Can't configure in source dir..

["Mike A. Harris" <mharris@opensourceadvocate.org>]

I get the following error after untarring the SN source, cd'ing
into the dir and trying to configure:

10 mharris@asdf:~/rpmbuild/SOURCES/SN452-source$ ./configure
Configuring for a i586-pc-linux-gnu host.
*** Cannot configure in source tree.
*** Make a parallel directory and configure there.


No matter what directory I put the sources in I get this.  I've
got 3 copies of the untarred sources right now and it still does
not configure no matter what.  Looking at the configure script I
find:

# Don't allow builds at Cygnus to be done with
srcdir==builddir.  We
# can assume srcdir==. in this case, because of code above.
if test "$srcdir" = .; then
   echo '***' "Cannot configure in source tree." >&2
   echo '***' "Make a parallel directory and configure
there." >&2
   exit 1
fi


Short of removing this line from the script, what is the
recommended method to build this thing.  ;o)  I just followed the
instructions in the top level README file and it does not work.

10 mharris@asdf:~/rpmbuild/SOURCES/SN452-source$ ./configure
--prefix=/opt/source-navigator --srcdir=.
Configuring for a i586-pc-linux-gnu host.
*** Cannot configure in source tree.
*** Make a parallel directory and configure there.


$ ./configure --prefix=/opt/source-navigator \
	--srcdir=. --secretdecoderring=~/.decoderrings/sourcenav.ring
configure: Unrecognized
option: "--secretdecoderring=/home/mharris/.decoderrings/sourcenav.ring"; use
--help for usage.


Is there some problem with compiling this as non-root?  I really
don't want to have to be root to build packages..  Any ideas?



----------------------------------------------------------------------
      Mike A. Harris  -  Linux advocate  -  Open source advocate
              Computer Consultant - Capslock Consulting
                 Copyright 2000 all rights reserved
----------------------------------------------------------------------

[Favorite quotes of Linus Torvalds - Sept 6, 2000]
I'm a bastard. I have absolutely no clue why people can ever think
otherwise. Yet they do. People think I'm a nice guy, and the fact is that
I'm a scheming, conniving bastard who doesn't care for any hurt feelings
or lost hours of work if it just results in what I consider to be a better
system.  And I'm not just saying that. I'm really not a very nice person. 
I can say "I don't care" with a straight face, and really mean it.
        -- Linus Torvalds on linux-kernel mailing list