libdbi uses the "autotools", i.e. automake, autoconf, and libtool to provide a simple and consistend build and install process on all supported platforms. The good news is that you usually don't have to fiddle that much with ./configure as libdbi provides only a single option:
--disable-docsIf you build libdbi from a tarball, the docs are already prebuilt and ready to install. In this case, you don't need this option. However, if you build from a cvs checkout, this is a simple way to switch off building the documentation. This is useful if you don't want to install the prerequisites for building the docs (openjade, the DocBook DSSSL stylesheets, TeX, and JadeTeX).
If you type ./configure --help, you'll see a few more options. These are provided by the autotools, and you should consult their documentation to make best use of them.
Once you have figured out which options to use or not, you are ready to go ahead and run:
$ ./configure [your options]
$ make
$ sudo make install |