This tutorial is DEPRECATED, we now prefer stow instead of xstow. If you are interested of following our recommendation and use stow instead of xstow follow this tutorial.
If you are already using xstow do not switch unless you are really sure of what you are doing.
sudo apt-get install xstow
~/.bashrcAdd the following content to your ~/.bashrc:
export PATH=${HOME}/local/bin:${HOME}/local/sbin:${HOME}/local/usr/bin:${PATH}
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=${HOME}/local/lib:${HOME}/local/usr/lib:${LD_LIBRARY_PATH}
export LIBRARY_PATH=${LD_LIBRARY_PATH}:${LIBRARY_PATH}
export CPATH=${HOME}/local/include:${HOME}/local/usr/include:${CPATH}
export LDFLAGS="-L${HOME}/local/lib ${LDFLAGS}"
export PKG_CONFIG_PATH=${HOME}/local/lib/pkgconfig
export CMAKE_INCLUDE_PATH=${CPATH}
export CMAKE_LIBRARY_PATH=${LIBRARY_PATH}
If you are not following our recommendation of using Python Virtual Environments or Python project managers instead of PYTHONPATH, then you should also add the following:
export PYTHON_VERSION=$(basename $(readlink -e $(which python2)))
export PYTHON3_VERSION=$(basename $(readlink -e $(which python3)))
export PYTHONPATH=${HOME}/local/lib/python/site-packages:${HOME}/local/lib/python3/site-packages:${HOME}/local/lib/${PYTHON_VERSION}/site-packages:${HOME}/local/lib/${PYTHON_VERSION}/dist-packages:${HOME}/local/lib/${PYTHON3_VERSION}/site-packages:${HOME}/local/lib/${PYTHON3_VERSION}/dist-packages:${HOME}/local/lib/python/dist-packages:${HOME}/local/lib/python3/dist-packages:${PYTHONPATH}
After modifing ~/.bashrc please reload the file:
source ~/.bashrc
Finally create the directories:
mkdir -p local/src
mkdir -p local/DIR
The following is an example of how to use xstow. This will fail if you try to follow it.
Download the source code to local/src and then compile it setting the installation directory to DIR/name-of-project:
cd local/src
wget http://example.com/example.tar.gz
tar -xzf example.tar.gz
cd example
./configure --prefix=${HOME}/local/DIR/example
make -j10
make install
Xstow it!
cd ~/local/DIR
xstow example
The last step creates symbolic links one directory up, in effect enabling the program
Now the example project is as useful as if it would be installed in the system directories.
To disable the example:
cd ~/local/DIR
xstow -D example