A program like 'checkinstall' for gentoo portage

Message

dmbtech · Post by **dmbtech** » Sat Jul 08, 2006 3:52 am

Hey, it would be nice is there was a program like checkinstall for ubuntu, one that would check all the files, and basically turn it into a package and install it, but still keep record of it, so it can easilly be removed or upgraded. Does one exist? How hard would it be to create one? I just don't like the fact that i would be installing source packages that don't have a make uninstall rule, and having my system get clutered, plus its hard to maintain.

mark_alec · Post by **mark_alec** » Sat Jul 08, 2006 4:37 am

You are using Gentoo, so you already have a package manager optimised for source based installations. Rather than using checkinstall, you should create ebuilds for packages not in portage and store those ebuilds in a portage overlay.

Making ebuilds, Using an overlay

dmbtech · Post by **dmbtech** » Sat Jul 08, 2006 4:50 am

Well, I kind of feel thats inconveient, and kind of overkill. Like, lets say your a developer, you just want to get this small program installed where there is not ebuild. It would take up way to much time to create an ebuild for it and then store it in an overlay. There should just be a way to do run a program after compiling, which wraps make install and maybe perhaps creates the ebuild and installs the ebuild for you.

mark_alec · Post by **mark_alec** » Sat Jul 08, 2006 4:58 am

If it is just a small program/script that doesn't affect much else on the filesystem, just set --prefix = ~/extra and then remove the files when you no longer want them.

Headrush · Post by **Headrush** » Sat Jul 08, 2006 5:51 am

dmbtech wrote:Well, I kind of feel thats inconveient, and kind of overkill. Like, lets say your a developer, you just want to get this small program installed where there is not ebuild. It would take up way to much time to create an ebuild for it and then store it in an overlay. There should just be a way to do run a program after compiling, which wraps make install and maybe perhaps creates the ebuild and installs the ebuild for you.

A basic ebuild that just wraps configure, make, make install, is really small and doesn't take much space at all.

I would compare checkinstall install more with quickpkg which takes the installed program and creates a binary backup, very much like the RPMs checkinstall creates.

Although you might think this is good, the majority of us want to keep packages installed out of portage to a minimum.
Keeping everything in portage has a tremendous upside.

Once you create a basic template ebuild, it takes nothing to rename it and copy it into your overlay. You could even write a BASH script that asks for the name and category in portage, edit the template, then do everything you asked, (move to overlay, emerge, etc), with only a few lines of code.

mannygentoo · Post by **mannygentoo** » Sat Jul 08, 2006 6:16 am

I tought this was checkinstall's website http://asic-linux.com.mx/~izto/checkinstall/
Anyway, if it works for debian should work for ubuntu, and i almost can't live without it on Slackware, it's a very nice program imo

Headrush · Post by **Headrush** » Sat Jul 08, 2006 6:58 am

I misread the first post. If this is solely based on a checkinstall equivalent for ubuntu, why is it in the Gentoo forums?

Valkura · Post by **Valkura** » Sat Jul 08, 2006 7:08 am

Headrush wrote:I misread the first post. If this is solely based on a checkinstall equivalent for ubuntu, why is it in the Gentoo forums?

I think it is about a checkinstall equivalent for Gentoo, and the OP is using Ubuntu as an example.

Headrush · Post by **Headrush** » Sat Jul 08, 2006 7:18 am

Valkura wrote:
Headrush wrote:I misread the first post. If this is solely based on a checkinstall equivalent for ubuntu, why is it in the Gentoo forums?
I think it is about a checkinstall equivalent for Gentoo, and the OP is using Ubuntu as an example.

Ya the first post was unclear but the second explained it better. The stupid part was I based my first response correctly on this.
That's what I get for staying up too late and going back and rereading threads.