This is how I do it:

Note: Unix commands start with $, anything else will be notes, comments.

If you see a $ <some_command> The part after slash slash is a comment.

1) Make a workspace:

I have several workspaces under /work

/work/osgeo /work/geoeye /work/drb

To build the osgeo side:

I have files that I source. One for osgeo one for geoeye. So I can source one or the other and then build test code. So in my bash start up scripts I start with no ossim stuff set. Since we're building osgeo I do:

$ cd cd to home

Source my osgeo setup file. This sets OSSIM_HOME, OSSIM_PREFS_FILE and so on. File contents at end: $ . ossimrc-osgeo

$ cd /work/osgeo

First time through check out code. Note I don't like to check out the whole trunk so I do pieces.

I always build libtiff, geotiff, gdal from the latest. You don't have to, it's up to you.

Get libtiff cvs -d :pserver:cvsanon@cvs.maptools.org:/cvs/maptools/cvsroot co libtiff

The geotiff source code is available via svn (subversion) server on: ​http://svn.osgeo.org/metacrs/geotiff/trunk/libgeotiff

Get geotiff: svn co ​http://svn.osgeo.org/metacrs/geotiff/trunk/libgeotiff

The gdal source code is available via svn (subversion) server on ​http://svn.osgeo.org/gdal/trunk/gdal

Get gdal: svn co ​http://svn.osgeo.org/gdal/trunk/gdal gdal