I clone the source of zsh source file from github, after that I ran the command
bash install-sh
and
./install
It prompt to me that
No input file specified .
Then follow the instructions I tried
make install
No luck I got
*** No rule to make target 'install'. Stop.
Can anyone give me some Hints or Instructions?
The zsh shell is most likely available pre-compiled as a package through your system's package management software.
The official source distribution of the zsh shell, found at, e.g., https://www.zsh.org/pub/, contains a configure script. The Git repository is primarily for developers, and people wanting to contribute to the zsh project. It lacks the configure script used for configuring things like the project's installation prefix and for creating the actual Makefile(s) that make would later use to build the software. It lacks the script since it is derived from the rest of the code in the repository.
According to the project's INSTALL file, one needs to run ./Util/preconfig from the top-level directory of the repository first to create the configure file. A pre-configuration step similar to this is relatively common in projects where a configure script (or equivalent) is not distributed in the project's source code repository.
Once that has been done, you may run configure with its --prefix option to point to a local directory such as "$HOME"/local or similar where you want the project to install when you later run make install. The make utility will automatically create bin and other directories under the chosen installation prefix.
Also, don't forget to add the installation prefix's bin directory to your PATH variable.
configure is shipped with the source distribution. But is not included in the source repository. You'd generally clone the source repository if you intend to contribute to the code (or if you want to live on the bleeding edge and use features that have not been released yet). As configured is generated from other files, it doesn't make sense to include it in the repository.
Your problem is that you're trying to install to system directories, which (quite consistently) you can't as unprivileged user (that's the whole idea).
So, change that installation target directory!
https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh/blob/master/INSTALL is your reference.
the configure script comes with a help command:
./configure --help will tell you you can change the installation prefix.
This is simply done using ./configure --prefix=/home/ren/prefix, assuming there's a directory /home/ren/prefix that you want to install things into.
Then, you just continue normally. You will have to, afterwards, tell your system that there's executables you want to use in /home/ren/prefix/bin, i.e. export PATH=/home/ren/prefix/bin:$PATH. You also need to tell it that there's libraries, for example in /home/ren/prefix/lib64 (you need to check that path yourself); export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/home/ren/prefix/lib64:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH. Afterwards, you can just run your freshly compiled zsh:
$> zsh
yay!
Generally, I think compiling your shells on your own system should not be high on your priority list. You can install that using your package manager, much more sanely. If you just want to try things out, you can use podman or docker (just replace podman with docker in that case) to just try to run containers, in which you are root, without being root on the system.
podman run -it --rm debian:11
root@abcdef123:/# apt update
root@abcdef123:/# apt install -y zsh
root@abcdef123:/# zsh
abcdef123:/# ## this is now zsh
INSTALLdocument in the repository? It starts by saying to run theconfigurescript. You may want to do that, but with the--helpoption to read more about howconfigure --prefix=pathnameworks (which is also mentioned in theINSTALLdocument).configure, thenmakewould not complain withNo rule to make target 'install'. Stop.INSTALL, you should then first run./Util/preconfig.