Howdy, I tend to try out many open source apps/packages - games, editors to media tools. I have a bad habit of downloading and extracting source in the /var/tmp directory and then doing configure-make-install process. I am not sure of best practice (good practices) to be followed when installing any software. For example how and where to keep the src. Any comments and/or resources would be really helpful. - Thanks, CS.
Carlos Santana wrote:> Howdy, > > I tend to try out many open source apps/packages - games, editors to > media tools. I have a bad habit of downloading and extracting source > in the /var/tmp directory and then doing configure-make-install > process. I am not sure of best practice (good practices) to be > followed when installing any software. For example how and where to > keep the src. Any comments and/or resources would be really helpful.I am usually using this way ./configure --prefix=/opt/sofware-name && make && make install (to uninstall rm -fr /opt/software-name) Checkinstall is also helpful in your way: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CheckInstall , http://asic-linux.com.mx/~izto/checkinstall/ -- Eero, RHCE
Carlos:> I tend to try out many open source apps/packagesI make a separate directory for each application in /usr/local so they are isolated from each other. You can also use KVM to set up virtual machines to be able to test and then drop the entire VM if you don't like it. That will keep your main system completely clean. Neil -- Neil Aggarwal, (281)846-8957, http://UnmeteredVPS.net CentOS 5.4 VPS with unmetered bandwidth only $25/month! 7 day no risk trial, Google Checkout accepted
Carlos Santana wrote:> Howdy, > > I tend to try out many open source apps/packages - games, editors to > media tools. I have a bad habit of downloading and extracting source > in the /var/tmp directory and then doing configure-make-install > process. I am not sure of best practice (good practices) to be > followed when installing any software. For example how and where to > keep the src. Any comments and/or resources would be really helpful.I would say first reflex is to look for it in your usual configured repos, eg rpmforge if you use it. Then look in other centos repos that you only activate and use for specific packages. Then try to find an rpm anywhere that is built for your centos version. Then look for an srpm and try to rpmbuild it, installing any deps from your usual repos. If all that fails, I try to compile from source as a regular user, and just symlink the resulting binary(/ies) from /usr/local/bin. As a last resort fall back to the other suggestions, eg make install as root using --prefix, use checkinstall, etc... The main point is that rpms are always preferable imho.
At Wed, 11 Nov 2009 13:51:27 -0600 CentOS mailing list <centos at centos.org> wrote:> > Howdy, > > I tend to try out many open source apps/packages - games, editors to > media tools. I have a bad habit of downloading and extracting source > in the /var/tmp directory and then doing configure-make-install > process. I am not sure of best practice (good practices) to be > followed when installing any software. For example how and where to > keep the src. Any comments and/or resources would be really helpful.It does not really matter where you keep the source. *I* unload the source either somewhere under my home directory or on my '/extra/' filesystem. You should *always* do the configure & make steps as a normal (non-priviledged) user -- *never* as root! Only do the install step once you are sure everything built properly. If you are just testing it and don't plan on keeping it as a part of your production system, it is often possible to do the install as a non-priviledged user using the DESTDIR= option on the install step and install the program someplace NOT on the system places (eg under /usr or /usr/local or /opt or whatever). Whenever possible, I try to find an RPM (even a SRPM) for any 'production' software.> > - > Thanks, > CS. > _______________________________________________ > CentOS mailing list > CentOS at centos.org > http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos > >-- Robert Heller -- 978-544-6933 Deepwoods Software -- Download the Model Railroad System http://www.deepsoft.com/ -- Binaries for Linux and MS-Windows heller at deepsoft.com -- http://www.deepsoft.com/ModelRailroadSystem/