DVOI.OCM

Do you need a Japanese-savvy e-mail client that runs under X11? Unfortunately one of the POSIX^®-compliant operating systems that I use daily no longer provides recent releases in a ready-to-install package, and I can't always afford to upgrade the operating system and software package management system or whatever - keeping software up-to-date is a neverending story. I ended up rolling my own anyway.

A Minimalist Approach

For starters, download the source code and a matching L10N package for Japanese:

(hoge)% wget ftp://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/thunderbird/releases/3.1.10/\
source/thunderbird-3.1.10.source.tar.bz2

Note that I don't use hg or sudo.

(hoge)% tar xf thunderbird-3.1.10.source.tar.bz2


(hoge)% wget http://hg.mozilla.org/releases/l10n-mozilla-1.9.2/ja/archive/\
d824447e8c35.tar.bz2

Set up the source:

(hoge)% tar xf d824447e8c35.tar.bz2

(hoge)% ln -s ja-d824447e8c35 ja

(hoge)% setenv MOZCONFIG `pwd`/mozconfig

(hoge)% vi mozconfig

Note: This procedure should work with x86_64 systems as well — check to see if your mozconfig file has to include something like:

ac_add_options --enable-64bit
ac_add_options --libdir=/usr/lib64

If a precompiled version of Lightning is unavailable for x86_64, you can build the extension with:

ac_add_options --enable-calendar

For further details, see the Configuring Build Options document. Be sure to adjust build arguments and shell command lines to match your system and preference. You might want to try profile guided optimization.^[1]

(hoge)% grep -i 'prefix\|locale\|l10n\|mail' mozconfig
mk_add_options MOZ_CO_PROJECT=mail
mk_add_options MOZ_CO_LOCALES=ja
ac_add_options --prefix=/opt/local
ac_add_options --enable-application=mail
ac_add_options --with-l10n-base=..
ac_add_options --enable-ui-locale=ja

(hoge)% cd comm-1.9.2

(hoge)% make -j 2 -f client.mk build

Be patient until everything complies ok...

If you're safely returned to the command prompt, install the lot:

(hoge)% su root
Password:

# setenv MOZCONFIG `pwd`/mozconfig

# make -f client.mk install

Save your keystrokes & time. Have lots of RAM & enjoy.

Notes

1. ^ For automated optimization, add the following lines to your mozconfig:
   mk_add_options PROFILE_GEN_SCRIPT='$(PYTHON) $(MOZ_OBJDIR)/_profile/pgo/profileserver.py'
ac_add_options --enable-profile-guided-optimization
   Start the build process by issuing:
   make -f client.mk profiledbuild
   Be sure to consult the Mozilla Developer Center documentation for further details.

See also: Building Mozilla Firefox 3.6.x with "ja" Locale.