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How do I build gd?

Win32 DLL users: if you are using MSVC, use the provided batch file makemsvcimport.bat to make a bgd.lib import library corresponding to the provided bgd.dll. Copy bgd.dll to your application directory, or to your Windows sytem directory. In the settings of your MSVC project, you MUST choose the "multithreaded DLL" library option under "code generation." mingw32 and cygwin users can simply link with the provided libbgd.a stub library in order to use the DLL.
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Building gd From the Source

In order to build gd, you must first unpack the archive you have downloaded. If you are not familiar with tar and gunzip (Unix) or ZIP (Windows), please consult with an experienced user of your system. Sorry, we cannot answer questions about basic Internet skills.
Unpacking the archive will produce a directory called "gd-2.0.34".
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For Unix

cd to the 2.0.34 directory and type:
./configure
NOTE: BY DEFAULT, THE LIBRARY IS INSTALLED IN /usr/local/lib and the include files are installed in /usr/local/include. IF YOU ARE UPGRADING, you may wish to use:
./configure --prefix=/usr
Rather than just ./configure, before typing make and make install.
If all goes well, this will create a Makefile. If all does not go well -- for instance, if neither the the JPEG nor the PNG and ZLIB libraries are found -- you will need to install those libraries, then come back and run configure again.
If necessary, make changes to the resulting Makefile. Then, type "make". If there are no errors, follow this with "make install". Because gd 2.0 and above installs as a shared library, it is necessary to install the library properly before running gd-based programs.
If you get errors, type ./configure --help for more information about the available options. In the unlikely event that the GNU autoconf-produced configure script does not work well for you, you may wish to try configure.pl, a simple Perl script with similar but less complete capabilities. If all else fails, try renaming makefile.sample to Makefile. However, ./configure is almost always your best bet.