From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: main.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Ajanta Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Re: Software/HD ecology Date: Thu, 12 Dec 2002 20:21:28 GMT Organization: Prodigy Internet http://www.prodigy.com Sender: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+gnu-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Message-ID: <121220021324043990%ajanta@no.spam> References: <041220020952400758%ajanta@no.spam> <56cfb0e3.0212041458.5eab182a@posting.google.com> <061220020416350201%ajanta@no.spam> <071220021155280606%ajanta@no.spam> <5ld6obj8il.fsf@rum.cs.yale.edu> <091220021652087216%ajanta@no.spam> <111220021101520860%ajanta@no.spam> <111220021253524057%ajanta@no.spam> <5l65u0i8zj.fsf@rum.cs.yale.edu> <111220022053507599%ajanta@no.spam> <87u1hjdwta.fsf@hurd.crasseux.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: main.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Trace: main.gmane.org 1039721271 6233 80.91.224.249 (12 Dec 2002 19:27:51 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@main.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 12 Dec 2002 19:27:51 +0000 (UTC) Return-path: Original-Received: from monty-python.gnu.org ([199.232.76.173]) by main.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 3.35 #1 (Debian)) id 18MYzt-0001c4-00 for ; Thu, 12 Dec 2002 20:27:49 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.10.13) id 18MYxY-00025v-01 for gnu-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Thu, 12 Dec 2002 14:25:24 -0500 Original-Path: shelby.stanford.edu!newsfeed.stanford.edu!logbridge.uoregon.edu!newsfeed.wirehub.nl!news.litech.org!news-xfer.cox.net!prodigy.com!newsmst01.news.prodigy.com!prodigy.com!postmaster.news.prodigy.com!newssrv26.news.prodigy.com.POSTED!not-for-mail Original-Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.apps,comp.sys.mac.advocacy,comp.text.tex,gnu.emacs.help Mail-Copies-To: nobody User-Agent: Thoth/1.5.10 (Carbon/OS X) Original-Lines: 21 Original-NNTP-Posting-Host: 67.37.181.243 Original-X-Complaints-To: abuse@prodigy.net Original-X-Trace: newssrv26.news.prodigy.com 1039724488 ST000 67.37.181.243 (Thu, 12 Dec 2002 14:21:28 CST) Original-NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 12 Dec 2002 14:21:28 CST X-UserInfo1: TSU[@I_AOHVORRXXZROVO]@@QB^FBL@MAHU^_BAMEH]TCDYG^WHEAE[YETZPIWWI[FCIZA^NBFXZ_D[BFNTCNVPDTNTKHWXKB@X^B_OCJLPZ@ET_O[G\XSG@E\G[ZKVLBL^CJINM@I_KVIOR\T_M_AW_M[_BWU_HFA_]@A_A^SGFAUDE_DFTMQPFWVW[QPJN Original-Xref: shelby.stanford.edu comp.sys.mac.apps:348732 gnu.emacs.help:108048 Original-To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-BeenThere: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1b5 Precedence: list List-Id: Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor List-Help: List-Post: List-Subscribe: , List-Archive: List-Unsubscribe: , Errors-To: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+gnu-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: main.gmane.org gmane.emacs.help:4579 X-Report-Spam: http://spam.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.help:4579 Bijan Soleymani wrote: > In that case you might want to check out GNU stow. You put all your > software in a stow directory /usr/local/stow/ or /usr/sw/ one program > per subdirectory. Then when you run stow it makes symlinks in > /usr/local/. This way you can even do this sort of thing with > libraries or programs you would like to have in your path. I wasn't aware of this and will have to look into it. However, unless a program's creators cooperate, I can't visualize how stow would prevent a program from installing files all over the place leaving you with no way to uninstall? A practical problem is that except perhaps to an insider most names are unintuitive. If a file is named emacs-foo or foo.el you can guess what it is but a name like zuplibfoo (this is hypothetical, but most unix names have similar transparency) doesn't tell you which of the hundreds of packages it might belong to. So you can't even try to uninstall everything manually. A