HowTo:Install multiple versions of POV-Ray - Revision history

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2026-06-14T14:57:17Z

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the following shows how to install several POV-Ray versions (and or branches/forks) to allow easy concurrent use of.

the intended "audience" are Linux and FreeBSD users. assuming a Bourne-Again SHell and the usual GNU tools.

if this will be the first install of POV-Ray on the machine, I recommend first installing a packaged version, to ensure all required libraries are at hand; note that Debian etc users also need the <code>*-dev</code> bits, to get the headers.

the following then outlines one "solution" to this problem which works for me.
its advantage is that I can have separate <code>'povray.{conf,ini}'</code> configuration files for every program.
other approaches exist, of course :-).

you will need to be the 'root' user to make a couple of preparations,
thereafter everything is done as you(r user).

while not perhaps required, I use an "administrative" group to own the directory and installed programs;
'adm', 'wheel', 'staff', 'operator', every Linux distribution will provide one or more of these.
add your user to one, in the examples below I use "admin" ('adm').

next create the directory which will contain all of the POV-Ray installations, so make sure there's sufficient (disk) space for "the future";
you could, of course, simply make it a mount-point. change the permissions and owner to yourself, with a suitable group:
<pre>
# mkdir /home/povray
# chown you:adm /home/povray
# chmod g+w /home/povray
</pre>

with the directory in place, we can install the first POV-Ray, I will use the 'beta.2' as the example.
the following "official" place has the archives:
<https://github.com/POV-Ray/povray/tags>.

create a directory for it, and a 'priv' ("private") directory within, ie
<pre>
$ mkdir -p /home/povray/v3.8.0-beta.2/priv/
$ chown -R you:adm /home/povray/v3.8.0-beta.2
</pre>

I use this 'priv'ate space to store the downloaded archive, and later the build script and log, and a simple "one-liner" script for "access".

building has been documented elsewhere, see [[HowTo:Install_POV |installing POV-Ray]], I show here only the key steps from my "usual" build-script.

in an ideal world you'd write a basic build script to automate part or all of the procedure. such a script can then be used, with little modification, for every subsequent installation of a POV-Ray.

also recommended is the use of the 'script(1)' program, as it provides a record of all the information which "scrolled by" etc.
if you are not using a build script, record the session manually but don't forget to 'exit' from the sub-shell it starts.

and another "also recommended" :-). I usually will do a
<pre>
$ ./configure --no-create --help > confighelp
</pre>
beforehand, to see which options are available, and to have to hand as reference; sometimes the 'INSTALL' file documentation is incomplete.

I use the '/tmp' directory for "transient" stuff, the building, as it usually is mounted in RAM (tmpfs).

<pre>
$ cd /tmp
$ script build-log
$ tar -xf /home/povray/v3.8.0-beta.2/priv/povunix-v3.8.0-beta.2-src.tar.gz
$ chown -R you:adm povunix-v3.8.0-beta.2-src
$ chmod -R u+w,go+r-w,a-s povunix-v3.8.0-beta.2-src
$ cd povunix-v3.8.0-beta.2-src
$ CXXFLAGS="-std=c++11 -march=native -mtune=native -ffast-math -O2 -fPIC" \
> ./configure \
> --prefix=/home/povray/v3.8.0-beta.2 \
> --sysconfdir=/home/povray/v3.8.0-beta.2/etc \
> --mandir=/home/povray/v3.8.0-beta.2/man \
> --without-libmkl \
> --without-libsdl \
> --with-x \
> COMPILED_BY="you@home"
$ make -j8
$ make check
$ make install
$ exit
$ mv /tmp/build-log /home/povray/v3.8.0-beta.2/priv/
</pre>

the 'doc' directory (if wished) needs to be moved manually from 'share/doc', the '--docdir=...' configuration option doesn't work.

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 the following shows how to install several POV-Ray versions (and or branches/forks) to allow easy concurrent use of.
-the "intended audience" are Linux and FreeBSD users, assuming a Bourne-Again SHell and the usual GNU tools.
+the "intended audience" are Linux and (Free)BSD users, assuming a Bourne Again SHell and the usual GNU tools.
 if this will be the first install of POV-Ray on the machine, I recommend first installing a packaged version, to ensure all required libraries are at hand; note that Debian etc users also need the <code>*-dev</code> bits, to get the headers.
@@ Line 26: / Line 26: @@
 with the directory in place, we can install the first POV-Ray, I will use the 'beta.2' as the example.
-the following "official" place has the archives:</br>
+the following "official" place has the archives:<br>
 <https://github.com/POV-Ray/povray/tags>.
@@ Line 53: / Line 53: @@
 I use the '/tmp' directory for "transient" stuff, the building, as it usually is mounted in RAM (tmpfs).
-:''important'' -- if this is not the first installation, you will need to protect your existing <code>~/.povray/3.8/povray.*</code> files, make them readonly.  then the install will rename the existing files to <code>*.bak</code> before writing its own (and you get a chance to recover :-)).
+:''important'' -- if this is not the first installation of a v3.8, you will need to protect your existing <code>~/.povray/3.8/povray.*</code> files, make them readonly.  then the install will rename the existing files to <code>*.bak</code> before writing its own (and you get a chance to recover :-)).
 <pre>
@@ Line 83: / Line 83: @@
 you should, at this point have the same beta.2 directory as below.
-as you can see, the '/home/povray/*/' layouts mirror that of '/usr/'.
+as you can see, the '/home/povray/*/' layouts mirror that of '/usr/local/'.
 <pre>
@@ Line 96: / Line 96: @@
 adding the v3.7 could be your next "project" :-).
-edit the '/home/povray/v3.8.0-beta.2/etc/povray/3.8/povray.*' files to suit.
+edit the '/home/povray/v3.8.0-beta.2/etc/povray/3.8/povray.*' files to suit, as well as the "personal" ones,
-the last thing to do is creating a BASH function to run the program.
+the last thing to do is to create a BASH function to run the program.
 you could store this and other functions in <code>~/.bash_functions</code>, the "proper" place.
 I prefer "one-liner" shell scripts which I <code>source</code> when needed the first time.
@@ Line 118: / Line 119: @@
 </pre>
--- </br>
+-- <br>
 enjoy, jr.

