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NAME

ln_local - Manage installation software

SYNOPSIS

ln_local [options] [do] Action

DESCRIPTION

ln_local is a program for managing the installation of software packages. It's a program between stow and lndir/cleanlinks.

The approach used by ln_local (based on Stow) is to install each package into its own tree, then use symbolic links to make it appear as though the files are installed in the common tree.

ACTIONS

Action : create | delete | clean

      create  : create symlink and directory in /usr/local from current directory
      delete  : delete symlink and empty directory in /usr/local from current directory
      clean   : remove broken symlink and empty directory in /usr/local

If 'do' is presents in the command line then changes are made, else NO CHANGE ARE MADE

OPTIONS

-s, --source the source directory (default:current directory) -t, --target the target directory (/usr/local) -V, --version display version and exit -u, --usage long help
-h, --help display this help

EXAMPLES

Standard way to use ln_local:

• download source package (.tar.gz, tar.bz2 ...)
• extract the archive: tar -xzvf archive-x.x.x.tar.gz or tar -xjvf archive-x.x.x.tar.bz2
• go to archive directory: cd archive-x.x.x
• configure the program compilation: ./configure --prefix="/usr/install/archive-x.x.x"
• build the program: make
• install the program: make install or make install DESTDIR=/usr/install/archive-x.x.x if there's no ./configure. In this last case, you may have to edit the Makefile manually.
• create symlinks in /usr/local: cd /usr/install/archive-x.x.x ln_local create do
• delete the source and archive cd in the archive-x.x.x.tar.gz directory rm -rf archive-x.x.x*

you can change the target directory (/usr/local) by editing the file /usr/local/bin/ln_local or use the --target option

To remove an existing program:

       cd /usr/install/archive-x.x.x
       ln_local delete do

To clean the /usr/local directory:

ln_local clean do

To remove definitivly a program:

       rm -rf /usr/install/archive-x.x.x
       ln_local clean do

If you want to see what ln_local will do, remove the 'do' in create, delete and clean action, so no action will be done

CAVEATS

All links are updated when they already exists, but this cause a warning.

AUTHOR

Philippe Brochard <hocwp@free.fr>

HISTORY

ln_local is based on stow, lndir and cleanlinks

SEE ALSO

stow(1), lndir(1) and cleanlinks(1)