Thursday, May 31, 2007

Use CheckInstall Instead of Make Install

Did you ever look for a binary, and as a last resort download the source to compile yourself?   Of course you were disappointed that the program would not be part of your package management system.

Usually you have to run something like this:

  ./configure
  make
  make install

An easy way to create an .rpm or .deb file from source is to run checkinstall instead of "make install" during the standard install from source.

http://freshmeat.net/projects/checkinstall -- CheckInstall Freshmeat Page

http://checkinstall.izto.org -- CheckInstall Home Page

CheckInstall keeps track of all files installed by a "make install" or equivalent, creates a Slackware, RPM, or Debian package with those files, and adds it to the installed packages database, allowing for easy package removal or distribution.


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