How can I compile a standalone FFTW library?

Question

I need to compile a standalone .a or .so library in Ubuntu 10.04 from the FFTW source code. I find that the directory layout of the source distribution is so complex that I have no idea where to start.

I need to use an older version of gcc as well.

Answer 1

If you just want the libraries install the libfftw3-dev package,

http://packages.ubuntu.com/lucid/amd64/libfftw3-dev/filelist

To build from source follow the trivial steps from the manual,

http://www.fftw.org/fftw3_doc/Installation-on-Unix.html#Installation-on-Unix

It's literally the basic installation of every piece of autoconf using software ever:

./configure
make
make install