[CentOS] software installation - good practice

[Eero Volotinen]

Carlos Santana wrote:
> Howdy,
> 
> I tend to try out many open source apps/packages - games, editors to
> media tools. I have a bad habit of downloading and extracting source
> in the /var/tmp directory and then doing configure-make-install
> process. I am not sure of best practice (good practices) to be
> followed when installing any software. For example how and where to
> keep the src. Any comments and/or resources would be really helpful.

I am usually using this way ./configure --prefix=/opt/sofware-name && 
make && make install (to uninstall rm -fr /opt/software-name)

Checkinstall is also helpful in your way: 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CheckInstall , 
http://asic-linux.com.mx/~izto/checkinstall/

--
Eero,
RHCE