/local/vflib/lib -lvf -lstdc++ -lm

where the -o flag specifies the name of the executable (the default would be a.out), the -L flag adds the lib directory to the library search path, and the three -l flags indicate the libraries to link to the program (-lvf represents the VFLib library file).

In section Using VFLib: a quick tour you will find some example programs that make use the library.

If you use a non-Unix system, please refer to your compiler documentation (or ask a local guru) for building the library and linking it to your programs. Notice that on some compilers it may be necessary to change the source filenames extension from .cc to .cpp to compile them in C++ mode (as opposed to C).


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