What is GNU Stow?

• Manages the installation of non-prepackaged software.
  • When installing from source
  • When installing binaries.
  • When packages (.rpm, .deb, etc.) aren't available.
    • Or when packages aren't recent enough.

How does it work?

• Places each "package" into its own subdirectory.
  • Examples:
    • Xemacs: /usr/local/stow/xemacs-21.1.20
    • gnome-core: /usr/local/stow/gnome-core-1.2.0
• Each package has their own sub-directories.
  • Examples:
    • /usr/local/stow/gnome-core-1.2.0/bin
    • /usr/local/stow/gnome-core-1.2.0/lib
    • /usr/local/stow/gnome-core-1.2.0/share

How does it work?

• Each "package" has its contents symlinked into another directory (the "target directory")
  • Examples: (target directory = "/usr/local")
    • /usr/local/stow/dia_0.85/bin/dia -> /usr/local/bin/dia
    • /usr/local/stow/dia_0.85/share/dia/dia_logo.png -> /usr/local/share/dia/dia_logo.png
    • /usr/local/stow/dia_0.85/man/man1/dia.1 -> /usr/local/man/man1/dia.1
    • And so on...

Important notes...

• Stow isn't as easy to use as other methods of software management (such as rpm, dpkg, etc.)
• Who should use/consider stow:
  • People confortable with installing from source (./configure; make; make install)
  • People wanting to better organize their software.
• Who shouldn't use/consider stow:
  • First-time Linux users

Calling Stow

• Command-line based.
• Usage: stow [options] package_name
• Features include: (more to follow)
  • Adding/installing...
  • Deleting/uninstalling...
• Note: Before calling stow, each package must be pre-installed to it's own directory...

Pre-Installing Packages

• "From source" installations are the most common use of stow.
• Most common 'from source' method (with configure scripts):
  • The process of building software changes to:
    • ./configure
    • make
    • make install prefix="/usr/local/stow/package-name_version"
      • Examples:
        • make install prefix="/usr/local/stow/dia_0.85"
        • make install prefix="/usr/local/stow/WindowMaker_0.62.1"

Pre-Installing Packages

• Less common 'from source' method (no configure scripts)
  • Pre-installation varies from package to package
    • In some cases: make; make install prefix="/usr/local/stow/package_version"
    • In some other cases: Editing the Makefile might be necessary.
      • That's one reason why stow isn't for first time Linux users.
      • Alternative (for configure-scriptless packages): simply don't use stow.

Installing Packages

• Usage: stow package_directory
  • Stow will take all the files in "package_directory" and symlink them into the current directory's parent directory (which is called the "target directory".)
• Example:
  • For a package installed into: /usr/local/stow/dia_0.85
    • cd /usr/local/stow
    • stow dia_0.85
  • All files in /usr/local/stow/dia_0.85 are symlinked into /usr/local.

Installing Packages

• Alternate method of installing a package:
  • Method one: stow -t target_directory package_name
    • Example:
      • cd /usr/local/stow
      • stow -t /usr dia_0.85
    • This will install the package "dia_0.85" into /usr (instead of /usr/local).

Uninstalling Packages

• The commands are similar to installing packages.
• Usage: stow -D package_name
  • Example:
    • Cd /usr/local/stow
    • stow -D dia_0.85
  • Example, if the target directory is "/usr" (that is, the package was installed with "stow -t /usr dia_0.85", as specified in the previous slide.)
    • cd /usr/local/stow
    • stow -D -t /usr dia_0.85

Finally...

• The GNU Stow homepage: http://www.gnu.org/software/stow
• Download at:
  • Tarballs (.tar.gz) available at ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/stow
  • RPM packages available at http://rpmfind.net
  • Debian installation via "apt-get install stow"