Those Crazy Geeks

Running "configure" is the first step in installing a program on a Linux computer (well, sometimes anyway).  The purpose of "configure" is to make sure your system has all the prerequisites for the new program you’re installing, so it looks like a big checklist.

Today, I’m installing mod_python on the dev server here at work, and I see this in the output:

[1614 root@fgpdev mod_python-2.7.10]$ ./configure
creating cache ./config.cache
checking for gcc... gcc
checking whether the C compiler (gcc  ) works... yes
checking whether the C compiler (gcc  ) is a cross-compiler... no
checking whether we are using GNU C... yes
checking whether gcc accepts -g... yes
checking for ranlib... ranlib
checking for ar... ar
checking for a BSD compatible install... /usr/bin/install -c
checking whether make sets ${MAKE}... yes
checking for main in -lm... yes
checking for working const... yes
checking your blood pressure... a bit high, but we can proceed
checking whether apxs is available
...

...which is funny, because installing software on Linux can often be an extremely high-blood-pressure experience.