cd contrib && cp Makefile.in Makefile.in.orig && sed -e "s:emacs::" Makefile.in.orig > Makefile.in && cd .. && These commands eliminate the compiling and installing of the Emacs script files. If you have substituted Emacs for Vi as your primary editor, you would want to skip these instructions. cp configure{,.orig} && sed -e 's|/usr/local/share/ghostscript|/usr/share/ghostscript|g' \ configure.orig > configure This command modifies the configure script to search for Ghostscript fonts at the location where they were installed by the BLFS instructions. --sysconfdir=/etc/a2ps: Configuration data goes to /etc/a2ps instead of /usr/etc. --with-medium=letter: This switch changes the default paper format of A4 to letter. Installations that utilize A4 would eliminate this switch.