To build Openbox from CVS you need:

A C++ Compiler (GNU GCC/G++ 3.2+ suggested, 2.9x is not supported as it is not
                very compliant with the ISO C++ standards)
GNU Gettext 0.11.5
GNU Autoconf 2.50+
GNU Automake 1.7.1+ (1.7.1 has a bug fix for py-compile)
GNU Libtool
Xft2 library/headers (devel package) (http://www.fontconfig.org)
Xlib library/headers (devel package)
Python library/headers (devel package) (http://www.python.org)
SWIG 1.3.14+ (http://www.swig.org)

I recommend the latest version of all these packages.

Do the following to build and install Openbox in CVS:

% ./bootstrap
% ./configure
% make all install

When building the SWIG generated wrappers (*_wrap.cc), a huge number of
compiler warnings will be generated. Don't be phased by this, it doesn't mean
anything is broken unless you get an actual error.

Don't try running it from the src/ directory without installing, it won't work.
It needs to be installed before it is run.

The installed binary is 'openbox3'.



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Here's the packages from Debian (sid):
  g++
  gettext
  automake1.7
  autoconf
  libtool
  libxft2-dev
  python-dev
  swig1.3


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Check out the Wiki for how to configure Openbox 3:
http://icculus.org/openbox/phpwiki/index.php/PythonScripting