This is GNU Stow, a program for managing the installation of software packages, keeping them separate (/usr/local/stow/emacs vs. /usr/local/stow/perl, for example) while making them appear to be installed in the same place (/usr/local).
Stow is a Perl script which should run correctly under Perl 4 and Perl 5. You must install Perl before running Stow. For more information about Perl, see http://www.perl.com/perl/.
You can get the latest information about Stow from http://www.gnu.ai.mit.edu/software/stow/stow.html.
Stow was inspired by Carnegie Mellon's "Depot" program, but is substantially simpler. Whereas Depot requires database files to keep things in sync, Stow stores no extra state between runs, so there's no danger (as there is in Depot) of mangling directories when file hierarchies don't match the database. Also unlike Depot, Stow will never delete any files, directories, or links that appear in a Stow directory (e.g., /usr/local/stow/emacs), so it's always possible to rebuild the target tree (e.g., /usr/local).
Stow is free software, licensed under the GNU General Public License, which can be found in the file COPYING.
See INSTALL for installation instructions.
Please mail comments, questions, and criticisms to the author, Bob Glickstein, <bobg+stow@zanshin.com>.