./configure command

[Mike McCarty]

Les Mikesell wrote:
> On Thu, 2006-04-06 at 10:55, Mike McCarty wrote:
> 
> 
>>I also nearly always use --prefix, and install into my home
>>directory, not to /usr/local. I've got a /home/jmccarty/usr/... tree.
>>If anything goes bad, I just delete the directories altogether.
>>There is NO UNINSTALL NEEDED.
> 
> 
> This brings up another problem with packaging.  Anything I'd
> be likely to compile myself these days is probably very
> experimental and I might like to have 2 or more versions
> to compare them or to have a known-good version if the
> latest one blows up.  You can do that with many source
> bundles with the --prefix option and using explict paths
> to execute the programs.  How do you do it with RPM packaged
> items?
> 

That's another of the points I made. With ./configure + make +
make install I have control over destinations. With RPM I do
not. And much of the stuff I have intalled is *not* in /usr/local.
I *do* have multiple versions of some things installed, and I use
soft linked directories to switch which one is active at any
given time. And, as I pointed out, if this is done properly,
there is no uninstall needed. When one is through with what
one is using, one simply deletes the directories involved.

At one time I had two versions of the DJGPP cross-to-DOS
compiler installed on this machine. When I was through with
them I simply deleted the directories, and removed the pointer
directory link from the PATH variable.

Mike
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