Why compile programs yourself? (Linux)

[Mikko Lehtinen]

I take backup images of my system with Clonezilla live CD and a portable hard drive. It's easy, and it allows me to be much less paranoid about installing new programs.

I always take backup images of the whole drive. But Clonezilla gives me an option to restore only the root partition if I want. That gets rids off all the problematic programs while keeping my home partition safe.

If you like, you could buy two identical hard disks, and use one of them for testing purposes.

[caruso]

Here I am missing something... which article?

An article telling about precompiled programs from outside the official repositories that initially work alright but, because of broken dependencies and things like that, wreak havoc when you upgrade your Linux distribution.

Again, thanks everyone

[runequester]

Compiling yourself isn't inherently safer unless you're savvy enough to actually prowl through tons of code. I certainly aren't.

As far as I figure, debian packages are how computers were meant to work
It does serve you well to be at least a bit cautious about what PPA's you add to a system.

Of course, in linux world, the large range of options will help make an exploit harder to succeed. What works on a debian system may not affect something based on RPMs and a Gnome weakness would be pointless in KDE, f.x.

[fph]

An article telling about precompiled programs from outside the official repositories that initially work alright but, because of broken dependencies and things like that, wreak havoc when you upgrade your Linux distribution.

I am interested in finding out what and how happened --- can you share a link?

[caruso]

I am interested in finding out what and how happened --- can you share a link?

Here it is. However, contrary to my first understanding, the problems assert themselves not only during, but also before the system upgrade (installation of additional programs made impossible etc.).

[fph]

Here it is. However, contrary to my first understanding, the problems assert themselves not only during, but also before the system upgrade (installation of additional programs made impossible etc.).

ok, thanks for sharing.
In my answer, I mainly referred to offical repos, while you probably meant third-party repos. If a package is in the *official* Ubuntu repos, or in some widely adopted third-party ones such as Medibuntu, then this should be your first choice, no doubt on that. If instead you have to choose between some strange third-party PPA or compiling from source, then you are right that the choice is not that clear, and both may land you into some dependency hell.

[Mikko Lehtinen]

Installing third-party apps is probably safer in stabile platforms like Debian Stable or CentOS than rolling distributions. If you lock your system to Debian Squeeze, for example, you can be fairly sure that dependency hell doesn't surface later on.

[runequester]

I must admit I haven't run into dependency hell from a PPA but maybe Im just lucky

[Therem Harth]

Depending on what you're compiling, you may be able to tell the build system to compile it statically. This should (I think!) prevent it from breaking in the course of most updates, at the cost of making the binaries a lot bigger.

[wranger]

THough nothing that would be fancied by people who are not really that familiar with it, being able to compile software on our own will make you more knowledgeable over the whole thing. I mean, it would be easier for you to understand how everything works and hot they are made to happen.

But in any case, there aren't always things that would let you accomplish what you have in mind so I think that would be really important to stay close with.