[Help-stow] Hints for easier installation of packages not capable of having different install-time and run-time directories

[Bodo Thiesen]

Hi.

After reading the manual, I thought (please don't be offended) are they all 
stupid? Why doing a "make -n install" and changing the output to reflect the 
correct install path? I wondered, that you didn't found a more complicated or 
more time consumptive way.

Ok, now, I will tell you my idea:

Suppose, you want to install package $PACKAGE to $PREFIX(/stow/$PACKAGE) but 
the package don't want:

Create any directory (/tmp/workspace or so), I will call it $WORKSPACE.

In $WORKSPACE you extract the sources. You need to populate $WORKSPACE with 
every tool needes to configure, make and install the package (on the same 
device, hardlinks suffices, else you need to copy the tools).

Afer you have $WORKSPACE ready, chroot to it, do a ./configure --prefix 
$PREFIX, make, make install and exit the chrooted shell. If anything went wrong 
due to missing tools, this is the time to complete $WORKSPACE and retry. 
After that all is completed, just move $WORKSPACE$PREFIX to 
$PREFIX/stow/$PACKAGE and merge it in the usual way to the directory $PREFIX. 
And this will work with *any* installation routiene, even if "make -n install" 
doesn't print any step it's doing (such packages are existing).

I would then create a simple script, which recreates my $WORKSPACE whenever I 
need it, or just keep it as it is (don't deleting it after installation of the 
package).

BUGS: chroot only works for root.

Regards, Bodo