Package/Build-From-Source Management

[Florian Diesch]

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

> Florian Diesch <diesch at spamfence.net> writes:
>
>> 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
>
> Sorry, what menu?

Gnome, KDE or whatever



>> and things like that, 
> What else is "like that?"

Simple things that doesn't require much of knowledge.
Like telling an application to use a new plugin, setting some
environment variables, ...

>> 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.
>
> Well, I hate to say it, but it's no wonder people struggle with
> Linux.  
> I don't think I've ever had a Linux system where the package
> management system didn't end up in some horribly wedged state from
> which I couldn't figure out how to recover.  

Just don't fiddle around with the package management if you don't have
a good knowledge of it. I never had problems if I was sticking with the
distributor's packages. And I've even installed a lot of alien software
without breaking the system, but it sometimes required me to get my
fingers pretty dirty somewhere down in the system (but sometimes
everything worked just out of the box too).



> There's gotta be a better way of doing this stuff.

Not as long as linux distributions are handling some things
differently. And I really don't want to give up the freedom to choose
between different ways to handle things - that's one reason I don't
stick with Microsoft or Apple. Of course there's a price you have to pay
for freedom.




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