We had a smokehouse attached to the wash house (separate rooms in the same building). The smokehouse portion was about 4' wide, and probably about 12' long. My father smoked mostly sausage, but occasionally ham and bacon. Some of the sausage would only be smoked for a couple of days to give it the smoke flavor, then taken down and put in the freezer. The rest was left hanging until pretty much all the moisture was removed, as was eaten "as is". We called this "dry sausage". He had some poles that were just the right length to lay across the plates at the top of the wall studs, about 7' off the floor, to hang the meat on. When first hanging the sausage he'd make sure none of them were touching each other. I think he said they'd mold if touching.
For the method, he had a metal 5-gallon bucket that he would build the fire in. He'd put it in the middle of the room (which had a concrete floor), and after the fire was going to his satisfaction he'd put a lid on it to restrict the oxygen and make it smoke instead of flame. This lid was a thin metal plate with one or two holes in it. His preferred fuel was hickory nuts, but if he didn't have any he'd use hickory, pecan, or oak wood.
I also remember that if the weather was warm he'd make sure to keep a lot of smoke going; he said this kept the meat from spoiling. If the weather was cool he wouldn't worry about it as much.
I'm sure there are a lot of other details that I don't remember. This was over 30 years ago.