[CentOS] Compile vs. RPM

[Mickael Maddison]

Monday, January 9, 2006, 10:00:21 AM, you wrote:

> Mickael Maddison wrote:

>>The one thing I've always liked about installing from tarball
>>distributions is that I prefix everything into /usr/local -- so it's
>>easy to find all the pieces.  This is perhaps the one thing that I
>>find most annoying about RPM; spreading things all over the place.  Of
>>course, being able to custom compile modules etc. has worked well.
>>
>>  
>>

> You can still do this if you download the source rpm and edit the prefix
> in the .spec file.  I used to do this for a number of packages, but I've
> gotten lazy over the years and have gotten used to leaving most stuff 
> where it defaults to.

Well, if I'm going to move to using the RPM's to save time, then I'll
have to get used to the distributed layout.

>>QUESTION:  Do most of you cron the yum updates, or do you watch for
>>new RPMs and update "manually"?
>>  
>>

> In theory, you could do this.  However, there have been instances in the
> past where this resulted in a wedged machine upon reboot.  So I've 
> gotten into the habit of doing a "yum check-update" first to see what is
> going to get updated before I actually commit to the update...especially
> on servers in unattended locations.  8-)

Fortunately for me, all the remote machines have KVM and power
controls, but that said, if I convert all machines to use RPMs,
updates are quick and easy providing new packages don't break
anything.

Thanks for the great replies all.

Mickael