Re: When you needed newer software than Sid/Backports provide...

[Andrew Reid <reidac@bellatlantic.net>]

On Tuesday 07 July 2009 19:07:32 Akira Kitada wrote:

> My solution for this is easy and typical. Building from source and put
> it on /usr/local.
> That way, I can keep stable system while using the latest software.
> However, it didn't take so long to make /usr/local a mess.
> There's no easy way to track what I've installed because they're
> installed manually.
> It'd be nice if I could manage those software with apt but I suppose
> that might conflicts with ones Lenny provides.
>
> So here's my question. How can you manage new softwares while keeping
> the system stable?
 
  Use stow.

  Make a directory, /usr/local/stow, and build your software
into subdirectories, using "config --prefix=/usr/local/stow/packagename"

  Then do make, make install, as usual, and then go to /usr/local/stow
and do "stow packagename".
 
  What this does is create symlinks in /usr/local that point to the 
files in /usr/local/stow/<package>.  You don't have to edit paths,
everything stays POSIXly-correct, but you can remove packages by 
doing "stow -D", and you can always tell where a file came from 
by looking at the real location -- built software remains organized
by package subdirectories.

  It's not a panacea, some build schemes are not stow-friendly, 
but generally if it would work in /usr/local, it'll work with stow.

				-- A.
-- 
Andrew Reid / reidac@bellatlantic.net