lnbin

This is my lnbin script.

This is a program for managing symlink in a /usr/local/bin directory. It is similar to stow, lndir, cleanlinks and others.

The approach used by lnbin is based on Stow, and it is to install each into its own tree, then use symbolic links to make its bin directory, so that the command can be in the executable path.

When run, lnbin examines packages in pkgs-dir and the target directory (see OPTIONS), adding or removing links as needed.

Sample usage:

pkg installation

The standard way to use lnbin is:

• download source package
• build and install package

# extract archive
tar zxvf archive-x.x.tar.gz
cd archive-x.x
# GNU autoconf
./configure --prefix="/usr/local/pkgs/archive-x.x"
make
# Package installation
make install
# ... or ...
make install DESTDIR=/usr/local/pkgs/archive-x.x

• update symlinks in /usr/local/bin

cd /usr/local/bin
lnbin -v -x ../pkgs

This will add the new links (and also remove/update obsolete/changed links)

Removing packages

rm -rf /usr/local/pkgs/archive-x.x
cd /usr/local/bin
lnbin -v -x ../pkgs

Updating symlinks (after upgrade)

cd /usr/local/bin
lnbin -v -x ../pkgs

This will add new links and/or remove obsolete links

Handling additional files

For packages that install additional files like man pages or desktop files you can use the commands:

lnbin -v -x -s share/man/man1 -t /usr/local/share/man/man1 ../../../pkgs
lnbin -v -x -s share/applications -t /usr/local/share/applications ../../pkgs

References

There are a number of packages that do similar things. The main attractiveness of this one is that it is a /bin/sh script intended to have low dependancies.

Other options:

• stow: a perl program
• spill: written C, so also has a low dependency count.
• stash: a package manager for non-root users (in perl)
• lt: shell script by Marc Vertes.

I chose not to use lt because while written in /bin/sh, I wanted a script that could use relative links instead of absolute links.