install/uninstall from source

[voidmain]

Ok, this is a semi-FAQ. Several people have asked how to uninstall something that was installed from a source package (make;make install). As you know, some source packages have an "uninstall" target in their Makefile, but most do not. Here is a utility that appears to solve this problem. In fact it can also create a Slackware, Debian, or RPM package after it compiles a source package.

http://asic-linux.com.mx/~izto/checkinstall/

P.S. I haven't actually used this yet but it looks promising. Also, hopefully this isn't old news.

[beltorak0]

It seems to work as promised.  I will definately be using this in the future.  Thanks for the post.

[pkd_lives]

Now if this sounds daft then let me know. But IF you can get a good uninstall from source, surely this would negate the need for rpm deb, et al. Or does installing from source not perform dependancy checks, or some other critical function that makes linux so much better for programme installation.

[TheQuirk]

quote:Originally posted by Linux Frank:
Now if this sounds daft then let me know. But IF you can get a good uninstall from source, surely this would negate the need for rpm deb, et al. Or does installing from source not perform dependancy checks, or some other critical function that makes linux so much better for programme installation.

You can't do rpm -qa. Heh.  

[TheQuirk]

Yiu can't check what version of software you have, etc. Also, think of compiling everything on some p100 when you can just get a precompiled binary without waiting for 20 minutes for some small piece of software to compile. Sure, it'll be a bit slower to run, but I'm pretty sure you wouldn't notice the difference.

[voidmain]

Plus when you install from source, even with that utility you still have to do a "configure" and set all the options you need, build the software, install etc. RPM's and DEB files are still much easier and the RPM database provides much more than querying and dependency capabilities. For instance you can easily verify the installed packages to make sure the files that are installed have not been tampered with using date/time, permissions, MD5 checksums, etc, just by doing an "rpm -V packagename".

I would still say RPM and DEB are preferred if possible but if you have to install from source then this utility is better than nothing.

[Calum]

i wonder if those other benefits of rpm and deb that you mentioned could also be addressed when installing source-code-brand-X-0.4.1.tar.gz in the future?

[pkd_lives]

Well the utility seems to offer a file saving function when you ./configure, which they claim negates the compilation need, but I see you are basically saying that for adminstration purposes rpm and deb are better solutions, and easier it would seem.

However I like what Calum said. If these nice functions could be built in to the compiler, or the tar or compression functions then surely source would be the better option, after all that would remove a lot of the proprietary nature of the systems and give everyone a standard to work.