Programs (tar.gz's & rpm's)

[Dave]

when i download a tar.gz (or rpm for example) I put it in a folder called downloads (as you do). One thing i'm unsure of in linux yet is, when i unzip the contents using the terminal and i get the folder then you go on to doing make or make load whatever. BUT, do you need to keep all the contents from that folder in that location, since you've 'made' it? Or does Linux copy this to a seperate area on one of the partitions?

 

Just one of my noob questions thats all lol. Downloaded Firebird i can run it from the Mozzila-Firebird.bin but after i've created a launcher for it from the desktop i get an error message, something about a child path or something. lol just a little question :-)

 

Thanks again...

 

Dave

[Oroshi]

if you using the source, i think it need to keep it on your hard drive, in case if you want to remove you'll need to go to that folder and type: make distclean.

 

RPM's don't think have to keep it, but ya can always remove by using rpm -e rpmname

[Dave]

fanqoooo :-)

[prell]

This is an important issue, and one that bothered me for a while. In Windows, you have an "Add & Remove Programs" entry in the "Control Panel." In Linux, in the past I would download source packages, ./configure && make && su && make install them, but then what? I was faced with a dillema: What if I don't want this piece of software anymore? Was it compulsory that I keep this mengerie of files sitting around indefinitely? Of course, there were RPMs, which let you track, install, upgrade, and delete software packages, but I turned my back on the RPM system, because it could not help me organize the files installed by the well-standardized "CMI" (configure-make-install) source code packages.

 

However, I was turned on to a program called "checkinstall" (by grep420, a member of this forum). checkinstall allows you to turn a "CMI" source package into an RPM by substituting the final "make install" step of the "CMI" process with a "checkinstall." Upon entering this command, you will be asked if you would like to create a redhat, debian, or slackware package. I choose redhat, since I run redhat ;) It's good, though, that checkinstall can create packages in the three major Linux formats.

 

Once a package is created (checkinstall can guess most of the values itself, such as package name), you can install it the normal rpm way: "rpm --install somepackage-1.0.rpm." Later on, you can erase or even upgrade this package by downloading the new build of whatever program you want, creating the rpm, and then doing "rpm --upgrade somepackage-1.2.rpm."

 

I encourage you to check out checkinstall: [/url][url=http://asic-linux.com.mx/~izto/checkinstall/]http://asic-linux.com.mx/~izto/checkinstall/ to maintain your sanity, and the sanity of your system. Enjoy! :)

[Lem0]

THANK YOU

 

...now could someone explain how i use it? I tried the readme, but it only confused me since I didn't know/understand the process originally

*sigh*

[grep420]

wget [/url][url=http://some.website.com/somefile.tar.gz]http://some.website.com/somefile.tar.gz

 

tar -xvzf somefile.tar.gz

 

cd somefile

 

./configure && make && checkinstall

 

 

This is a very simple short example of getting a source file from the web and compiling it. You then use "checkinstall" instead of "make install" to create the rpm. This also installs the newly created rpm to the system and places the rpm package you created in /usr/src/redhat/RPMS/i386.

 

Hope that helps clarify the process for you.

 

- grep420

[Lem0]

neither checkinstall or divx had a config file to run, and neither of them installed with those commands...

 

I give up. :(