[wplug] Whats an Installfest?

[Chester R. Hosey]

Diana A. Clarion wrote:
> I actually like building from source.  I learned a lot that way...
> 
> DAC

I would certainly agree that building from source is a great way to get
a feel for the way the system fits together as a whole. Even under
Slackware (which had rudimentary package management using scripts to
unpack the tarballs and track installed files), however, I used to make
local packages for third-party software using something like the following:

./configure --prefix=/tmp/meat/
make && make install
cd /tmp/meat
tar zcvf ../software-name.tar.gz *
pkg_add ../software-name.tar.gz

I'm sure I'm close, but pkg_add might not be the specific name.

The advantages of a managed package system are worth noting even if
you're not using vendor-supplied package managment. I'd imagine that
Slackware's tools can be used on a built-from-scratch system. It makes
it much easier to try out software without worrying about whether a
"make uninstall" exists, or to be sure that when a file location changes
during an upgrade that the old file gets removed.

It's also sometimes nice to be able to ask, "What package is this file
associated with?" if you're curious (and don't mind the occasional
dangling preposition in your mental dialogs).

As Zach mentioned, Debian does a good job of eliminating the troubles of
RPM hell. I've been told that there are good third-party RPM
repositories that can be accessed through yum or up2date, but Debian's
got a central authoritative location from which users can get thousands
of useful packages. There are third-party Debian repositories for
additional stuff, but in the years I've used Debian I've found that the
overwhelming majority of things I've wanted to install had already been
packaged and are maintained within the distribution. The central
coordination and the vast number of packages bundled with the
distribution mean that unlike in the RPM world, you won't have a heck of
a time deciding whose third-party rrdtool RPM is best.

Chet