* On 2013 31 Jan 06:16 -0600, Muhammad Yousuf Khan wrote: > Thanks all , thanks for the detailed answer but do you think compiling > is a good solution to go-with, except installing the package from > repository. i have heard that people always suggest to install > packages from repository not by compiling. i know repo should contain > old release but stable one however, for more option and newer releases > one should need to compile it from source. > > but my question is, what pros do normally ?
I'm no pro but sometimes there is no other way to get something more up to date with better hardware support, particularly now that Debian 7 is getting closer to release. That said, there is generally little conflict between locally compiled packages and those installed via apt. Debian is well designed to facilitate locally compiled packages. It does this by reserving the /usr/local hierarchy for the administrator to install locally compiled packages. A properly implemented source package will confine its files to that area to avoid conflict with distribution supplied packages. Many source packages these days use the GNU Autotools and a properly built source package will contain a 'configure' shell script that will create the various Makefiles. In fact, most packages using Autotools will not have any Makefiles until configure is run. Before running 'configure' one should read any README and/or INSTALL files as afore mentioned, and then run './configure --help' to look for any options you might need to set (use Shift-PageUp to read the scrollback). One important option to look for is '--prefix' which usually defaults to '/usr/local' but can also be set to, say, '$HOME/local', for example, to install the package to your home directory. Then run 'configure' with any options followed by 'make' and then as root (or using sudo) 'make install'. To remove the package later use 'make uninstall' as root. If you're installing a library, you will also need to run 'ldconfig' as root to register your locally compiled library with the dynamic loader configuration. If one is just the least bit careful, locally compiled packages will not cause a conflict on the system. :-) Building from source is also a good learning experience and knowing how to do it is essential for doing any sort of C/C++ programming. Have fun! - Nate -- "The optimist proclaims that we live in the best of all possible worlds. The pessimist fears this is true." Ham radio, Linux, bikes, and more: http://www.n0nb.us -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/20130131131740.gs28...@n0nb.us
