Upgrading a package from source?

thebudbottle · 03-24-2005, 03:25 PM

Hi everyone,

I am running fedora core 3, and am still using a lot of preinstalled packages. Quite a few have since had new releases, however they are only available as source packages. I have read some of the source howtos here, and there is no indication of upgrading a package from source.

For example, if I wanted to upgrade my Evolution from 2.04 to the new release, how could I upgrade, keeping all my mail contacts etc. from a .tar.gz? If I simply unzip, untar and make install it installs a new copy of evolution. Anyone have any ideas for me, besides exporting all my stuff, uninstalling the installed verion, installing the new version and importing it all again?

Thanks,

Chris

Mara · 03-24-2005, 03:58 PM

The configuration files are the same and the transition should be easy if they're compatible both ways (with minor realeases, when the main version number doesn't change, it's rare to have problems here). But it's still a good idea to make a backup (but you should not need it). It should just work (read: you just start it and have your old config imported) when you install the new one.

What you need to do is to install the new one. If you change PATH and LD_LIBRARY_PATH variables you can still have both version and run new one (the old one just in case).