How to Install and Build Source Code for Open Solaris

This is the first of two articles in which we describe how to acquire and build the source code for OpenSolaris. The first article provides all the necessary background information (terminology, where to get the tools, and so on) and describes a basic compilation and installation, and the second article will describe a more complicated compilation and installation.

These articles describe how to build and install OpenSolaris; they are not intended to be an “OpenSolaris developers’ guide”, so information beyond that which is required for building and installing OpenSolaris is not included. This should not be seen as a problem, however, because (as with most other large-scale open source projects) the number of active OpenSolaris developers who will need this knowledge is likely to be small compared to the number of people who will want to build it for their own edification.

These articles assume at least a passing familiarity with building major software projects and some C programming. It is unlikely that someone who is struggling to compile “Hello World” would be trying to compile OpenSolaris! However, we will otherwise assume no knowledge of building Solaris, and describe all the necessary steps.

Read it here.