[Gllug] BIND 9.2 - 'mix and match'

[itsbruce at uklinux.net]

On Wed, Jul 09, 2003 at 09:57:18AM +0100, t.clarke wrote:
> I was under the impression that compiling/installing from original sources was
> generally a better option than using packaged binaries which were intended
> mainly for convenience - but please correct me if I'm wrong !

If you are going to compile from source then you are usually much better
off grabbing the source package, making your changes there and using the
package building tools to create a new binary package which you can then
install.  The reason being that the maintainer of the
distribution-specific package will have patched and tweaked the source
where necessary to reflect the way your particular distribution is
organised.  Linux is a kit-form operating system which can be
constructed in many different ways and each of the distributions has
made it's own set of choices as to how start-up scripts are organised,
which runlevels do what etc etc.  The distro-specific packages give you
something tailored for the distro and that's usually best.  If you don't
like the way the package has been set up, you can usually make all the
tweaks you want in the source package to compile your own tailored
binary package and still have the benefits of the package management
system.

I only compile directly from the source for apps where the version I
need hasn't been packaged, where the app hasn't been packaged at all for
my distribution of choice (Debian) or where I hate the way it's been
packaged.  And then I use stow (http://www.gnu.org/software/stow/) to
organise those few apps.


-- 
Bruce

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