Using 'checkinstall'

Hi, I know there's a program called checkinstall for making packages for slackware.
Could someone explain me how to use it, I mean, the most common commands.

"Hi, I know there's a program called checkinstall for making packages for slackware.
Could someone explain me how to use it, I mean, the most common commands."

You start out with the source tarball. The install procedure is the same as installing from source except that you use checkinstall instead of make install.

The usual procedure is:
unpack the tarball
cd to the tarball source directory
./configure
make
checkinstall

Then checkinstall asks you a few questions such as whether you are making a Debian, RPM, or Slackware package and makes the package for you.

You then install the package in the usual way.

You can get checkinstall here:

http://asic-linux.com.mx/~izto/checkinstall/


___________________________________
Be prepared. Create a LifeBoat CD.
http://users.rcn.com/srstites/LifeBo...home.page.html

Steve Stites

Get it its awesome!

The only problem is that the packages I make don't seem to work with kpackage, they'll install and show up if I do installpkg foo.tgz on the command line, and they'll uninstall using kpackage but not the other way round.

Cheers
Amos

In kpackage you should click file->open and then chose the package. I can install my checkinstall packages using this method.

But then again why bother with Kpackage when you can just run installpkg!

Checkinstall installs the package for you as if you typed make install instead of checkinstall.

yeah checkinstall rocks.. highly recommended though there are a few things that don't work with it (like installing python modules or whatever)..

Checkinstall doesn't install Slackware packages it merely creates the tgz files and tells you to install them with installpkg ...

I was merely commenting that kpackage doesn't seem to install the packages I generate with checkinstall.


Cheers
Amos

I'm sorry but this just isn't the case this time amos. What version of checkinstall are you using? It installs the software like make install would and creates a package out of it.

I think the difference may be running checkinstall as root vs. a user. If you run it as root, it will install the package. It couldn't install it as a user of course.

Hi Amos

When creating pkgs with checkinstall, try doing it like this:

<cd to source directory>
./configure [options ...]
make
su
checkinstall

Of course, not all apps can be installed this way, only the ones that follow the standard "./configure, make, make install" commands.......For those that don't follow the those standard commands, you can still make Slackpacks using the package tools for Slackware and a build script...

Hi

1. thegeekster: That is how I've always used checkinstall.

2. At0mic_PC: Here is a sample output from running checkinstall on the latest version of cups I installed (I'd already done this once, hence the lack of interactivity):

root@rohan:/home/amos/downloads/cups-1.1.20# checkinstall

checkinstall 1.6.0beta3, Copyright 2002 Felipe Eduardo Sanchez Diaz Duran
           This software is released under the GNU GPL.



Please choose the packaging method you want to use.
Slackware [S], RPM [R] or Debian [D]? s


This package will be built according to these values:

1 -  Summary: [ Printing Tool ]
2 -  Name:    [ cups ]
3 -  Version: [ 1.1.20 ]
4 -  Release: [ 1 ]
5 -  License: [ GPL ]
6 -  Group:   [ Applications/System ]
7 -  Architecture: [ i386 ]
8 -  Source location: [ cups-1.1.20 ]
9 -  Alternate source location: [  ]

Enter a number to change any of them or press ENTER to continue:

Installing with make install...

========================= Installation results ===========================
Installing in cups...
Installing in backend...
Installing in berkeley...
Installing in cgi-bin...
Installing in filter...
Installing in man...
Making all in man/fr...
Installing all in man/fr...
Installing in pdftops...
Installing in scheduler...
Installing in systemv...
Installing in conf...
Installing in data...
Installing in doc...
Installing in fonts...
Installing in locale...
Installing in ppd...
Installing in templates...
Installing cups-config script...
Installing startup script...

