Re: What do I do with tarballs?

[Matt Garman <garman@crh3019.urh.uiuc.edu>]

> On Mon, 5 Apr 1999, Stefan Langerman wrote:
> 
> > Subject: What do I do with tarballs?
> > 
> > dselect is great, but what do I do when there is no deb package for the
> > soft I want? I know of course how to install somethng from a tarball, my
> > question is just: where do I do it? Where do I put the package etc. and
> > make sure I am not messing up dpkg? Are there any conventions for that?
> > Is there any doc that explains that?

For software that isn't Debianized...  I use "epkg":

http://www-wsg.cso.uiuc.edu/encap/

It is very similar to GNU's stow, but in my opinion, better.

Basically, stuff you do for your whole system that is not done by dpkg
(i.e. installing new software) should go in the /usr/local/
hierarchy.  When you compile software from source and want to install
it in /usr/local, you can put the made files in their appropriate
directories relative to /usr/local, e.g., executables go in bin/ and
man pages in man/, etc...  Once the files are set up appropriately,
you can use epkg to create symlinks in the actual /usr/local
hierarchy, for easy installing and uninstalling.  I believe there is a
distribution or two that actually uses this method for package
management.

email me if you want more info,
Matt

-- 
Matt Garman, garman@uiuc.edu
"They're always havin' a good time down on the bayou,
 Lord, them delta women think the world of me."
	-- Dickey Betts, "Ramblin' Man"