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I occasionally face a problem when using programs for which developers don't publish deb packages and only provide source. Sometimes I find a PPA providing the package but sometimes I don't or sometimes I don't trust the third party's version of the package because the program is rather sensitive from the security point of view (e.g. a password manager).

I can install from the source but this is ok to do once, not to do it on regular basis so as to install program's updates. Therefore, I'm thinking...

Is there a tool which would automate installation from the sources?

  1. Check for updated source. (e.g. in a Git repo)
  2. Download the code.
  3. Compile it in the background.
  4. Offer installation the similar way the Ubuntu's update manager would?

I guess I could probably put the process together using Jenkins and some custom coding but it's possibly quite a bit of work and I don't want to re-invent the wheel.

PS: Answers like the one for Atom editor lack some expected features when having to deal with the installation of multiple programs this way:

  • management of the configuration for each of them
  • download from different sources (tar archive, Git repo, etc.)
  • checking the source on daily basis and tracking whether there is a need to proceed with the update
  • resolving dependencies
  • check that the compilation succeeded
  • offer to install the package instead of installing it automatically

In other words, I'm looking for something that would put user-friendliness into the process.

Hee Jin
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tmt
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  • Possible duplicate of [How to automatically update Atom editor?](http://askubuntu.com/questions/589469/how-to-automatically-update-atom-editor) – A.B. Apr 10 '16 at 09:37
  • @A.B. I have added extra explanation on the features expected and why I don't think it's duplicate of the other question you brought up. – tmt Apr 10 '16 at 09:48

1 Answers1

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Linuxbrew

Linuxbrew is a fork of Homebrew, the macOS package manager, for Linux.

It is exactly what you are looking for.

You may check Homebrew page to understand What Does Homebrew/Linuxbrew Do?

user.dz
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  • This indeed looks like something I had in mind. I'll play with it in the upcoming days and would eventually mark your answer as the solution. – tmt Apr 27 '18 at 04:44