[aclug-L] Re: Another Question

[bbales <bbales@xxxxxxx>]

On Sunday 18 January 2004 23:23, you wrote:
> On Sun, 18 Jan 2004, bbales wrote:
> > When I download and run an rpm, it installs the program in a particular
> > place where the rpm's author knows it should be.
> >
> > When I download a tarred program, untar it and run make, sometimes it
> > stays right where the untarred directory is and other times it knows
> > where it should be and installs there.  How does one decide where to put
> > the untarred program before running make ./configure and install?  Or
> > does it matter? bruce
>
> Traditionally, programs that are installed appart from the distribution go
> in the /usr/local hirearchy. This is where the 'configure' script usually
> has `make install` put them by default. This can be changed by running
> 'configure' with the "--prefix" option. `./configure --prefix=/usr" would
> setup the makefile to install the files in the "/usr" hirearchy. Most
> traditionall rpm files are setup to install into the "/usr" hirearchy.
> This because it requires root access to run `rpm -i`, thus it's an
> "official" part of the OS. At least that's my take on the reasoning.
>
> As a side note, I find it useful to have even "/usr/local" installs
> inserted into the rpm database (for tracking and uninstall purposes).
> Since not all source tarballs come with the necessary spec file for use
> with rpm, I use the "checkinstall" program. Instead of typing `make
> install`, I run `checkinstall`. It allows you what to specify what kind of
> package you want created (Slackware, RPM and Debian formats are supported)
> and then creates a binary package based on what `make install` would have
> done. You then run 'rpm -i' on the file created (usually in
> /usr/src/redhat/RPMS/i386 on Red Hat systems).
>
> It's not perfect, but it keeps you from having all sorts of packages
> installed in /usr/local that you have no idea of what belongs to what.

Thanks, Noah.  That answers my question and several others that I have 
wondered about for a while.  I didn't know it was so easy to make an rpm 
file.
bruce

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