Aw: Re: Re: Installation: Manual text

> Oh, so you never user your distribution package manager to install
> software, and, instead, you compile and install all your programs?

No, that's not what I meant.  By "the software I've worked on" I meant the=
 software
I write myself.  Until I retired, programming was my profession and I have=
 a couple
of active freeware projects.

I only build other peoples' programs from source if I'm interested in them=
 (the programs)
and think I might want to see how they work.

Otherwise, I usually use synaptic or occasionally apt-get via sudo, even f=
or programs for
which I also get the source from a tarball or a git repository.

I did install the version of mdk supplied by Ubuntu and that's what I'll p=
robably
use.  I downloaded the tarball of the latest distribution just in case and=
 also just to see
if I could build the package from it.  I haven't
checked yet what version Ubuntu supplies.  I wanted the full development s=
ources
and I'd like to be able to keep up with changes so I cloned the git reposi=
tory.  Having
done so, I wanted to install it, but since I plan to use the version from =
Ubuntu, not
in the "canonical" location.

If there is some problem with library locations or whatever, then this mig=
ht be solvable
in the usual way by appropriate settings of environment variables and/or c=
hanges to
configure.ac so that they're found or something along those lines.  If it =
was one of my packages,
I would be glad if someone let me know about problems of this kind when in=
stalling it in a non-standard
location.  However, I don't want to make assumptions about what other peop=
le would want.

> Gesendet: Samstag, 09. April 2022 um 17:37 Uhr
> Von: "Jose A. Ortega Ruiz" <[email protected]>
> An: "Laurence Finston" <[email protected]>
> Cc: [email protected]
> Betreff: Re: Aw: Re: Installation:  Manual text
>
> On Sat, Apr 09 2022, Laurence Finston wrote:
>
> > Most people have their own computers nowadays and I never log on as
> > `root' or as a user with root permissions unless I have to.  None of
> > the software I've worked on in the last 10 years plus requires root
> > permissions for anything (installing or running) so I always install
> > it somewhere under my home directory.
>
> Oh, so you never user your distribution package manager to install
> software, and, instead, you compile and install all your programs?  And
> never use 'sudo' or equivalent?  That's certainly possible, but, in my
> experience, for most people, most of the software they use has been
> installed with root privileges (either directly or vicariously via sudo
> or an equivalent program).  Of course, that doesn't mean that they use
> that software as root, and mdk doesn't require that either at all (nor
> would i recommend doing it).
>
> For regular users not wanting to compile everything they use, my first
> recommendation would be to simply use their package manager to install
> mdk (at least in debian, it's still well-maintained and there's a deb
> for the latest release).
>
> For expert users like you wanting to compile mdk themselves, i still
> recommend installing it in the same places where a package manager would
> (and that requires root access for installation, yes): mdk uses lots of
> external libraries and their resources (icons and the like), most of the
> time installed by package managers in similar locations. In my
> (necessarily limited) experience as a maintainer, there are less
> problems that way (specially with complicated, big dependencies, like
> GTK+ or Glade, which like to look for their resources in "standard"
> locations).
>
> Of course, your mileage may vary (documentation patches, or of any other
> kind for that matter, are always welcome).
>
> Thanks,
> jao
> --
> Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throw=
ing
> it at someone else; you are the one getting burned.
>  -Buddha (c. 566-480 BCE)
>