SDL's build system was traditionally based on autotools. Over time, this approach has suffered from several issues across the different supported platforms. To solve these problems, a new build system based on CMake is under development. It works in parallel to the legacy system, so users can experiment with it without complication. While still experimental, the build system should be usable on the following platforms:
Assuming the source for SDL is located at ~/sdl
cd ~
mkdir build
cd build
cmake ../sdl
This will build the static and dynamic versions of SDL in the ~/build directory.