You are trying to use the filesystem as a substitute for a functional package manager. A filesystem directory is not a suitable replacement for a package manager that correctly tracks dependencies.I normally tend to compile non-system optional packages into /opt/<package-name><package-version> and that introduces a nice little shared library problem, when the linking stage does not properly take care (or simply ignore) of -rpath's (like gtk , glib and company. On the other hand, it makes proper package versioning (and multiple installed versions of the same package) possible, without introducing obscure cross-library version dependent bugs.
On the contrary (and I realize this is getting off topic), I have been building my own systems for a couple years using the filesystem as a package manager, and I've had far fewer problems with dependencies than I ever had back when I was using Redhat, Debian, etc. I struggled with distributions for a long time before I decided I was better of rolling my own.
It's not for everyone, but people like Peter who compile a lot of their own software may find this useful:
http://karmak.org/2002/04/fs/
Incidently, it does require everything to be compiled using -rpath, but in most cases this only means exporting LDFLAGS with -Wl,--rpath (glib, gtk, and other autoconf-based software is particularly easy). I have a collection of build scripts if anyone wants to use them as a reference.
[Sorry to get off-topic. I just saw someone having the same problems I had a few years ago, and I didn't want your words to discourage him Sam. The filesystem *can* be a good package manager if it's done right.]
m.
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