RPM and tarballs

[Pawel]

Oliver Ruebenacker writes:
 >      Dear friends,
 > 
 >   If you install software directly from a tarball, rpm will not be
 > aware of the installation. How can rpm be made aware of it?
 > 
 >   Is rpm --rebuilddb supposed to always fix the problem? What if it does not?
 > 
 >   Or should I always try to turn the tarball into an rpm file? How to do this?
 > 
 >   Thank you!
 > 
 >      Take care
 >      Oliver
 > 
 > -- 
 > Oliver Ruebenacker, Post-Doc Researcher
 > Theoretical Biological Physics and Soft Statistical Mechanics
 > Cell Biology at UConn Health Center and Physics at Harvard
 > http://people.deas.harvard.edu/~oliver/
 > 
 > -- 
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 > fedora-list at redhat.com
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Oliver,
first of all use rpm package if available.
 If not, then there is a tool that does rpm from tar ball.
 its name is checkinstall (http://asic-linux.com.mx/~izto/checkinstall/download.php)

How to use it:
1) untar You source code
2) ./configure ...with options You like....
3) make
4) checkinstall #. instead of make install.

Pawel