On Fri, May 25, 2001 at 05:42:41PM -0400 or thereabouts, coldfire wrote:
> > > Two things, for me. One is that when you compile from source, you
> > > can set compile-time options, change the default install directory,
> > > things like that. With an RPM, all of that gets decided for you.
> >
> > I actually LIKE using RPMS. But when I do have problems with them, which
> > isn't uncommon, it's because of the above.
>
> i favor compiling from source ... you can modify the source, of coure the
> compile time options, and it's a MUCH more custom tailored feeling when
> you're done ...
>
> however, if you're working on a 50 computer network and they all need a
> new version of <insert app here>, then rpms make it MUCH easier to do.
I combine the pair. I can't program, but I very often want the source
around. (There have been times when badly-spelt dialogue messages have
made me recompile the entire damn thing after correcting them. Childish,
maybe, but it keeps me happy. I think the first of my very few patches
was corrections to typos in a config file :))
So I get the source rpm and compile it after tweaking stuff, adding
patches, or altering compile time options.
An example is mutt. There was a time when it couldn't be exported
from the US if it had the crypto hooks in. I had built the tarballs,
with the crypto bits and some compile option I forget but which I
wanted. but I wanted to be able to uninstall and/or upgrade it neatly,
which is easier with rpms than with tarballs. So I unpacked the source
rpm, went to poke at the specfiles...
..and good heavens, all the stuff to build the crypto bits was there,
just commented out :) Thank you, RH :) I just had to grab the relevant
patches and put them into the directory the spec file expected, add
a patch line, and change the compile time option I wanted on. Then
rebuild it and I had a nice easy-to-remove/upgrade rpm.
(Of course, as most European users knew, RH had all the crypto stuff
available on its redhat.de site, but this happens to be a good example.)
$ wget http://some.site/foo.src.rpm
$ rpm -K foo.src.rpm
$ su
# rpm --install foo.src.rpm
# cd /usr/src/$VENDOR/SPECS/
# rpm -bp foo.spec
(edit edit edit)
# rpm -ba foo.spec
# rpm --install ../RPMS/foo.ix86.rpm
Telsa
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