If I don't install RPMs...

["Karen Ellrick" <k-ellrick sctech co jp>]

I have three RH 6.1 servers, and they started out with installs from the CD
with various categories automatically installed, such as "Web Server" and
"Mail Server".  But over time I have had to "rpm -e" some things and replace
them with personally compiled binaries for various reasons - the main ones
being Postfix replacing Sendmail and recompiling Apache to include PHP4 as a
loadable module.

I now am being granted new machines (hooray!), and want to do the best fresh
install I can.  [I haven't decided whether to use the 6.1 CD I have been
happy with or download 7.0, but that's another question - if you have
opinions on this, shoot.]  It seems logical to not select things during the
install that I will later add separately.  But I don't know what RPMs are
actually installed when I choose "Mail Server" or "Web Server" during
install, and I am concerned that if I don't choose them, there will be
auxiliary programs missing that I need.  Do you think I should install all
the applicable categories and then remove just the RPMs I am replacing
(essentially what I have done on my current boxes)?  Or is it safe to not
install, for example, "Web Server" when I know I will compile Apache on my
own later?  Is there a way to determine what RPMs are actually installed for
each category choice in the install routine?

On a related but different note, when I remove an RPM and instead "make" and
"make install" something that I want run as a daemon, there is, of course,
no script in /etc/rc.d/init.d to start and stop the daemon.  What is
typically done for this - does everybody just write their own scripts, or is
there a more standard procedure?

Thanks for your help.

--------------------------------
Karen Ellrick
S & C Technology, Inc.
1-21-35 Kusatsu-shinmachi
Hiroshima  733-0834  Japan
(from U.S. 011-81, from Japan 0) 82-293-2838
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