Re: Installing old tarballs on a new Debian system

From: Jim McCloskey (mcclosk_at_ucsc.edu)
Date: 12/31/04

  • Next message: Norman Davis: "Re: Connection timeouts with SSH and CVS" 
    Date: Thu, 30 Dec 2004 18:16:19 -0800
To: debian-user@lists.debian.org

    cga <cga2001@softhome.net> wrote:

    |> I am currently switching to Debian and I have a bunch of utilities,
    |> wmaker applets, etc.. in source format that I would like to reinstall
    |> on the new system. Unfortunately a number of these are not available
    |> as .deb's.
    |>
    |> As I see it I can either copy them to /usr/local/tarballs & do the
    |> usual ./configure/make/ make-install dance or try to create .deb's
    |> myself. This last approach being probably the more dangerous.

    I'm not exactly sure what you mean by `clean' in this context, but
    there are certain applications that I have routinely compiled and
    installed in /usr/local/ and it hasn't led to any kind of problem so
    far. Debian just ignores that part of the directory tree so things
    mostly just live in there happily ever after, un-molested by the
    package-management system.

    Maybe there'd be some advantage to creating personalized debs, but I
    can't at least for the moment think what it might be.

    I suppose there is some risk that you would purge some library needed
    by an application in /usr/local/, if you use a tool like deborphan or
    aptitude to keep your system spare. Since the package management
    system won't know that something in /usr/local/ needs the library, it
    might present you with the opportunity/temptation to purge it (in the
    case that none of your installed debs depends on it). All I know,
    though, is that, even though I'm fond of deborphan and use it
    regularly, this hasn't been a problem for me in the years that I've
    been hand-compiling certain things in the /usr/local/ space,

    Cheers,

    Jim 

    -- 
To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-REQUEST@lists.debian.org 
with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmaster@lists.debian.org
  • Next message: Norman Davis: "Re: Connection timeouts with SSH and CVS"

    Relevant Pages

    • Re: Useful new package management tool
      ... > It's always good to see more new tools for Debian. ... If your script has advantages over the functions provided ... > by deborphan, I'd be very interested to hear them. ...
      (Debian-User)
    • Re: Useful new package management tool
      ... >> It's always good to see more new tools for Debian. ... If your script has advantages over the functions provided ... >> by deborphan, I'd be very interested to hear them. ... You can get my public key from any of the ...
      (Debian-User)
    • Re: Symbolic links in /etc/alternatives not working as intended
      ... > Debian 3.0 ... Also, would it help to purge vi,vim,gvim and then install them? ... To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-REQUEST@lists.debian.org ...
      (Debian-User)