This comprises the following steps:

It goes without saying that your system must have a C compiler installed before attempting to build the EMBOSS package. Many, if not most, operating systems come complete with a C compiler. For those that don't (e.g. Solaris) you can install the GNU gcc compiler which is available from many freeware sites. EMBOSS has been optimized to use the standard/proprietary compiler for each of the operating systems to which the developers have access. So, for example, under IRIX the cc compiler should be preferentially used, under Linux distributions the gcc compiler will automatically be used.