4 ms·

stow was a really useful tool for me once at work. I had a "local" usr/* in my home directory for custom packages I'd install. Occasionally I'd need to swap dif

stow was a really useful tool for me once at work. I had a "local" usr/* in my home directory for custom packages I'd install. Occasionally I'd need to swap different versions of the same library, etc. stow made the process a lot more manageable.

saghm 3y ago
I've found it useful occasionally for when I've needed to install something via source that didn't include an "uninstall" target in their build configuration. Being able to "unstow" all of the symlinks will clean up all of the system directories, at which point you can just delete the entire folder where the actual installation occurred if you don't want to keep it around at all.
- BeetleB 3y ago
  Exactly!
mistrial9 3y ago
I saw a german after-midnight guy setup postgresql like this once, on linux.. rather quickly ;-) All the significant system parts were in an alternate LD_LIBRARY_PATH plus the postgresl libs
Karellen 3y ago
> I had a "local" usr/* in my home directory I always just used `--prefix="$HOME"` so that everything went into `~/bin`, `~/lib`, `~/man`, etc... I did look into stow a couple of times, and would have been fine with it dropping symlinks going into those dirs if I'd have used it. (A few years after XDG started being commonly used I moved everything in my `~/etc` into `~/.config`, and `~/etc` is now a symlink to it. I occasionally wonder if doing it the other way around and setting up XDG_CONFIG_DIR would be more old-skool, before catching my reflection in my monitor and realising how daft that thought is.)
- BeetleB 3y ago
  > I always just used `--prefix="$HOME"` so that everything went into `~/bin`, `~/lib`, `~/man`, etc... Forgive my ignorance, but how do you uninstall stuff a year or two later?
  - oarsinsync 3y ago
    `rm`, everything’s contained within your homedir.
    - fransje26 3y ago
      Don't forget the `-fr *` parameters.
    - BeetleB 3y ago
      With the described setup: > I always just used `--prefix="$HOME"` so that everything went into `~/bin`, `~/lib`, `~/man`, etc... You can't just use rm as a blunt instrument. ~/bin will contain lots of binaries from lots of packages. You want to uninstall only one package. How do you know which files correspond to that package?
  - Karellen 3y ago
    `make uninstall` (If a project's build system does not provide an "uninstall" target (coughcmakecough) then the project likely has other deficiencies and should be avoided.)
    - BeetleB 3y ago
      Wouldn't that require me to keep the source code for that particular version lying around?
      - Karellen 3y ago
        Well, yes. I mean, you could probably get away with just keeping the `Makefile` around. But for the stuff I installed from source, I was often interested in keeping the source code around anyway, for curiosity's sake. And hard drives are big, while source code trees generally aren't - comparatively speaking.

saghm 3y ago

I've found it useful occasionally for when I've needed to install something via source that didn't include an "uninstall" target in their build configuration. Being able to "unstow" all of the symlinks will clean up all of the system directories, at which point you can just delete the entire folder where the actual installation occurred if you don't want to keep it around at all.

BeetleB 3y ago
Exactly!

mistrial9 3y ago

I saw a german after-midnight guy setup postgresql like this once, on linux.. rather quickly ;-) All the significant system parts were in an alternate LD_LIBRARY_PATH plus the postgresl libs

Karellen 3y ago

> I had a "local" usr/* in my home directory I always just used `--prefix="$HOME"` so that everything went into `~/bin`, `~/lib`, `~/man`, etc... I did look into stow a couple of times, and would have been fine with it dropping symlinks going into those dirs if I'd have used it. (A few years after XDG started being commonly used I moved everything in my `~/etc` into `~/.config`, and `~/etc` is now a symlink to it. I occasionally wonder if doing it the other way around and setting up XDG_CONFIG_DIR would be more old-skool, before catching my reflection in my monitor and realising how daft that thought is.)

BeetleB 3y ago
> I always just used `--prefix="$HOME"` so that everything went into `~/bin`, `~/lib`, `~/man`, etc... Forgive my ignorance, but how do you uninstall stuff a year or two later?
- oarsinsync 3y ago
  `rm`, everything’s contained within your homedir.
  - fransje26 3y ago
    Don't forget the `-fr *` parameters.
  - BeetleB 3y ago
    With the described setup: > I always just used `--prefix="$HOME"` so that everything went into `~/bin`, `~/lib`, `~/man`, etc... You can't just use rm as a blunt instrument. ~/bin will contain lots of binaries from lots of packages. You want to uninstall only one package. How do you know which files correspond to that package?
- Karellen 3y ago
  `make uninstall` (If a project's build system does not provide an "uninstall" target (coughcmakecough) then the project likely has other deficiencies and should be avoided.)
  - BeetleB 3y ago
    Wouldn't that require me to keep the source code for that particular version lying around?
    - Karellen 3y ago
      Well, yes. I mean, you could probably get away with just keeping the `Makefile` around. But for the stuff I installed from source, I was often interested in keeping the source code around anyway, for curiosity's sake. And hard drives are big, while source code trees generally aren't - comparatively speaking.