Approximate build time:  0.1 SBU
Required disk space:     3.4 MB

Prepare Flex for compilation:

./configure --prefix=/usr

Compile the package:

make

To test the results, issue: make bigcheck.

Now install the package:

make install

There are some packages that expect to find the lex library in /usr/lib. Create a symlink to account for this:

ln -s libfl.a /usr/lib/libl.a

A few programs don't know about flex yet and try to run its predecessor lex. To support those programs, create a wrapper script named lex that calls flex in lex emulation mode:

cat > /usr/bin/lex << "EOF"
#!/bin/sh
# Begin /usr/bin/lex

exec /usr/bin/flex -l "$@"

# End /usr/bin/lex
EOF
chmod 755 /usr/bin/lex

Installed programs: flex, flex++ (link to flex) and lex

Installed library: libfl.a

flex is a tool for generating programs that recognize patterns in text. Pattern recognition is useful in many applications. From a set of rules on what to look for, flex makes a program that looks for those patterns. The reason to use flex is that it is much easier to specify the rules for a pattern-finding program than to write the program.

flex++ invokes a version of flex that is used exclusively for C++ scanners.

libfl.a is the flex library.