I just installed software compiling from source and would like to put it on several computers. Is there a way to do an image of just that one install ? I would say no myself, but I would be happy to hear someone say that it can be done and how......

If you know where all the files get installed, then you could certainly gather them up and make an install script. (Or just copy the files by hand) As long as you are porting to identical machines, there should be no problem.

Thank you for the prompt reply, that is good news, but seeing I have never done this before I am looking for someone that knows of any documentation (how-to) I could use for either one of the procedures you mention. Or maybe a general step per step on how to accomplish it.

thanks pixellany

First, do it by hand:
find all the files (depends on the application, of course)
copy to a CD or thumb drive
move to a target computer
copy the files to the right directories

All this just with "cd" + the burning of the CD. The script will simply combine some steps and do however much error-checking you want.

Can't you just copy the source directory (containing the already compiled stuff) over to the new machine and run 'make install' there? or am I missing something? Packaging is nice, as long as you know how to do it... I don't have the slightest clue how ubuntu users usually make packages though.

You can also just install it to a temporary location, like i do. This is simple, for this example i will assume a few things, first, that the temporary location is /package/temp and that you have already configured, and compiled (issued 'make') the source. So all thats nessesary is installation, for most packages, the ones that have support for "./configure --prefix=xxx", this is simply a matter of changing that prefix variable after compilation, but before installation. For example, this command should work:

if you look at /packages/temp you should see all the installed files in a directory tree matching that of the original prefix variable.

The cleaner would be if they are deb packages, list the package that are installed on your reference machine:
dpkg --get-selection > mylist

And on a machine that you want the software installed, set the repository to point to your server hosting the package. And copy the list file
aptitude update
cat mylist | dpkg --set-selection
aptitude update

And you will get the packages listed in mylist updated from your repository.

Well, that's a clean but maybe more complex solution.. and only works with debian based machines. From rpm you could still do it by playing with alien.

I know it would most likely be easier and faster just to compile the source on the other 3 manchines also, but I just wanted to see if it could be done with an image. I am always trying to learn new things if possible.

Package can be source or binary.
When you install with apt-get or aptitude or synaptics or whatever, it's a binary package that you install.
A binary package is {binaries,configuration files,dependencies information with libraries,..}

Manually, you would need at least those 3.