You have to download the entire Hamlib structure (all the rig backends, the support routines, etc), as the various libraries are all cascaded dependencies. But you really only need to do it once.
Note: If you download the "release", I believe all the makefiles are already generated. If you download the "daily" scrum, then you need to autogenerate them (at least I had to).
There are 3 ways to compile once you have the files/makefiles downloaded:
1. You can compile the makefile in ./rigs/yaesu. This is where ft980.x is. I do this as a periodic quick check, as I don't fully trust the linter I'm using yet. However, this ONLY compiles the yaesu backends locally
2. You can compile the entire hamlib by doing a "make" in the "root" directory. I do this after I complete a series of changes ... just to make sure my local changes don't break something somewhere else.
3. You can compile and install (usually in your /usr directory) with a "sudo make install"
You are correct that the only files I think that we need to worry about are the ft980.x ones ... but we can't compile/test them by themselves.
The only files I'm currently working on are ft980.c & ft980.h (new). So, once you have it compiling I can send them to you, you can replace them in ./rigs/yaesu.
Note: at some point I will modify or make a new test-vector binary in ./tests ... after the VFOs are proven out maybe.
--
-Mat Breton, N8TW
Mat Breton N8TW