Question

I have created a CentOS server in a virtual machine and now I would like to know how to install programs from scratch, without using yum or rpm. Every search I’ve tried on how to go about finding each individual program and what commands I would use to install them has returned very useful information on why using yum would be so much better and how to install yum if I don’t have it.

So basically all I want to know are how to find the download links to individual programs,how to download them (since I’m using only text I’m unfamiliar with this whole process), and what commands I need to use to install them once I have them.

Thanks guys!

Answer 1

When in rome, man. They’re telling you to do it that way because CentOS really prefers rpm-based packages. They’re easier to manage, upgrade, uninstall, etc.

However since this is a learning exercise, ignore all of that.

Each piece of software is unique, and you need to read the installation instructions that come with the source code for the project. A good chunk of software out there uses a system called “automake” whose commands are usually very predictable. The experience is usually something like this:

1. Download the source code from a website (often comes are a .tar.gz or .zip) You can use wget to download files from websites.
2. Extract the source code locally (using tar or unzip)
3. Set some compiler variables (don’t do this unless you know what you’re doing — the defaults are usually sufficient, esp. for a learning exercise). e.g. export CFLAGS="-O2 -pipe"
4. Run the configure script with --help to determine what kinds of options are configurable. ./configure --help
5. Run configure with the options you want: ./configure --prefix=/usr/local --enable-option1 --with-library=/path/to/lib --without-cowbell
6. This will set up the project to be compiled. Now you need to run make. Just type make
7. Once everything has compiled (assuming there are no compile errors) run make install. You have to run this command as root usually.
8. Tada. The package has been installed from source.

There are of course other compile systems out there (cmake for example) but I won’t cover all of them. Things will break for you. Google is your friend when this happens. Usually it’s due to (a) shitty source code, or (b) missing / out of date libraries on your system.

Also keep in mind that just because a package compiles doesn’t mean it will work out of the box for you. Most packages need a certain amount of configuration to actually run properly, so be sure to read any documentation available to you.

EDIT

Also, if you REALLY want the FULL experience, there’s always linux from scratch which can, and will teach you everything you were afraid to ask about compiling things from source.