Package/Build-From-Source Management

[Ainsley Pereira]

On Sat, Jun 03, 2006 at 02:45:23PM -0400, David Abrahams wrote:
> I often need to download, build, and install software from source, but
> when I do, the package management system doesn't know about the new
> software.  Can anyone tell me how to properly manage things so
> built-from-source software doesn't mess up the package manager?

There are a number of resources on
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DeveloperResources
I found the Debian New Maintainer's guide very informative:
http://www.debian.org/doc/maint-guide/

> Another thing that worries me is that in practice several package
> management systems might be in use at any time.  For example, Intel's
> C++ compiler is only distributed as an RPM.  How should I manage the
> interaction among these different systems?

You can install a program called 'alien' (sudo apt-get install alien)
which can convert rpms etc to .deb files that you can dpkg -i.
(I've not used this myself.)

Hope that helps,
Ainsley