./configure command

[Todd Zullinger]

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Les Mikesell wrote:
> On Wed, 2006-04-05 at 23:30, Ralf Corsepius wrote:
[...]
>> All I do is to tell you: If you want to avoid trouble, you're
>> better off packaging packages as rpms on rpm based systems.
> 
> I'll agree in general, but still don't see how a person who would
> have trouble with a stock compile/install is going to have that
> problem fixed. It just becomes a subset of the problems in building
> the packaged version.

Les, I agree that the person who had trouble with a stock
compile/install would likely have some difficulty building an rpm, but
then it is also true that they would be likely to get into a lot of
trouble if they just ran a make install as root.  The problems that
could be caused by overwriting system files -- either because of bad
autofoo in the tarball or some erroneous configure option that a
relative newbie passed -- would be a real PITA to recover from.

It's not great, but I do think there's a strong reason to recommend
creating or finding an rpm to someone that's new to the system.
Unless you know the reasons why you are safe doing a configure; make;
sudo make install on your system, you probably shouldn't do it.

I usually build rpms of things I plan to use regularly, but I do
occasionally run a quick configure.  But when I do it, I use DESTDIR
or --prefix and do the make install as a normal user.  That way I
won't be able to overwrite important system files if something's gone
awry with the makefiles.

It's not too tough to build an rpm.  And I think that it'd be easier
to help someone new learn build an rpm than it would be to help them
recover their system if some important library got accidentally
erased.

- -- 
Todd        OpenPGP -> KeyID: 0xD654075A | URL: www.pobox.com/~tmz/pgp
======================================================================
Good Government is an oxymoron.
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