On 9/17/2010 1:21 PM, Keith Roberts wrote:
>
>>> How to download, md5sum check, unpack, configure and
>>> compile a GPL *.tar.gz package.
>>>
>>> As SysAdmin that's something they will need to do sooner or
>>> later :)
>>
>> But it's much more important to know all the reasons *not* to do that
>> except as a last resort. Reasons that someone who has had to maintain
>> and update such things for decades will know that won't occur to an
>> inexperienced beginner. You can summarize by saying "yum update is a
>> lot easier".
>
> Of course.
>
> But what if they want/need to install a package that is not
> available in any of the repos? Maybe even just for
> testing purposes?
Yes, that's where the 'last resort' comes in... But you are right, you
should also know how to build things that live in /usr/local or under
your home directory. Sometimes there are special purpose needs for
things that don't exist as rpms yet or you need concurrent access to
different versions. And I'm sure someone will add that you should also
know how to build your own rpm if I don't mention it, but that can be
non-trivial compared to just staying out of the way of the
system-managed space.
--
Les Mikesell
lesmikesell at gmail.com