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INDI Library v2.0.6 is Released (02 Feb 2024)

Bi-monthly release with minor bug fixes and improvements

Why build from source?

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Why build from source? was created by Steve

Probably bleeding obvious to those in the know but I`ve often wondered why people builld things like Indilib ifrom source nstead of using prebuilt packages and thinking maybe that might help me with the odd problem I seem to get with various distros?. Do you get a superdupa problem free app when doing so :P
Steve
9 years 1 month ago #3323

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Replied by Jasem Mutlaq on topic Why build from source?

The main reason is that the PPA is only available for Ubuntu, and folks on other distros who want to get the latest stuff must build from source. But Lupinix is now working on packages for popular distros like Fedora and OpenSUSE so building from source won't be needed. Some people like to build from source and prefer not to wait for PPA daily updates.
The following user(s) said Thank You: Steve
9 years 1 month ago #3330

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Replied by Steve on topic Why build from source?

Cheers for that Jasem, makes sense now :lol:
Steve
9 years 1 month ago #3331

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Replied by John on topic Why build from source?

Building from source is a bit of a mixed bag at times where as a package provided by what ever distro some one is using can have a less problems.

The problem is that the various disto's vary at a detail level so what works on one may not work on another. So taking source for instance if the latest greatest is downloaded from the distro that is doing the bulk of the work on it all is likely to go well - apart from it being the latest greatest.. If some other distro user downloads it there may be problems. Unusual but it happens. I had one yesterday. I wanted to install a Gnome application under KDE. My distro doesn't have it so I tried installing from source - not possible. If my distro did have either it's source or the package it would install without any problems.

Actually there is no need to use a distro. It's possible to build the entire shooting match from source. What the various distro's do is make that task easier to various degrees. While doing this they also tinker with the software at various levels and that is how some bugs occur and incompatibility situations arise. On the plus side they do their best to make it all work together.

I mentioned latest greatest. Some people who have been primarily ms windows based assume that is a good idea and always try to run it. The problem is that Linux is bug driven. The latest greatest is issued for people to report bugs so that they can be fixed. In real terms they are pre beta releases and one can never be sure when they will reach beta standard = essentially bug free. Sometimes they never reach it or take an awful long time. This touches on why distro's maintain stable releases for a couple of years - there are still likely to be bugs and reports allow them to fix them. Personally I am one of the people who runs things this way and report bugs at this stage. Some people like doing the same thing with the latest greatest which can be a rather mixed experience. Fortunately a fair number of people who do this have a thorough knowledge of what is going on at the system level.

Personally I feel Ubuntu is making this area get worse as time goes on. Of late there seems to be a tendency for many application producers to assume that nobody uses anything else. That just has to be bad news for Linux in general.

John
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9 years 3 weeks ago #3447

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Building from source is fun I think.
I wrote a little script which update the SVN, then compile whatever indi stuff i need from it and create a deb package, all pretty much semi-auto.
9 years 2 weeks ago #3476

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Replied by John on topic Why build from source?

Building for source is no fun at all if compiler errors crop up because the fix for that means going into the source itself and finding out what the problem is and correcting the actual source itself. That can get pretty extensive.

To be honest I have only ever had that happen with INDI/KSTARS and occasionally from svn or git. Warnings used to be fairly common but not so much now. This is causing me problems at the moment not helped by the fact that there doesn't seem to be any earlier version of INDI about.

Some people use the opensuse build service to produce packages even apt-get.. It will also produce rpm's. The only problem with that when it's successful is finding the !##! things. I do use one windows application, an optical design package and this service is how I keep my wine up to date. There isn't any truly capable open source or linux package that is free and as capable.

John
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9 years 2 weeks ago #3489

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