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Installing AbiWord on FreeBSD / INTEL

Welcome to the community of AbiWord users!

The current version of AbiWord (0.7.12) should install and run properly one FreeBSD 3.2 systems with a INTEL (or INTEL-COMPATIBLE) processor. AbiWord has been packaged in several different distribution formats to simplify the installation on your system:

  • TGZ -- Native FreeBSD 3.2 package
  • TAR -- Statically linked for older versions of FreeBSD
A much more detailed version of these instructions is contained in the README .

TGZ

The TGZ  installation process is very simple.
  1. Download the distribution files ( AbiSuite-0.7.12.tgz , 2.7MB).
  2. Become superuser, enter the command: 
       pkg_add AbiSuite-0.7.12.tgz
  3. This will install AbiWord and supporting files to /usr/local/AbiSuite/ . Symbolic links called AbiWord and abiword will be placed in /usr/local/bin/ but not the actual executable.
  4. Please consult the README file for additional details.

TAR

There are two versions of the Tar files: one is a statically-linked version and the other is the dynamically-linked version. The dynamic version is smaller (3.7Mb vs 4.3Mb), our goal is to make use of a number of shared libraries on your system. If you are running FreeBSD 3.2 or newer, the dynamic package should work for you. If you can't run the dynamic package, try the static package. 

The installation process for the static Tar files looks scary, but is actually quite simple.

  1. Download the distribution files ( abisuite-0.7.12-FreeBSD_i386_static.tar.gz , 4.3MB).
  2. Copy the files to a directory writable by you and open the files: 
       gunzip - C abisuite-0.7.12-FreeBSD_i386_static.tar.gz | tar
xvf -
    ... or, if your tar command supports the ' z' flag: 
       tar xvzf abisuite-0.7.12-FreeBSD_i386_static.tar.gz
    Both these commands will create the directory abisuite-0.7.12-FreeBSD_i386_static .
  3. Change to that directory and become superuser.
  4. Run the install script: 
       /install.sh
  5. By default, this will install AbiWord and supporting files to the /usr/local/AbiSuite on your hard drive. You will be given the opportunity to change this if you wish.
  6. You will also be given the option to create links to the executable in a common bin directory. By default, this is /usr/local/bin .
  7. Please consult the README file for additional details.
The installation process for the dynamic Tar files ( abisuite-0.7.12-FreeBSD_i386_dynamic.tar.gz , 3.7MB) is identical. Simply substitute _ dynamic for _ static in steps 1 and 2 above. If you want to read more about which libraries and versions that the dynamic version uses, please consult the README .