Building Group Explorer
from source on Linux

Due to the multitude of Linux distributions, I do not attempt to build a separate binary for each. Building Group Explorer from source is rather straightforward. Here are the steps.

1. Install Qt 4.5

Do not skip this step. Even if you think Qt is already on your system, still do not skip this step. Read the following paragraphs carefully.

Probably the easiest way to get the latest Qt is to install the SDK from publicly available binaries at the Qt Software homepage.

But your Linux distribution may have a package management system that has the Qt 4.5 development tools in it, and you may prefer to install them that way. If you do, ensure that you get version 4.5, and get the developer versions of the Qt libraries, so that they come with the header files, etc. you will need for doing the compilation below.

2. Get the Sources

The source code can be checked out of the Group Explorer Subversion repository on SourceForge using a standard Subversion client. If you're on Linux, consider simply issuing the following two commands from a terminal prompt.

$ cd /a/folder/of/your/choice/
$ svn checkout http://groupexplorer.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/groupexplorer/ groupexplorer

This creates a groupexplorer folder in which the build will take place, and in which you can find a license file, etc.

3. Get the Resources

The Resources can be downloaded from the SourceForge downloads page; they are zipped up in a file called GroupExplorer[version#].res.tgz. Unzip the file after downloading, and it will become a folder called "Resources."

Alternatively, if you already have an OS X or Windows intallation of Group Explorer somewhere, it contains this same Resources folder, to save you the download/unzip process. (On Windows, it's in the same folder as GroupExplorer.exe, and on the Mac, it's in the app bundle, the Contents subfolder.)

However you get it, put the Resources folder inside the trunk subfolder of the groupexplorer folder created in Step 2.

4. Compile

Building a Qt project is straightforward. This assumes your Qt 4.5 installation is correct and that qmake is in your path. Simply issue these commands from within the same trunk subfolder just mentioned.

$ qmake -o Makefile GroupExplorer.pro
$ make

You should now have a working GroupExplorer executable, which you can test by running ./GroupExplorer. If something went wrong, please send me an email or ask online.

When it succeeds, just move both the executable and the Resources folder to wherever you prefer to permanently keep them. (Or leave them where they are.) You might also want to run make clean to delete unneeded object files.