hi!

I've read the tutorial here on how to install programmes, but I've run into a kink, or two, and don't know how to proceed.

For example: I've dumped all the tarballs to everything I want to fiddle around with in /usr/local/src (as per directed by the tutorial). Openbox is one of these things, as it doesn't come prepackaged with Slack v10.

I untar, make, and install it.... but it's installed in that directory. Having the intial impression that /usr/local/src is just a working directory to fiddle around in... shouldn't I be putting it somewhere else? is it ok there? Will other users be able to acces it? I had expected the exectuable to be in /etx/X11 like where the exectuables for blackbox or fluxbox currently reside (according to my X config file).

If I should be making sure it installs somewhere else... how would I do that?

Which expends into the general question of where should the destination of ANY install be? IE: I left openbox alone, and am now trying to install FireFox... it asks me where I want to put it... and I have no idea. Windows slaps everything inside Program Files, usually. I expect Linux, no matter what the distro, to have the same thing...

I just don't want to end up installing something that say, only root can access, but no one else can't, because of where I put it.

Any help/explanations would be greatly appreciated!
~Michelle

I'm not at my Linux box right now, but the short answer to your question is that you can install packages anywhere on your machine. You just might have to remember where you put them.

Try "whereis <program you installed>" to get its location. If one pops up, you just have to type in the full path to execute the program.

What you may have to do is update your $PATH variable to include the directory that your programs are placed. A quick google search on that will provide you with a better explanation, but essentially your shell doesn't know where to look in the directory for your program; you have to tell it where to look by default.

Don't worry about only root being able to use a program. Usually you can do ./configure, make, and make install and things will work out just fine.

you can do things anyway you want. I usually keep all of my source in $HOME/apps, kernels and everything ( I'm the only user of the machine). Once you do this for awhile, you will know what you want and develop your habits. for me, I install everything to /usr or /opt. For someone else it could be completely different. the important thing is to learn how to manipulate your environment in your chosen shell so that your programs will work correctly. Just remember that "./configure, make, make install" will not get you through forever, you will need to make sure you are doing things correctly for them to work.

mmkay, thanks

Also, as a Slack user, have a look at Checkinstall from /extra (FTP or 3rd CD) and try running that instead of 'make install' - it will run the make install and then allow you to create a Slackware package for that software that you can easily install or remove (since not all programs provide a 'make uninstall')

Most programs that are built from source will try to install to /usr/local, although you can override it (software that comes with Slackware itself can be found in /usr)

Software from source typically installs to /usr/local/lib, with a binary or a symbolic link to start the program in /usr/local/bin (the same is true of /usr - /usr/lib and /usr/bin) Some programs use /opt, and it's best not to fiddle with their prefix - i.e. KDE & it's software, OpenOffice

if you aren't already making packages of your builds, head over to a slackware mirror and in the /extra directory grab checkinstall ( or use makepkg, whichever you prefer ( checkinstall being the "quick and dirty" way)) to make slack packages of your builds, it'll make life much easier on you when you need to remove or upgrade something.

to use checkinstall just do the normal:

./configure <options>
make

but instead of make install do "checkinstall". if you need something other than the default make install like say

make DOCDIR=blahblah install
then you'll need to:

checkinstall make DOCDIR=blahbah install