======================== Installation successful ==========================

Copying documentation directory...
./
INSTALL.txt
INSTALL_fr.txt
README.txt
README_fr.txt
doc/
doc/de/
doc/de/images/
doc/de/images/CVS/
doc/de/images/CVS/Root
doc/de/images/CVS/Repository
doc/de/images/CVS/Entries
doc/de/images/accept-jobs.gif
doc/de/images/add-class.gif
doc/de/images/add-printer.gif
doc/de/images/cancel-job.gif
doc/de/images/config-printer.gif
doc/de/images/continue.gif
doc/de/images/delete-class.gif
doc/de/images/delete-printer.gif
doc/de/images/hold-job.gif
doc/de/images/manage-classes.gif
doc/de/images/manage-jobs.gif
doc/de/images/manage-printers.gif
doc/de/images/modify-class.gif
doc/de/images/modify-printer.gif
doc/de/images/navbar.gif
doc/de/images/print-test-page.gif
doc/de/images/reject-jobs.gif
doc/de/images/release-job.gif
doc/de/images/restart-job.gif
doc/de/images/show-active.gif
doc/de/images/show-completed.gif
doc/de/images/start-class.gif
doc/de/images/start-printer.gif
doc/de/images/stop-class.gif
doc/de/images/stop-printer.gif
doc/de/Makefile
doc/de/documentation.html
doc/de/index.html
doc/fr/
doc/fr/images/
doc/fr/images/CVS/
doc/fr/images/CVS/Root
doc/fr/images/CVS/Repository
doc/fr/images/CVS/Entries
doc/fr/images/accept-jobs.gif
doc/fr/images/add-class.gif
doc/fr/images/add-printer.gif
doc/fr/images/cancel-job.gif
doc/fr/images/config-printer.gif
doc/fr/images/continue.gif
doc/fr/images/delete-class.gif
doc/fr/images/delete-printer.gif
doc/fr/images/hold-job.gif
doc/fr/images/manage-classes.gif
doc/fr/images/manage-jobs.gif
doc/fr/images/manage-printers.gif
doc/fr/images/modify-class.gif
doc/fr/images/modify-printer.gif
doc/fr/images/navbar.gif
doc/fr/images/print-test-page.gif
doc/fr/images/reject-jobs.gif
doc/fr/images/release-job.gif
doc/fr/images/restart-job.gif
doc/fr/images/show-active.gif
doc/fr/images/show-completed.gif
doc/fr/images/start-class.gif
doc/fr/images/start-printer.gif
doc/fr/images/stop-class.gif
doc/fr/images/stop-printer.gif
doc/fr/Makefile
doc/fr/cups.css
doc/fr/cupsdoc.css
doc/fr/documentation.html
doc/fr/glossary.shtml
doc/fr/index.html
doc/fr/overview.html
doc/fr/overview.pdf
doc/fr/printing-overview.shtml
doc/fr/references.shtml
doc/fr/sam.html
doc/fr/sam.pdf
doc/fr/sam.shtml
doc/fr/sum.html
doc/fr/sum.pdf
doc/fr/sum.shtml
doc/fr/system-overview.shtml
doc/Makefile
doc/cmp.html
doc/cmp.pdf
doc/cmp.shtml
doc/cups.css
doc/cupsdoc.css
doc/documentation.html
doc/figures.sc
doc/glossary.shtml
doc/idd.html
doc/idd.pdf
doc/idd.shtml
doc/index.html
doc/ipp.html
doc/ipp.pdf
doc/ipp.shtml
doc/overview.html
doc/overview.pdf
doc/printing-overview.shtml
doc/references.shtml
doc/robots.txt
doc/sam.html
doc/sam.pdf
doc/sam.shtml
doc/sdd.html
doc/sdd.pdf
doc/sdd.shtml
doc/spm.html
doc/spm.pdf
doc/spm.shtml
doc/sps.html
doc/sps.pdf
doc/sps.shtml
doc/ssr.html
doc/ssr.pdf
doc/ssr.shtml
doc/stp.html
doc/stp.pdf
doc/stp.shtml
doc/sum.html
doc/sum.pdf
doc/sum.shtml
doc/svd.html
doc/svd.pdf
doc/svd.shtml
doc/system-overview.shtml
doc/translation.html
doc/translation.pdf
doc/translation.shtml
doc/images/
doc/images/accept-jobs.gif
doc/images/add-class.gif
doc/images/add-printer.gif
doc/images/cancel-job.gif
doc/images/classes.gif
doc/images/config-printer.gif
doc/images/continue.gif
doc/images/cups-block-diagram.gif
doc/images/cups-large.gif
doc/images/cups-medium.gif
doc/images/cups-small.gif
doc/images/delete-class.gif
doc/images/delete-printer.gif
doc/images/hold-job.gif
doc/images/left.gif
doc/images/logo.gif
doc/images/manage-classes.gif
doc/images/manage-jobs.gif
doc/images/manage-printers.gif
doc/images/modify-class.gif
doc/images/modify-printer.gif
doc/images/navbar.gif
doc/images/navbar.xcf.gz
doc/images/print-test-page.gif
doc/images/printer-idle.gif
doc/images/printer-processing.gif
doc/images/printer-stopped.gif
doc/images/reject-jobs.gif
doc/images/release-job.gif
doc/images/restart-job.gif
doc/images/right.gif
doc/images/show-active.gif
doc/images/show-completed.gif
doc/images/start-class.gif
doc/images/start-printer.gif
doc/images/stop-class.gif
doc/images/stop-printer.gif

