i get hella tired of installing all my favorite software from source. i was thinking of making a gigantic install script for all my favorite stuff, kernel included. are there any reasons to not do this? i just figured i'd inquire before i executed on this one.

thx for reading,
y-p

I think it's a good idea but make sure you redirect all the output to different files so you can track all the failures that might happen during that gigantic task.
I say go for it and if it goes alright, I suggest you make a nice graphical interface using tk or whatever you like.

If u want .., then I ll suggest to write a Makefile instead of script(s), each softwarePackage get it's own rule (command lines required for installing it), then a default/all-rule for installing all packages ..

Furthermore make has even the ability of dependencies check (in relation of date of the dependant-files) ..

Wut do u think wut Master Pat used for making the slack-distro ?

good idea javer. i'll get around to it when i have a bit more time (candidacy exam => no time right now), and i'll have to pick up o'reilly's "practical c++ programming" first (i'm out of the coding loop, but just wait). give me a couple months on the makefile business.

what is it that keeps the various pieces of software like mplayer, xcdroast, etc. out of the slackware (or other distros) installer? is it that i don't have the full 4 CD package?

has anyone made an automatic kernel optimization routine? matching all your kernel compile options with your hardware can be tedious (especially on a new machine), so maybe one could write routines to pull all the relevant hardware options automatically and only include directly applicable drivers/modules into the kernel.

these are just random ideas.

thx for the input,
y-p

I'd say to write down on a piece of paper wut needed be changed after a fresh installation of slak to make thing like u want is good enough.

I often even forgot the change I made, n when need to do that again, then read the {readmes,install.txts ..} again ...

The "Makefile" it self is not harder than to write than script ..

Supposed u want mplayer.tgz, xcdroast.tgz be installed ..

all: mplayer.tgz,xcdroast.tar.bz2

mplayer.tgz:
tar -xvf - mplayer.tgz | (cd /tmp; gzip -xf -)
cd /tmp/mplayer..
make install
rm -rf /tmp/maplayer*

xcdroast.tar.bz2:
bzip2 -dc - xcdroast.tar.bz2 | (cd /tmp; tar -xf -)
cd /tmp/xcdroast..
make install
rm -rf /tmp/xcdroast*

But that is not thing for ur random idea like above .. :x