You have been sent to this page because the skarnet.org package you are installing shares part of its configuration mechanism with other packages. The following applies to most of skarnet.org's software.
The conf-compile/ subdirectory of the package is where all the build-time package configuration takes place. The provided defaults are suitable for most installations, but you might want to check them anyway.
Only the first line of these files is ever taken into account. Some of these files do not appear by default; it's as if they were empty.
This file contains the command that will be used to compile source .c files into .o object files. Compiler options such as "-c" or "-fPIC", whenever needed, will be automatically added to this command.
In GNU configure terms, this file should contain the equivalent of ${CC} ${CFLAGS}.
This file contains the command that will be used to make a .so shared library from .o object files.
In GNU configure terms, this file should contain the equivalent of ${LD} ${LDFLAGS}, plus the options you want to give to the build-time dynamic linker driver.
This file contains the command that will be used to link .o object files into an executable.
In GNU configure terms, this file should contain the equivalent of ${LD} ${LDFLAGS}.
This file contains the command that will be used to strip newly made executables.
For instance, strip with BSD strip, or strip -R .note -R .comment -R .note.GNU-stack with GNU strip, works.
This file contains the command that will be used to strip newly made .a library files.
For instance, strip -x with BSD strip, or strip -x -R .note -R .comment -R .note.GNU-stack with GNU strip, works.
This file contains the prefix of your slashpackage installation for run-time. It does not appear by default, meaning an empty prefix.
For instance, if it contains /home/toto, then the build system will configure the software for, and install it into, a slashpackage tree residing in home/toto/package/....
By default, build-time slashpackage-aware dependencies for the software are also searched using this prefix; this can be overriden via path-* configuration files.
A few other conf- files that do not appear by default are automatically used by the build system, but you should never have to modify them. Please do not override the default values unless you know exactly what you are doing.
These files contain a list of directories (one directory per line) that will be searched for build-time dependencies. The $SP_ROOT expression will automatically be replaced by the first line of the conf-sp_root file. If you're only using pristine or prefixed slashpackage installations, you should never have to modify these files.
This file contains the list of directories to search for .h header files.
This file contains the list of directories to search for .a static libraries.
This file contains the list of directories to search for .so dynamic libraries.
flag-* files are always empty: only their existence or absence is tested by the build system. Every skarnet.org package has its own set of flags; check your package's documentation.
Some flags, though, are supported by all the skarnet.org packages that refer you to this page.
If flag-allstatic is set, then only the static, non-shared version of the package's libraries will be built (the .a files); no PIC will be produced. Also, all the package's executables will be linked against static versions of their dependencies (for instance skalibs' libstddjb); only your libc will be linked dynamically. (To link against the static version of your libc, also add the -static flag to your command line in the conf-ld file.)
If flag-allstatic is clear, then both the .a and the .so versions of the package's libraries will be built, and the package's executables will use the dynamic versions of their dependencies if those exist. This is the default. Note that in this case, the .a libraries will also be made of PIC, which can be significantly larger on some systems; the author is aware of the problem, and it might be corrected in future releases of the skarnet.org packages, but don't hold your breath.
This flag should be set if you do not want any .so files or any run-time dependencies to skalibs. In particular, use it if you are building an embedded system with skarnet.org utilities. Since skarnet.org software was made with static linking and embedded environments in mind, I generally recommend setting this flag unless you have a very good reason to use shared libraries.
If you are using shared libraries, make sure to properly configure your dynamic linker: add /library.so (or foo/library.so if foo is your slashpackage prefix) to the list of directories it looks for shared libraries in. Else your skarnet.org packages will compile, but they will not run.
The import file contains a list of directories (one per line) containing files that should be directly "imported" into the build directory (they will actually be symlinked), such as skalibs' sysdeps files.
The $SP_ROOT expression will automatically be replaced by the first line of the conf-sp_root file. If you're only using pristine or prefixed slashpackage installations, you should never have to modify this file.