Most users who realize that INSTALL files still exist should simply
follow the directions at
https://www.torproject.org/docs/tor-doc-unix

If you got the source from git, run "./autogen.sh", which will
run the various auto* programs. Then you can run ./configure, and
refer to the above instructions.

If it doesn't build for you:

  If you have problems finding libraries, try
    CPPFLAGS="-I/usr/local/include" LDFLAGS="-L/usr/local/lib" \
    ./configure
  or
    ./configure --with-libevent-dir=/usr/local
  rather than simply ./configure.

  If you have mysterious autoconf failures while linking openssl,
  consider setting your LD_LIBRARY_PATH to the openssl lib directory.
  For example, "setenv LD_LIBRARY_PATH /usr/athena/lib".

  Lastly, check out
  https://www.torproject.org/docs/faq#DoesntWork

How to do static builds of tor:

Tor supports linking each of the libraries it needs statically. Use the
--enable-static-X ./configure option in conjunction with the --with-X-dir
option for libevent, zlib, and openssl. For this to work sanely, libevent
should be built with --disable-shared --enable-static --with-pic, and
OpenSSL should be built with no-shared no-dso.

If you need to build tor so that system libraries are also statically linked,
use the --enable-static-tor ./configure option. This won't work on OS X
unless you build the required crt0.o yourself. It is also incompatible with
the --enable-gcc-hardening option.

An example of how to build a mostly static tor:
./configure --enable-static-libevent \
            --enable-static-openssl  \
            --enable-static-zlib     \
            --with-libevent-dir=/tmp/static-tor/libevent-1.4.14b-stable \
            --with-openssl-dir=/tmp/static-tor/openssl-0.9.8r/ \
            --with-zlib-dir=/tmp/static-tor/zlib-1.2.5

An example of how to build an entirely static tor:
./configure --enable-static-tor \
            --with-libevent-dir=/tmp/static-tor/libevent-1.4.14b-stable \
            --with-openssl-dir=/tmp/static-tor/openssl-0.9.8r/ \
            --with-zlib-dir=/tmp/static-tor/zlib-1.2.5