Packageless Packages with GNU Stow

Wojciech 'vifon' Siewierski

Packages from the repositories

Why do we need them?

Why do we like them?

They are easy to update.
They are easy to remove.
They handle their dependencies.
They are adjusted for our system.
They are trustworthy.

Self-made packages

Needed (?) for the applications not present in the repositories*.
Cumbersome to create.

*) Including the manually downloadable 3rd party packages.

What is needed

How to build the application.
The dependencies.
Additional metadata.
How to use a dpkg/rpm/makepkg/… .

They are easy to update.
They are easy to remove.
They handle their dependencies.
They are adjusted for our system.
They are trustworthy.

GNU Stow "packages"

Vim

bin

vim

lib

libvim.so

share

vim-icon.png

Emacs

bin

emacs

lib

libemacs.so

share

emacs-icon.png

Stow

bin

emacs -> ../stow/emacs/bin/emacs
vim -> ../stow/vim/bin/vim

lib

libemacs.so -> ../stow/emacs/lib/libemacs.so
libvim.so -> ../stow/vim/lib/libvim.so

share

emacs-icon.png -> ../stow/emacs/share/emacs-icon.png
vim-icon.png -> ../stow/vim/share/vim-icon.png

They are easy to update.
They are easy to remove.
They handle their dependencies.
They are adjusted for our system.
They are trustworthy.

What is needed

How to build the application.
The dependencies.
Additional metadata.
How to use GNU Stow.

Bonus: Works on every system!

Thank you

...and let me show you how it works!