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What is your preferred way to install stuff in *nix and BSD?

M

Mucman

Diamond Member
To your prefer to download the source and compile it on your machine, or do you use the package managers that come with the OS?

I was having problems with a package for OpenBSD and found out the problem was solved but compiling it and installing it that way... does compiling it on your machine
solve potential problems?
 
To your prefer to download the source and compile it on your machine, or do you use the package managers that come with the OS?

Packages, I like to let someone else worry about distro specific needs and integration. And Debian packages are always very high quality, hardly ever a reason to compile from scratch.

I was having problems with a package for OpenBSD and found out the problem was solved but compiling it and installing it that way... does compiling it on your machine
solve potential problems?

OpenBSD isn't as package oriented as most Linux distributions are, with a distribution like Debian compiling from scratch potentially causes problems because you have software installed the package manager doesn't know about.
 
Nothingman - I have heard great things about Debians app_get, but I have heard people shy away from the rpm management system in Red Hat. I tried installing djbdns using OpenBSD's pkg_add, but it did not do so well... I was able to install egcc package and a couple others without a problem.
 
Nothingman - I have heard great things about Debians app_get,

Not to split hairs but there's no 'g'' in my nick and it's apt-get =)

but I have heard people shy away from the rpm management system in Red Hat.

Some do, some don't. It''s not that hard to use RPM, Debian dpkg isn't much different, it's just people get annoyed at having to fulfill dependencies which you have to do with compiling anyway.
 
Wow I dissed ya and I didn't even know it 🙂 app_get, apt-get, it sounds the same when talking....
 
Wow I dissed ya and I didn't even know it app_get, apt-get, it sounds the same when talking....

It wasn't a dis, I was just clarifying. And APT stands for Advanced Package Tool, it's package manager independent.
 


<< And APT stands for Advanced Package Tool, it's package manager independent. >>



So this works with packages made with any package system? Wow that makes me want to
give Debian a try now!

As for my previous question, I guess it depends on what distro you are using too, correct?
 


<< it's just people get annoyed at having to fulfill dependencies which you have to do with compiling anyway. >>



Mandatory dependencies, yes. Optional dependencies work themselves out. It drove me up the wall to try to install RPMs only to have it whine that some obscure package that I really don't need (i.e. kdepim requiring pilot-link) isn't found. What's even worse is when I do have the package I need, but it isn't a new enough package revision (i.e. requiring glibc-2.2.4-13 when I have glibc-2.2.4-11).
 
So this works with packages made with any package system? Wow that makes me want to
give Debian a try now!

That's not what I said =)

I said it's package manager independent, meaning in Debian it works with dpkg and uses debs but it's not tied to them in any way. It can be adapted to work with RPM very easily, but noone (Connectiva has very recently) has picked it up.

As for my previous question, I guess it depends on what distro you are using too, correct?

Totally, if you use Debian for a bit you'll notice most, if not all, of the package annoyances you had with RedHat are gone simply because the Debian developers do an excellent job and all follow the strict Debian packaging guidelines. And there's over 8000 packages in woody right now, so I almost never have to download/compile anything myself.
 
I'll just throw in a lil more Debian evangelism here 😉

Debian is by far the nicest of the distro's I've tried, and I've used most semi-big distros out there.

APT is the greatest thing since sliced bread for everyone who doesn't enjoy compiling stuff themselves.
Im running Debian 3.0/Unstable on the box Im posting from now, and whenever I want a new program, it's usually just two commands to install it, "apt-cache search xxx" to find out the exact package name, and "apt-get install xxx" to install it, along with potential dependencies.

Well, to summarize: Install Debian NOW, you'll never look back to RedHat, I surely havent 😀
 
I'm going to have to side with damascus on compiling from source, it has to be the only way to go. If it's something can take a while to compile (KDE, mozilla.....) I'll use the occasional slackware package.

I hate RPM's for their convoluted dependencies, and while I have seen the elegance of apt in action, debian is a distro that just didn't grow on me.
 
Ah, now I get it... thanks for all the replies everyone. Now I need to figure out which OS to put on my computer... FreeBSD or Debian Linux
 
Just did a search on BSD to see what I missed over the past week or so. 😛

Anyhow, with OpenBSD or FreeBSD I like ports. I like it compiling right there on my system, but in a way where I have as little work to do as possible. Packages are ok, but I really prefer ports. I also like Debian's dselect. I havent messed with apt yet, so I cant comment on that. dselect and BSD packages are very similar. Great tools 🙂
 
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