Package/Build-From-Source Management

[Florian Diesch]

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

> Florian Diesch <diesch at spamfence.net> writes:
>
>>>>> 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.
>
> Oh, back to square zero on that one.  Any other ideas?

If you want to install software that is not prepared for Ubuntu you
have to prepare it yourself. Sometimes that just means to edit the menu
and things like that, but sometimes you need much knowledge about the
system and how things in Ubuntu are done.

Most offen the pcakage management will complain before seriously breaking
anything that can't be repaired by just uninstalling the new
package. But to avoid problems you should at least uninstall everything
alien before upgrading to the next Ubuntu release.


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