How to install something that has no ebuild?

Dippmopser · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 22 Jun 2013 Posts: 92

Hello

lets assume I found some sourcecode in the form of "someprog.tar.bz2" and there is no ebuild for it. How would I proceed from here?

albright · Posted: Thu Aug 15, 2013 9:03 pm Post subject:

untar it and follow the build instructions, probably just
"make" and "make install" will do it ...
_________________
.... there is nothing - absolutely nothing - half so much worth
doing as simply messing about with Linux ...
(apologies to Kenneth Graeme)

The Doctor · Moderator Joined: 27 Jul 2010 Posts: 2678

1) look for an ebuild. There are overlays with lots of packages not in portage. Generally, goggling foo Gentoo is a good method for finding if package foo exists in an overlay.
2) write one.
3) (bad) manually install it. This is bad since portage will not be "aware" of the package.
_________________
First things first, but not necessarily in that order.

Apologies if I take a while to respond. I'm currently working on the dematerialization circuit for my blue box.

Dippmopser · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 22 Jun 2013 Posts: 92

If I considered myself to be a good programmer, I would try, but unfortunately I am not.

what does "foo" mean? Is it a generic placeholder?

The Doctor · Moderator Joined: 27 Jul 2010 Posts: 2678

Yes, foo is meant as a generic place holder. Generally foo and bar are used serve this purpose in a computer science context.

Ebuilds look more intimidating then they are. If you told us exactly what you where interested in installing you could probably find someone who would help you write the ebuild or locate one for you.
_________________
First things first, but not necessarily in that order.

Apologies if I take a while to respond. I'm currently working on the dematerialization circuit for my blue box.

Dippmopser · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 22 Jun 2013 Posts: 92

My question was of general nature, you see I am coming from Windows, where I download and install things I find on the web which I want to try out. And the thought crossed my mind, that with Linux I have a package management system of some sort - now what if the programm I want to use is not included. That is why I asked.

The Doctor · Moderator Joined: 27 Jul 2010 Posts: 2678

Of course.

Keep in mind that linux isn't like windows. You don't have virus protection so be careful what you manually install outside the tree. While linux will resist most forms of attack, the person between the keyboard and the chair is in a perfect place to circumvent that protection.
_________________
First things first, but not necessarily in that order.

Apologies if I take a while to respond. I'm currently working on the dematerialization circuit for my blue box.

Jaglover · Posted: Fri Aug 16, 2013 3:17 am Post subject:

http://catb.org/esr/writings/unix-koans/nervous.html

_________________
My Gentoo installation notes.
Please learn how to denote units correctly!

dmpogo · Advocate Joined: 02 Sep 2004 Posts: 3267 Location: Canada

If you install just for a single user, like itself, install it in your home directory (typically, for a conventionally packaged software you do ./configure, make, make install in the directory you unpack it, perhaps editing some options according to README). In this case software will be running under user name, with just that user priviliges.

If you want to it to be usable by all the users, install it as root into /usr/local (say put the source into /usr/local/src and when asked or choosign following README choose /usr/local as installation prefix. Most often it is the default)

Maitreya · Guru Joined: 11 Jan 2006 Posts: 441

Even for the simplest sources without a ebuild I make one.
It's not that hard and especially when you try out software it's nice to have portage remove all the cruft if you decide to uninstall it.
With the manual method you will have to keep track of which files are placed where.