Recommended way to install from source code and yet manageable by package system?
DebianThis forum is for the discussion of Debian Linux.
Notices
Welcome to LinuxQuestions.org, a friendly and active Linux Community.
You are currently viewing LQ as a guest. By joining our community you will have the ability to post topics, receive our newsletter, use the advanced search, subscribe to threads and access many other special features. Registration is quick, simple and absolutely free. Join our community today!
Note that registered members see fewer ads, and ContentLink is completely disabled once you log in.
If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us. If you need to reset your password, click here.
Having a problem logging in? Please visit this page to clear all LQ-related cookies.
Get a virtual cloud desktop with the Linux distro that you want in less than five minutes with Shells! With over 10 pre-installed distros to choose from, the worry-free installation life is here! Whether you are a digital nomad or just looking for flexibility, Shells can put your Linux machine on the device that you want to use.
Exclusive for LQ members, get up to 45% off per month. Click here for more info.
Recommended way to install from source code and yet manageable by package system?
Suppose I download the source.tar. What is the recommended way to install from the source code and yet manageable by the aptitude package system?
One method I read of is to install (.configure, make, checkinstall) with the help of checkinstall package and then manually install the deb package created with dpkg.
I think that what you really want is Gentoo. The entire distribution is source. Every file in the system is compiled on your computer. I just got Gentoo 2006.0 installed on a computer. It was a bit tricky. They have just started using a live/install cd. The installer didn't work so I had to use their old method of installing, as described for the 2005.x releases. I think that if you want a source distribution you may find Gentoo to be satisfying. Plus their package management utility, emerge, is a thousand times better than Debian's APT family of package management utiltities.
Distribution: Distribution: RHEL 5 with Pieces of this and that.
Kernel 2.6.23.1, KDE 3.5.8 and KDE 4.0 beta, Plu
Posts: 5,700
Rep:
The only way to get something like apt to see packages is for them to be packages to start with. Some source files contain a .spec file which can be used to build rpms from source. Another way is to use a generic .spec file to build the rpm from. If the rpm outhere has dependienc issues one can get the src.rpm if one exist and build your own rpm from that so it matches your current package version levels unless the src.rpm has minimum version levels in it.
I think the method you described, using checkinstall is pretty close to state-of-the-art. aptitude has some awareness of packages installed locally even without the package manager. At least it can give you a list of them, but I'm sure it desn't keep track of all their libraries, etc.
Package managers are almost a necessity for a well administrated system, which, I'm sure, is the reason Gentoo or any distribution which wishes to be taken seriously, uses one.
Quote:
...emerge, is a thousand times better than Debian's APT family ...
What you want is the debian source.
apt-get source <pakage name>
Modify the source to your hearts content
run dpkg-buildpackage
Then install the resulting deb(s).
However installing the resulting deb with 'dpkg -i' does not automatically resolve dependencies issue (ie. by downloading the required dependencies from the Internet). Also, any dependencies you installed manually would not be recognized by aptitude. ie. When you uninstall the package, aptitude would not automatically uninstalled its dependencies too.
A potential package that might solve the dependency issue with dpkg is gdebi. However, I'm not sure if gdebi will marked those downloaded dependencies as 'automatically installed'(so that they can also be automatically uninstalled when the parent package is uninstalled). If anyone can elaborate on this software, it would be great!
Quote:
Originally Posted by dracae
What you want is the debian source.
apt-get source <pakage name>
Modify the source to your hearts content
run dpkg-buildpackage
Then install the resulting deb(s).
LinuxQuestions.org is looking for people interested in writing
Editorials, Articles, Reviews, and more. If you'd like to contribute
content, let us know.