Package/Build-From-Source Management

[Florian Diesch]

David Abrahams <dave at boost-consulting.com> wrote:

> Bob Nielsen <nielsen at oz.net> writes:
>
>>>
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> 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?
>>
>> Install the checkinstall package.  Checkinstall is then used in place
>> of 'make install' and will create a .deb package and install it so
>> the package management system is aware of the software.
>
> Oh, excellent.  That really looks like it hits the spot.  How does
> anyone function without it?

I'm installing software in a subdir of /usr/local/packages and use stow
to manage symlinks into the /usr/local hierarchy. This way it's easy to
see what I've installed manually and I can easily switch between
different versions or uninstall software.


> I do have one question that isn't answered in its docs: if I am
> building and installing a development snapshot, what version would I
> give it to make sure that the system isn't confused?  Feel free to
> redirect me to the checkinstall lists if you don't know.

I just deinstall the package if it's not needed by other packages or
leave it installed and use $PATH, $LD_LIBRARY_PATH etc. to make the
system use my manually installed version



>>> 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?
>>
>> Install the alien package.  It can be used to convert from rpm to deb
>> (and vice-versa).
>
> Superb.

Be careful with alien, it just converts the package format but knows
nothing about where the files belong to in Ubuntu or what special
actions are required to integrate the software into the system.


   Florian
-- 
<http://www.florian-diesch.de/>