CheckInstall is a computer program for
Unix-like
A Unix-like (sometimes referred to as UN*X or *nix) operating system is one that behaves in a manner similar to a Unix system, although not necessarily conforming to or being certified to any version of the Single UNIX Specification. A Unix-li ...
operating systems which eases the installation and uninstallation of software compiled from source by making use of
package management system
A package manager or package-management system is a collection of software tools that automates the process of installing, upgrading, configuring, and removing computer programs for a computer in a consistent manner.
A package manager deals w ...
s. After software compilation it can automatically generate a
Slackware
Slackware is a Linux distribution created by Patrick Volkerding in 1993. Originally based on Softlanding Linux System, Slackware has been the basis for many other Linux distributions, most notably the first versions of SUSE Linux distributions ...
-,
RPM
Revolutions per minute (abbreviated rpm, RPM, rev/min, r/min, or with the notation min−1) is a unit of rotational speed or rotational frequency for rotating machines.
Standards
ISO 80000-3:2019 defines a unit of rotation as the dimensionl ...
-, or
Debian
Debian (), also known as Debian GNU/Linux, is a Linux distribution composed of free and open-source software, developed by the community-supported Debian Project, which was established by Ian Murdock on August 16, 1993. The first version of D ...
-compatible
package that can later be cleanly uninstalled through the appropriate package manager.
CheckInstall monitors the installation phase of a normal software build process and notes the files that are added to the system. It then builds a package that contains these files, using additional information gathered from the user. Finally, the files installed by the original run are removed and the package is installed using the system package tools, so the package will be properly registered in the local installed packages database.
The primary benefits provided by CheckInstall versus simply running
make install are the ability to remove the package from the system using the system packaging tools, and the ability to install the resulting package on multiple machines.
CheckInstall is sometimes cited as a mechanism for creating packages by open source projects instead of creating numerous platform-specific build packages.
Usage
Checkinstall is usually used after running a
configure script
A configure script is an executable script designed to aid in developing a program to be run on a wide number of different computers. It matches the libraries on the user's computer, with those required by the program before compiling it from its ...
and
make, as follows:
./configure
make
sudo checkinstall
After entering some information about the author and a package description, you will get the folder where the generated package has been saved to.
See also
*
Installwatch
*
Advanced Packaging Tool
Advanced package tool, or APT, is a free-software user interface that works with core libraries to handle the installation and removal of software on Debian, and Debian-based Linux distributions. APT simplifies the process of managing software ...
*
Alien (file converter)
Alien is a computer program that converts between different Linux package formats, created by Joey Hess and presently maintained by Kyle Barry.
Features
Alien supports conversion between Linux Standard Base (LSB), LSB-compliant .rpm packages, ...
*
Sudo
sudo ( or ) is a program for Unix-like computer operating systems that enables users to run programs with the security privileges of another user, by default the superuser. It originally stood for "superuser do", as that was all it did, and it i ...
*
Yellowdog Updater, Modified
The Yellowdog Updater, Modified (YUM) is a free and open-source command-line
A command-line interpreter or command-line processor uses a command-line interface (CLI) to receive commands from a user in the form of lines of text. This provid ...
References
Linux package management-related software
Unix package management-related software
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