configure or "software installation" GUI ?
This is what I call an academic question.
I am not asking for a specific solution , just wondering why things works differently and why. I have been working on installing a package and until now I thought that "configure / make /make install" is Linux way to accomplish that. I had to go thru this installation process few times to satisfy dependencies. All worked fine until I run into compressed file when my OS after download suggested to use some kind of "software install". OK, I did it , however , the package depended on this last one could not find it. Verified by dpkg that it was indeed installed. So I did took the original compressed file and extracted it the usual way , but it extracted into two compressed files - control and data. At that point I stopped looking for familiar "configure". Basically I am just curious why the last package installation is no longer simple - extract and run configure etc. Is this pretty normal for distro to "do their stuff" or is the "configure / make /make install" on its way out as do-do bird? BTW the "software installation" (GUI) is slower than molasses and gives no progress indication. I would guess it still does same as "configure / make /make install " which takes time , but keeps silent about it. ( No need to speculate about it here). Cheers |
Not at all normal. This is how you would compile a single package and this, as you discovered, does not do dependency checking. All Linux distros have a software package manager, whether cli or gui depends on the distro. Highly (strongly) suggest you use the package manager for whatever distro you have. You didn't provide details so no way to tell.
Using the distro provided package manager assures the packages come from a trusted source and also that dependencies are satisfied. |
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Building and installing a package from source is not,"on its way out". Quote:
Quick Summary, which maybe you'll find helpful:
There are no guarantees that all of this works. The author of the software you're trying to install, either by source, or using a package manager, may have done a poor job. They may have used a very limited set of pre-requisites which rapidly went out of date and no longer can be satisfied. The author may have abandoned the project and not done any further work with it. |
I'll probably get into trouble for reposting if I expand on this.
The way I interpret this - package manager is not necessarily same as "software install" I have mentioned. I did downland file from Debian "source" with "deb" in file name which let Ubuntu to suggest to use "software installer". It this case I picked the source, so it probably was OK as far being trusted. I have been using real package manager - apt or apt-get which gets the file from repository which would meet the "trusted source". Am I on track so far? Addendum Looks like this may actually provide some real answers. I may come back when I have chance to digest that. https://wiki.debian.org/HowToPackageForDebian |
Aptitude is a package manager.
A file with a .deb extension is typically a Debian install package file. It would be helpful if you avoided persisting with these types of comments: Quote:
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This article from Debian should give you an in-depth explanation of Debian package management: https://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/d...e/ch02.en.html
Debian has several legit package managers that have been developed of the years: apt aptitude apt-get Synaptic (a GUI tool) They all still exist and they all are still supported. The compile/make/make install compiles from sources and requires user to resolve dependencies manually; it also requires kernel headers to be present, and not all distros install kernel headers by default (though you can find them in the repos). I think it is wise to know how to compile from sources, but, if I can find a package in the repos, I generally prefer it because, frankly, it's easier. |
remembering anneranch's previous posts, i think the argumentation goes like this:
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dpkg, unlike dpkg-deb, will go further and install it for you-- but then (just like apt-get install) will complain and be petulant if deps are missing. |
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