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+# Building Ice for C++ on Linux
+
+This page describes the Ice source distribution, including information about compiler requirements, third-party dependencies, and instructions for building and testing the distribution. If you prefer, you can install [binary packages](https://doc.zeroc.com/display/Ice36/Using+the+Linux+Binary+Distributions) for supported platforms that contain pre-compiled libraries, executables, and everything else necessary to build Ice applications on Linux.
+
+## C++ Build Requirements for Linux
+
+### Operating Systems and Compilers
+
+Ice is expected to build and run properly on any recent Linux distribution for x86 and x86_64, and was extensively tested using the operating systems and compiler versions listed for our [supported platforms](https://zeroc.com/platforms_3_6_0.html).
+
+### Third-Party Libraries
+
+Ice has dependencies on a number of third-party libraries:
+
+ - [expat](http://expat.sourceforge.net/) 2.0
+ - [OpenSSL](http://openssl.org) 0.9.8 or later
+ - [bzip](http://bzip.org) 1.0
+ - [Berkeley DB](http://www.oracle.com/us/products/database/berkeley-db/overview/index.htm) 5.3
+ - [mcpp](https://github.com/zeroc-ice/mcpp) 2.7.2 (with patches)
+
+Expat, OpenSSL and bzip are included with most Linux distributions. ZeroC supplies binary packages for Berkeley DB and mcpp on supported Linux distributions that do not include them:
+
+- Berkeley DB 5.3.28 on RHEL 6, SLES12, SLES 11 and AMZN 2015.03
+- mcpp 2.7.2 with patches (```mcpp-devel```) on RHEL 7, RHEL 6, SLES 12, SLES 11 and AMZN 2015.03
+
+## Compiling and Testing Ice for C++ on Linux
+
+In a command window, change to the ```cpp``` subdirectory:
+
+    $ cd cpp
+
+Edit ```config/Make.rules``` to establish your build configuration. The comments in the file provide more information. Pay particular attention to the variables that define the locations of the third-party libraries.
+
+Now you're ready to build Ice:
+
+    $ make
+
+This will build the Ice core libraries, services, and tests.
+
+Python is required to run the test suite. After a successful build, you can run the tests as follows:
+
+    $ make test
+
+This command is equivalent to:
+
+    $ python allTests.py
+
+If everything worked out, you should see lots of ```ok``` messages. In case of a failure, the tests abort with ```failed```.
+
+### 64-bit Source Builds on Linux x86_64
+
+To build Ice in 64-bit mode, you need to do the following:
+
+- Obtain or build all the third-party dependencies, and put the 64-bit libraries in the lib64 directories. For example, put Berkeley DB 64-bit libraries in ```$DB_HOME/lib64```.
+- Build and test as described above.
+
+### 32-bit Source Builds on Linux x86_64
+
+By default, builds on x86_64 are 64-bit. To perform a 32-bit build on an x86_64 Linux system, set the environment variable ```LP64``` to no, as shown below:
+
+    $ export LP64=no
+
+## Installing a C++ Source Build on Linux
+
+Simply run ```make install```. This will install Ice in the directory specified by the ```prefix``` variable in ```config/Make.rules```.
+
+After installation, make sure that the ```prefix/bin``` directory is in your ```PATH```.
+
+If you choose to not embed a ```runpath``` into executables at build time (see your build settings in ```config/Make.rules```) or did not create a symbolic link from the ```runpath``` directory to the installation directory, you also need to add the library directory to your ```LD_LIBRARY_PATH```.
+
+On an x86 system, the library directory is:
+
+    prefix/lib                   (RHEL, SLES, Amazon)
+    prefix/lib/i386-linux-gnu    (Ubuntu)
+
+On an x86_64 system:
+
+    prefix/lib64                 (RHEL, SLES, Amazon)
+    prefix/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu  (Ubuntu)
+
+When compiling Ice programs, you must pass the location of the ```prefix/include``` directory to the compiler with the ```-I``` option, and the location of the library directory with the ```-L``` option. If building a C++11 program, you must add the ```/c++11``` suffix to the library directory (such as ```prefix/lib/c++11```).