Mike McCarty wrote:
Ralf Corsepius wrote:
If you want a package to a package for an OS, you have to take the OS's
native package administration tools into account. The safest way is to
utilize the system's native packaging - In case of Fedora this is rpm.
That is generally true, though not universlly. One can get into trouble
if a ./configure + make install is done badly. The same thing is true
for a badly made RPM. It can clobber anything on the machine just
like ./configure. I have personally experienced that. When I have used
./configure for install packages, I always put in there a prefix which
installs either in my own home directory, or into /usr/local. And I
haven't gotten into any trouble, because I know where I put things.
With RPM, one *doesn't* have control over where things go. One has
slightly more control over being able to uninstall. But if a bad RPM
overwrites a file, it is gone. Before I use either
However, rpm will not everwrite any file that is already owned by an
existing package on the system (unless it's an older version of the same
package, or the rpm is installed using the "I don't care if I break my
system" --force option).
Of course, an rpm could be done maliciously and have a post-install
script that caused all sorts of damage, but regular files contained
within an rpm package will not clobber existing rpm-based data on the
system. And that's why I try to use rpm for everything on my systems
that's not in "user" areas like home directories or other directories
specially set aside for some purpose.
SPaul.
