Re: A GNU Distribution

[Daniel Martin]

On Mon, 2012-04-02 at 19:50 -0700, Dave Crossland wrote:
> On 2 April 2012 18:43, Daniel Martin <address@hidden> wrote:
> > I'd like to be able to
> > _easily_ install source code in a predictable location, modify the code,
> > recompile and install the new package.
> 
> The Debian project developed an Advanced Package Tool, 'apt.' On one
> of the many unofficial GNU distribution managed with apt, you can do
> this:
> 
> $ apt-get build-dep $PROGRAM;
> $ apt-get source $PROGRAM;
> $ cd PROGRAM/;
> $ ./configure;
> $ make;
> $ make install;
> 
> What is not easy about this? :-)

Well, for a start I reckon it would be possible to shorten that down
from 6 commands. Plus, a lot of binary packages are built with
specialised arguments passed to ./configure if I want to rebuild after
making some small changes how am I to know the arguments to pass?

As I'm not so familiar with Debian and apt, could you please show me how
one would go about uninstalling the package after following the steps
that you list?

i.e. Can it be done through apt? Or, (as I suspect) do those commands
simply install the software outside of the package management system,
requiring the user to use make uninstall (assuming such functionality
has been provided in the makefile).

If the package is outside the package management system then I don't
feel that is good enough. - The user is open to conflicts if he
accidentally installs the package through apt, uninstalling is
difficult, and he cannot easily share a binary package with his friends.

(I'm not vary familiar with Gentoo perhaps it provides the sort of
functionality I'm referring to...)


dacm.