16.7 Looking Forward

We’ve touched only on the basics of building software. After you get the hang of your own builds, try the following:

• Learn how to use build systems other than autoconf, such as CMake and SCons.
• Set up builds for your own software. If you’re writing your own software, you want to choose a build system and learn to use it. For GNU autoconf packaging, Autotools, 2nd edition, by John Calcote (No Starch Press, 2019) can help you out.
• Compile the Linux kernel. The kernel’s build system is completely different from that of other tools. It has its own configuration system tailored to customizing your own kernel and modules. The procedure is straightforward, though, and if you understand how the bootloader works, you won’t have any trouble with it. However, you should be careful when doing so; make sure that you always keep your old kernel handy in case you can’t boot with a new one.
• Explore distribution-specific source packages. Linux distributions maintain their own versions of software source code as special source packages. Sometimes you can find useful patches that expand functionality or fix problems in otherwise unmaintained packages. The source package management systems include tools for automatic builds, such as Debian’s debuild and the RPM-based mock.

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Building software is often a stepping stone to learning about programming and software development. The tools you’ve seen in this chapter and the previous chapter take the mystery out of where your system software came from. It’s not difficult to take the next steps of looking inside the source code, making changes, and creating your own software.