Copying files to the temporary directory... FAILED!

Striping ELF binaries and libraries...OK

Compressing man pages...OK

Building file list...OK

********************************************
**** Slackware package creation selected ***
********************************************

Preparing Slackware install directory...OK

Writing package description...OK

Writing Slackware install script...OK

Creating package cups-1.1.20-i386-1...OK

NOTE: The package will not be installed.

Erasing temporary files...OK

Writing backup package...OK

Deleting temp dir...OK


**********************************************************************

 Done. The new package has been saved to

 /home/amos/downloads/cups-1.1.20/cups-1.1.20-i386-1.tgz
 You can install it in your system anytime using:

      installpkg cups-1.1.20-i386-1.tgz

**********************************************************************

root@rohan:/home/amos/downloads/cups-1.1.20#

If you notice it definitely says:-

NOTE: The package will not be installed.

The failure to copy files to the temporary directory was a peculiarity of the cups install, all of the other packages I've made with checkinstall have managed to write the temporary files, but none have been installed!

Cheers
Amos

I think it is the lates version of checkinstall that doesn't automatically install packages it makes. It is also the newest version that asks if you want to make a slackware, fedora, or debian package. I noticed checkinstall started doing this the last time I installed the newest version a week or two ago. I think their is a config file somewhere that you can edit to change the default behavior. Does anyone know what file this is?

Not sure about the rc file, however I usually use

./configure
make
su
checkinstall -S

To do a slackware package automatically. I've seen some cases where it does, and some where it doesn't install the package. I'm not sure why.
I've also seen instances where the checkinstall package doesn't install properly where a make install does.
In that case, I do the make install, and then install the .tgz and it works -- but I'm still able to remove later with a removepkg whatever :-D

--Shade

I don't know about the latest version of checkinstall, since I got rid of it over a month ago and haven't used it even longer..............I just remember it used to install the pkgs after making them........*shrugs*

I now use build scripts and the package tools provided by Slackware to make pkgs and install them because it gives me more control over the build and installation process (like adding patches if needed)........and it's not that hard to setup with a template build script that I can modify for each pkg.......

I now use build scripts and the package tools provided by Slackware to make pkgs and install them because it gives me more control over the build and installation process (like adding patches if needed)........and it's not that hard to setup with a template build script that I can modify for each pkg.......

Tell me more. Where can I get more details about this?

Cheers
Amos