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LMDE and checkinstall

Posted: Wed Sep 21, 2011 4:28 pm
by Xwang
Hi to all,
I would like to know if there are any problems installing software compiled from sources with checkinstall.
Using kubuntu I prefer to do so instead of the make install process.
What happens when the system (and maybe some dependencies) are updated?
Thank you,
Xwang

Re: LMDE and checkinstall

Posted: Wed Sep 21, 2011 4:45 pm
by ugh
Checkinstall is fine however debs built w/ checkinstall cannot be updated through your package manager because the package does not exist anywhere in a repository.
What happens when the system (and maybe some dependencies) are updated?
The system is updated as expected but your checkinstall package is not handled in any way by the package manager. If your checkinstall .deb breaks or does not work with newly installed dependencies then you get to recompile. :)

Regardless, checkinstall is preferred over make install any day.

Re: LMDE and checkinstall

Posted: Wed Sep 21, 2011 4:46 pm
by xenopeek
The purpose of checkinstall is easy installation and removal of all the files for the application packaged with it. It doesn't add dependencies to packages. This means that if your system upgrades, this application might still break if its dependencies are no longer met (it is just that these dependencies are not visible to your package manager because checkinstall can't automagically add them).

Read more on this on the Debian article about checkinstall: http://www.debian-administration.org/articles/147