Package Management

Ubuntu / Debian

See apt.

RPM's

• RPM RedHat Package Manager
• Using RPM: THe Basics (Part I)
• Install commands

rpm -ivh package                    # Installing a package - verbose and progress bars
rpm -iv -nodeps package             # Installing a package (verbose), ignore dependencies

• Query commands

rpm -ql package                     # List files provided by a package

• To query a package that has not been installed, add -p option to the command:

rpm -qpl package                    # List files provided by a package

Source package

Installing from source package is usually done with

./configure
make
sudo make install

Usually ./configure --help gives additional package configuration options (like installing documentation, etc).

Installing build dependencies

Building from sources usually requires more dependencies than using the package. If the package is available on the distribution, the easiest way to install these dependencies is usually via apt-get build-dep:

sudo apt-get build-dep udisks

Installing as a package

Instead of installing with make install, use checkinstall to create a temporary package that can later be uninstalled with the package manager.

./configure
make
sudo checkinstall                  # Creates a package and install it as if 'sudo make install' was run

#... to uninstall:
sudo dpkg -r <packagename>

Note that checkinstall can actually run any arbitrary command and monitor change on the file system.

Backports

Debian

See Backporting Debian packages.

Managing alternatives with update-alternatives

Display current set of alternatives (e.g. here for gcc on Cygwin):

$ /usr/sbin/update-alternatives --display gcc

# gcc - status is manual.
#  link currently points to /usr/bin/gcc-3.exe
# /usr/bin/gcc-3.exe - priority 30
#  slave lib-cpp: <NONE>
#  slave cc: /usr/bin/cc-3.exe
#  slave cpp: /usr/bin/cpp-3.exe
#  slave gcov: /usr/bin/gcov-3.exe
#  slave i686-pc-cygwin-gcc-4.3.4: <NONE>
#  slave i686-pc-cygwin-gcc: /usr/bin/i686-pc-cygwin-gcc-3.exe
#  slave protoize: /usr/bin/protoize-3.exe
#  slave unprotoize: /usr/bin/unprotoize-3.exe
#  slave cpp.1.gz: /usr/share/man/man1/cpp-3.1.gz
#  slave gcc.1.gz: /usr/share/man/man1/gcc-3.1.gz
#  slave gcov.1.gz: /usr/share/man/man1/gcov-3.1.gz
#  slave ffi.3.gz: <NONE>
#  slave ffi_call.3.gz: <NONE>
#  slave ffi_prep_cif.3.gz: <NONE>
# /usr/bin/gcc-4.exe - priority 40
#  slave lib-cpp: /usr/bin/cpp-4.exe
#  slave cc: /usr/bin/gcc-4.exe
#  slave cpp: /usr/bin/cpp-4.exe
#  slave gcov: /usr/bin/gcov-4.exe
#  slave i686-pc-cygwin-gcc-4.3.4: <NONE>
#  slave i686-pc-cygwin-gcc: /usr/bin/i686-pc-cygwin-gcc-4.exe
#  slave protoize: <NONE>
#  slave unprotoize: <NONE>
#  slave cpp.1.gz: /usr/share/man/man1/cpp-4.1.gz
#  slave gcc.1.gz: /usr/share/man/man1/gcc-4.1.gz
#  slave gcov.1.gz: /usr/share/man/man1/gcov-4.1.gz
#  slave ffi.3.gz: /usr/share/man/man3/ffi-4.3.gz
#  slave ffi_call.3.gz: /usr/share/man/man3/ffi_call-4.3.gz
#  slave ffi_prep_cif.3.gz: /usr/share/man/man3/ffi_prep_cif-4.3.gz
# Current `best' version is /usr/bin/gcc-4.exe.

Create a new entry with

/usr/sbin/update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/gcc.exe gcc /usr/bin/gcc-3.exe  30 \
 --slave /usr/bin/cc.exe cc /usr/bin/cc-3.exe \
 --slave /usr/bin/cpp.exe cpp /usr/bin/cpp-3.exe \
 --slave /usr/bin/gcov.exe gcov /usr/bin/gcov-3.exe \
 --slave /usr/bin/i686-pc-cygwin-gcc.exe i686-pc-cygwin-gcc /usr/bin/i686-pc-cygwin-gcc-3.exe \
 --slave /usr/bin/protoize.exe protoize /usr/bin/protoize-3.exe \
 --slave /usr/bin/unprotoize.exe unprotoize /usr/bin/unprotoize-3.exe \
 --slave /usr/share/man/man1/cpp.1.gz cpp.1.gz /usr/share/man/man1/cpp-3.1.gz \
 --slave /usr/share/man/man1/gcc.1.gz gcc.1.gz /usr/share/man/man1/gcc-3.1.gz \
 --slave /usr/share/man/man1/gcov.1.gz gcov.1.gz /usr/share/man/man1/gcov-3.1.gz

Select an entry with

/usr/sbin/update-alternatives --auto gcc                        # Select alternative for gcc based on priority
/usr/sbin/update-alternatives --set gcc /usr/bin/gcc-3.exe      # Set gcc-3 as alternative for gcc (also set slaves, etc)
/usr/sbin/update-alternatives --config gcc                      # Select alternative via menu

Alternatives for clang

sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/clang++ clang++ /usr/bin/clang++-3.8 100
sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/clang++ clang++ /usr/bin/clang++-6.0 1000
sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/clang clang /usr/bin/clang-3.8 100
sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/clang clang /usr/bin/clang-6.0 1000
sudo update-alternatives --config clang
sudo update-alternatives --config clang++