[Techtalk] Installing from RPM vs. source

[Rebecca J. Walter]

On Sun, 2003-02-23 at 20:20, Brenda Bell wrote:
> How do you figure out which method is appropriate?
> 
> I like installing from RPM's if I can... and for stuff like compilers
> and libraries, it's a no-brainer.  Where I have a problem is
> installing software like MySQL or PHP.  Every once in a while, I come
> across something that I can install using either method; if I build
> from source, there might be options I want to enable or disable, like
> SSL, for example.
> 
> How do you find out exactly what's been enabled in the RPM version?

I can only provide a few useful bits of information.

When you run an RPM-based distro, it is usually important to install as
much as possible with RPMs so the packages are recorded in the RPM
database.  If you install from source and the RPM database doesn't know
you installed it, you will have problems installing RPMs of other
packages that depend on it.  (As in, if you install MySQL from source,
the RPM database doesn't know and you can't install programs that
require MySQL as RPMs)

My point is basically that you want to consider how much you will end up
having to build from source if you start building from source.  I think
Telsa also has some tips about creating RPMs from tarballs.  Hopefully
someone else can tell you how to find out what is enabled in the RPM
versions. I have no clue. :-)