@@ Line 26: / Line 26: @@
 with the directory in place, we can install the first POV-Ray, I will use the 'beta.2' as the example.
-the following "official" place has the archives:
+the following "official" place has the archives:</br>
 <https://github.com/POV-Ray/povray/tags>.
@@ Line 118: / Line 118: @@
 </pre>
---
+-- </br>
 enjoy, jr.

@@ Line 52: / Line 52: @@
 I use the '/tmp' directory for "transient" stuff, the building, as it usually is mounted in RAM (tmpfs).
 <pre>
@@ Line 98: / Line 100: @@
 the last thing to do is creating a BASH function to run the program.
 you could store this and other functions in <code>~/.bash_functions</code>, the "proper" place.
-I prefer "one-liner" shell scripts which I <code>source</code> when needed for the first time.
+I prefer "one-liner" shell scripts which I <code>source</code> when needed the first time.
 <pre>
@@ Line 109: / Line 111: @@
 similarly, for the v3.7.0.8 there is a 'fn3708' function, stored in '/home/povray/v3.7.0.8/priv/fn3708-sh'.

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 the following shows how to install several POV-Ray versions (and or branches/forks) to allow easy concurrent use of.
-the intended "audience" are Linux and FreeBSD users.  assuming a Bourne-Again SHell and the usual GNU tools.
+the "intended audience" are Linux and FreeBSD users, assuming a Bourne-Again SHell and the usual GNU tools.
 if this will be the first install of POV-Ray on the machine, I recommend first installing a packaged version, to ensure all required libraries are at hand; note that Debian etc users also need the <code>*-dev</code> bits, to get the headers.
-the following then outlines one "solution" to this problem which works for me.
+the following then outlines one "solution" to this problem which works for me;
 its advantage is that I can have separate <code>'povray.{conf,ini}'</code> configuration files for every program.
 other approaches exist, of course :-).
 you will need to be the 'root' user to make a couple of preparations,
-thereafter everything is done as you(r user).
+thereafter everything is done as you, your user.
-while not perhaps required, I use an "administrative" group to own the directory and installed programs;
+first, and not perhaps required, I use an "administrative" group to own the directory and installed programs;
-'adm', 'wheel', 'staff', 'operator', every Linux distribution will provide one or more of these.
+'adm', 'wheel', 'staff', 'operator', every Linux distribution provides one or more of those.
-add your user to one, in the examples below I use "admin" ('adm').
+add your user to one, in the examples below I'll use "admin" ('adm').
-next create the directory which will contain all of the POV-Ray installations, so make sure there's sufficient (disk) space for "the future";
+next create the directory which will contain all of the POV-Ray installations, so make sure there's sufficient (disk) space for "the future".
-you could, of course, simply make it a mount-point.  change the permissions and owner to yourself, with a suitable group:
+you could, of course, simply make it a mount-point.
 <pre>
    # mkdir /home/povray
@@ Line 34: / Line 35: @@
 </pre>
-I use this 'priv'ate space to store the downloaded archive, and later the build script and log, and a simple "one-liner" script for "access".
+I use this private space to store the downloaded archive, and later the build script and log, and a simple "one-liner" script for access.
-building has been documented elsewhere, see [[HowTo:Install_POV |installing POV-Ray]], I show here only the key steps from my "usual" build-script.
+building has been documented elsewhere, see eg [[HowTo:Install_POV |installing POV-Ray]], I show here only the key steps from my "usual" build-script.
-in an ideal world you'd write a basic build script to automate part or all of the procedure.  such a script can then be used, with little modification, for every subsequent installation of a POV-Ray.
+in an ideal world you'd write a basic build script to automate part or all of the procedure.
 also recommended is the use of the 'script(1)' program, as it provides a record of all the information which "scrolled by" etc.
@@ Line 74: / Line 76: @@
 </pre>
-the 'doc' directory (if wished) needs to be moved manually from 'share/doc', the '--docdir=...' configuration option doesn't work.
+re the configuration, for the build flags (<code>CXXFLAGS</code>) I prefer <code>-O2</code> over more "aggressive" optimisation.